A little bit of cultural history was made last Friday in Baku. Aziza Mustafazadeh, outstanding musician in her own right but also daughter of iconic Azerbaijani jazzman Vagif, played a long-awaited concert at the Opera and Ballet Theater.

There was a piquant poignancy to this event. There are those who are unhappy with the pianist’s long (20 year), self-imposed exile from her homeland audience - she has built a successful career in the west and there have been mutterings about her neglect of the land where she learned to play. She, on the other hand, has bitter memories of the difficulties faced by her father as he struggled to establish the jazz art form in Azerbaijan, often in the teeth of official (Soviet) disapproval.

The concert’s progression reflected the development of a relationship with the audience. Aziza entered to an affectionate welcome from a large audience (not quite capacity - even the cheapest, 50 manat, ticket beyond the pocket of some enthusiasts). A tall, slim woman, her quiet and modest introductions did not prepare you for the strength and fire in her playing. The opening repertoire, however, also seemed modest in its stretch - there was a definite, classical weight to these pieces. She declared Bach, “without whom there would be no jazz”, to be her favorite classical composer, but it was not quite what the Jazz Festival audience had been waiting for.

Gradually, she seemed to sense that the auditorium was, indeed, a sympathetic one and she relaxed; at first with some Mozartian whimsy to demonstrate the operatic power of her voice. Then, as if realizing that Baku would not jump down her throat if she stepped onto hallowed ground, she ventured into a glorious scat vocal/daf duet and, finally, into mugham and… Vagif. The tension dissolved and audience and performer joined together in a celebration of the family’s contribution to Azerbaijani and jazz-world culture. The celebration had its wit: Aziza’s compositional confession to a European taste for cappuccino and tiramisu rather than tea and pakhlava - and its poignancy: her playing of ‘Shahidlar’ (Martyrs) in memory of those killed in the Karabagh war, and her father’s meditative pieces, ‘Dushunce’ (Thought) and ‘Mart’ (March Month) which ushered all into their own reflection on past years.

Her poignancy struck as true a note as any in her playing: whispering of her dreams of Baku; of her love for a father whose genius gave so much but which was laid prematurely low by the pressure of an unimaginative tyranny, and for a mother, whose own musical career had been laid aside to nurture the flowering of another musical Mustafa-zadeh. Mother, Eliza khanim, was present to witness the return of a favorite daughter to Baku’s bosom and must have been gratified that the risk they look in returning had been so prodigally rewarded.

In the end, the audience was as anxious to keep Aziza Mustafa-zadeh on stage as she was to stay at the piano. Encore after encore enticed the maestro into a promise to return and, after a performance like this; it can’t be too soon, or too often. At the start of a Jazz Festival program with a strong focus on the current crop of rising stars, this was a dramatic demonstration of the potential of local talent.