Nabatov hits the roof (well, the LOFT…)

Our five-day festival to launch Plushmusic.tv in Germany promised surprises, and – minutes before our first concert – here is the first. Jazz and chamber virtuoso Simon Nabatov has turned up at the LOFT to see tonight’s tribute to Mauricio Kagel – and he’s already chatting away to Paulo Alvarez about improvising a set to follow tonight’s programme.

Simon began his musical education with his father, a former Soviet soldier who had fallen in love with jazz – and America – while stationed in Berlin after World War Two. He went on to study at the Central School of Music and the Moscow Conservatory. The family emigrated and settled in America in 1979 (‘My folks live in the hippest part of New York,’ Simon told Herald Tibune journalist Mike Zwerin, ‘and they love it’) and he continued his studies at the Juilliard. By that time his interest and involvement in jazz and improvised music had grown strong enough to make them his main activity.