Last updated: Friday April 18, 2008, EDT 7:11 AM
Jazz prodigy Eldar will be opening for a giant of his genre, Dave Brubeck, tonight at NJPAC. It might be a rare pairing to see Eldar's 21 years matched with Brubeck's 87. But the young lion isn't intimidated: From a young age, he's been recognized by great musicians like Brubeck and the late Oscar Peterson.
Eldar, whose full name is Eldar Djangirov, performs under his first name. He immigrated to Kansas City, Mo., from Kyrgyzstan as a child. By 12, he was regularly featured on Marian McPartland's NPR show "Piano Jazz," and he attended the Brubeck Institute at age 15. He took a few minutes to talk about his understanding of jazz.
Q. Are you excited to be working with Dave Brubeck on this performance?
I'm psyched about it. ...
It's going to be a variety of things: pieces from my latest project, "re-imagination," which was nominated for a Grammy this year, and a mix of standards.
Q. You performed "Place St. Henri," a tune by Oscar Peterson, at a tribute to him last year. Is that one of your favorite pieces?
It's hard to say what my favorite piece is. I try not to have favorites, and it's hard to do at this point. But it's among my first influences, the first pieces I've had to learn. It's because Oscar Peterson was the first piano player I'd heard.
At first when I heard him, I admired the power, the drive, the technical sensibility. But the more I listened to Oscar, the more it became the inexplicable things: the phrasing, the ideas and how he presented them. For me, those were life-changing.
Q. Did you ever meet him?
I met him a couple times before he died. I was certainly lucky to do so.
The moment that I met him he was a very nice human being. And he recognized me. I was very young when I met him, about 14 years old. He said, "Hey Eldar, my man. How are you doin'?" And it felt good.
Q. How did you first learn music?
My first connection with the music was ever since I was born — my father was a music lover. I was always in an environment where there was a lot of music. Among the recordings he had were ones of Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck. They were certainly among the first exposures to not just jazz, but to music. That was where I started picking up an interest.
It was very convenient for me to have one of the greatest teachers I've ever had: my mother. My mother was one of those quintessential Russian piano teachers, and not in a bad way. She wasn't slapping my wrists or anything. But she provided the foundation of my music. I was around 5 years old when I started taking lessons.
Q. Do you think your mother minded when you turned to jazz instead of classical music?
One of the great piano players, Bill Evans, would say that he looked at jazz as more of a process than a genre. If you think about it, in the classical days, people would improvise, but they had no means of recording it. Now with recording, I think jazz has become the music of evolution. I don't think my mother would be upset with my choice of music. And I think the music really bonded me and my dad.
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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