Jazz pianist, who already records a lot for the American market, Matija Dedić performed at Don Branko's music days, covering jazz standards and other well-known tracks by Croatian singer Masim Savić.
On the Summer Stage in Kotor, the two of them created a storm of emotions in the audience, who recognized Dedić's masterful improvisations and supported him with warm applause.
Matija Dedić, the son of Gabi Novak and Arsen Dedić, started playing the piano at the age of five, and he always experienced classical music in a more free way than was required and represented by the academic circle of musicians. He decided on jazz due to a combination of circumstances, which were caused by the pre-war situation and the strange circumstances under which the entrance exams were held at the music academies in Zagreb and Ljubljana.
It was probably not a rash decision to go to the Jazz Academy in Graz after classical music education. Did you have an affinity for improvisation as a child?
"Even when I first sat down at the piano, as my father Arsen says, I played something of my own. I remember listening to the opening credits from the series "Written Out". The inclination to improvisation later developed more and more over the years. I was lucky enough to my wonderful teacher Blaženka Zorić gave me freedom.
"The piano makes me happy as it did when I was five years old"
And definitely, the love for the classics can never fade. My concept that I present in jazz creation is closely related to harmonic and other segments of classical music. Just before the war, there was a surprising breakdown in entrance exams at piano departments, first in Ljubljana and then in Zagreb.
There was an option for me to study piano at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and to work with Professor Arba Valdma and Professor Rita Kinka. Nevertheless, I went to the entrance exam in Zagreb again and suddenly I was fourth on the list. However, the war started, so I went to Graz to study jazz and find happiness in improvisational music."
Do you still recognize that curious boy in yourself today?
"The piano makes me happy just like when I was five years old. When I get up in the morning, before coffee and other rituals that other people have, I sit down at the piano and play some kind of CD. In the film, I am a five-year-old, and even more so a teenager who at 18 went to Graz.
"Even in much more difficult times, during the 90s, jazz stood up much better"
That's why when my wife and daughter are not at home for a few days, I live again the same way I did when I was 18. I don't cook, I just drink coffee, smoke, listen to music and play. Nothing has really changed, except that I have a wife and a 10-year-old daughter."
You come from a family of famous musicians and lately you have been performing with Arsen Dedić and Gabi Novak. Does it happen that outside of preparing for a particular concert, you play music together at home?
"Not so often. Sometimes, when Arsen goes to bed in the afternoon, I accompany my mother to some jazz standard. Arsen is not interested in having some pompous piano player behind him. He is not too enthusiastic about improvisational music.
Sometimes my creativity is too much for him, and sometimes it's too much for me that I don't have too much space in such a gig. It's different with Gabi, because she had my back for me to go to Austria to study jazz. I work with her more often, because she opens up much more space for me, and that's just the result of jazz bringing us together."
"The piano is such an instrument that you can't play any genre if you don't also play classical"
Until now, you most closely connected classics and jazz at the recently held Baroque Music Festival in Opatija.
"I played improvisations on "English Suite in A minor" and "Concerto in F minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach. I played the theme as much as I could, but not more than 70 percent. I made a cross section of Bach's compositions and my improvisation template. When speaking of the classics, I can say that I deviated from it only administratively - it is always present!"
How do you see the jazz scene in Croatia and the region today?
"Today we are definitely on the margins. Even in much more difficult times, during the 90s, jazz fared much better. It is not clear to me why there is no jazz department at the academies yet. It would be necessary to open a department that would give some legitimacy to jazz art."
How do you find yourself on that stage?
"I am lucky that my existence does not depend on jazz. Because living with a wife who works for an ordinary salary in a bank and a child who is already ten years old, it would be difficult. I remember the advice that Boško Petrović gave me - "Matija, you practice a lot. Open your windows a little in the business world, because later the whole world will blame you".
"It is a well-worn phrase, but at the same time true, that there is no jazz without classical and vice versa"
That's how I opened up to other musicians. I work with the best, most quality people from Croatia - Masim, Džiboni, Oliver. And therefore I am deprived of any survival in jazz waters."
Besides Bach, which other composers are you interested in today?
"We usually say that Bach is the first jazzer. And he is certainly one of my biggest inspirations. But there are also modern piano expressions, for example by Chico Coria, but also the works of Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Ligeti.
It is a well-worn phrase, but at the same time true, that there is no jazz without classical and vice versa. The piano is such an instrument that you can't play any genre if you don't also play classical. Don't get me wrong with classicists, but it seems to me that the problem is a little more with them than with jazzers. I think they should look at what's out there in the world of piano and jazz.
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