Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan's talented pianist Isfar Sarabski will perform at Festival Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés Paris. The festival will run from May 15 to May 25 in the French capital.

Created in 2001 and located in the famous Saint-Germain-des-Prés area, heart of jazz in Europe, the Festival Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés Paris is one of the great jazz events in Paris during spring every year.

The Isfar Sarabski Trio is set to make a triumphant return to Paris following his acclaimed concert at the Duc des Lombards club in December.

Isfar`s concert is supported by The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS).

Isfar Sarabski began playing the piano at the age of seven. He studied classic piano for eleven years at the Bulbul Music School in Baku. His early influences included Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, while Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and Vagif Mustafazadeh have inspired Sarabski to compose his own music.

Sarabski was merely twenty when he won First Prize in the Solo Piano competition at the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival. His success led to his name's entry in the Golden Book of Young Talents in his native country, and he was awarded the title "Honorary Artist of the Azerbaijan Republic", a country where jazz has continued to bloom since the thirties.

Isfar's music skilfully mixes classical American origins with mugam, traditional Azerbaijani music, to form mugam-jazz-fusion with such emblematic artists as Vagif Mustafazadeh (the father of "jazz princess Aziza") or Bayati Shiraz."

Sarabski regularly performs in the Baku Jazz Centre, which hosts concerts every evening, and at the Baku International Jazz Festival, which has hosted a range of international and Azerbaijani performers, including Billy Cobham, Joe Zawinul, and Herbie Hancock.