Stay curious, for every day is a challenge or an opportunity to learn and grow.
Jason Kouchak
Few people have the chance to meet their childhood heroes. Time passes, but in life, as in chess, it is important how one manages it. Jason Kouchak enjoys connecting music and chess with aspects of love in all areas.
Jason Kouchak
When you meet your childhood heroes, it becomes a meeting of minds. Two men have particularly inspired Jason Kouchak throughout his career – men known for their sharp intellect and creative curiosity. They were Don Black and Ernő Rubik.
Don Black, whose real name is Don Blackstone, was born in London in 1938 as the fifth and youngest child of Russian-Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants. He entered the world of music as an office boy in a music publishing company. For a time, he was the personal manager of singer Matt Monro and began writing lyrics for him. His first major success was the lyrics for the title song of the James Bond film "Thunderball". Later, he wrote further lyrics for Bond film title tracks – "Diamonds Are Forever", "The Man with the Golden Gun" with John Barry, and "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "The World Is Not Enough" with David Arnold.
Don Black, right, with Dean Martin and their Oscars
The title song for the film Born Free won the 1966 Oscar for Best Original Song and became a hit. At the 1967 Grammy Awards, it was chosen as Song of the Year.
In the following years, Don Black successfully collaborated with John Barry on "The Tamarind Seed", "Out of Africa" and "Dances with Wolves". In 1969, he received a second Oscar nomination for the title song of the John Wayne western "True Grit". More Oscar nominations followed, and he received commissions from Walt Disney. In 2023, Don Black worked with film composer David Arnold and singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor on the title song for the Channel 4 and Universal Pictures film Mog's Christmas.
Equally successful is Don Black’s work as a lyricist in the field of musicals. He has written lyrics for countless musical compositions, working frequently with John Barry, but also with Jule Styne, Geoff Stephens, Mort Shuman and Andrew Lloyd Webber. He collaborated with Indian composer A. R. Rahman on the musical Bombay Dreams.
Don Black's lyrics express deep emotions, says Jason Kouchak, and tell beautiful stories. His texts address universal themes such as love, loss and hope.
Almost 60 years later, it was an honour for Jason Kouchak to compose a love song for Don Black's birthday using Don's beautiful lyrics.
Walk Through Holland Park…
We love to walk through Holland Park
There's nothing we would rather do
Our dreams began in Holland Park
It’s hard to walk there without you
With every step I do recall
The way we talked till it was dark
The last to leave that small café
They knew us well in Holland Park
If flowers talked
They'd say to me
Where can she be
Each time I’ve been to Holland Park You've been with me
Each walk was like a fairytale
A glass of wine to warm the heart
How many times you screamed at me
The opera's about to start
Our old friends have stopped playing chess
It’s time to go It’s getting dark
I always feel so close to you
Each time I walk through Holland Park
If flowers talked'
They’d say to me
Where can she be
Each time I’ve been to Holland Park You've been with me
I always feel so close to you
Each time we walk through Holland Park
- Don Black/Jason Kouchak
Don Black only discovered his love for chess later in life and now takes chess lessons from his great admirer Jason Kouchak.
Jason Kouchak and Don Black playing chess with friends - left: GM Stuart Conquest
Jason Kouchak's second great idol, Ernő Rubik, has a completely different life story. Everyone knows the Rubik's Cube, but Ernő Rubik is, in fact, a designer and architect. He first studied sculpture at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in Budapest, then architecture at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and also interior architecture and design at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.
Rubik worked as a professor of design and, as a hobby, constructed geometric models. Eventually, he designed a cube composed of 27 smaller cubes. Rubik initially used the cube model in his teaching to illustrate algebraic group theory.
In 1977, the "Rubik's Cube" was marketed commercially. By 1980, 100 million authorised and 50 million unauthorised copies of the "magic cube" had been sold. Countless books were published explaining how to solve the puzzle. Later, Rubik and his design studio created further geometric puzzle games. In the early 1980s, he also published a games and puzzles magazine entitled "...und Spieler" ("...and Players").
Jason Kouchak and Ernő Rubik
Like chess, working with the Rubik’s Cube improves pattern recognition skills, while also enhancing manual dexterity in a way similar to playing the piano.
Solving the Rubik's Cube was one of Jason Kouchak's favourite pastimes as a child. When the COVID pandemic restricted public life, he began engaging with it again. At Judit Polgar's Chess Festival in Budapest, Kouchak had the opportunity to meet his idol in person and presented Rubik with a special variant of the cube featuring chess pieces. Each of the six sides represents a different chess piece.
Chess and Rubik's Cube knight
He also composed the song "Smile" for Rubik's 75th birthday - a song about the joy of overcoming a challenge.
Reaching the endgame is sometimes seen as the most beautiful part of a chess game, says Jason Kouchak:
The resolution of a story, in which struggles and challenges can be seen as opportunities to learn and grow. Both Don and Rubik share this universal ability to connect their ideas, thoughts, and genius with all generations.
Don Black and Ernő Rubik, both now over 80 years old, have shared inspiration and knowledge over the years. A legacy that future generations will remember. Or as Jason Kouchak puts it:
Time passes, but memories remain.
