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Azerbaijani Princess of Jazz to perform in Germany

13 January 2016 17:48 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijani Princess of Jazz to perform in Germany

By Laman Sadigova

The world-famous Azerbaijani jazz performer, pianist and composer, Aziza Mustafazadeh, together with her Trio will give a concert at the Frankfurter Hof in Mainz, Germany on May 10.

Mustafazadeh, also known as The Princess of Jazz, performs a fusion of jazz and mugam with classical and avant-garde influences.

She was born in 1969 in a family of renowned Azerbaijani jazzman Vagif Mustafazadeh. Aziza and her father Vagif Mustafazadeh were included in the World encyclopedia of jazz composers, published in the U.S..

Aziza's parents first noticed their daughter's sensitivity to music when she was eight months old. Aziza recalls the story that her mother told her: “Once, my father was improvising at the piano playing in the mugam mode known as Shur, which creates a mood that evokes very deep, sad emotions. As my father was playing, I started to cry. Everyone wondered what was happening to me. Why was I crying? And then mother realized the correlation between my feelings and the music. “Vagif, please,” she told my father, “change the scale. Go to Rast. Play Rast.” And he did. Now Rast is characterized by its joyfulness and optimism. And sure enough, with tears still running down my cheeks, I started to make dance-like movements. And Mom pointed out, “Look, look what she's doing! Change back to Shur!” And when he did, I started crying again louder than before. At least, that's what they tell me. Back to Rast, and I began dancing again.”

In 1986, during the International Jazz Festival in Tbilisi, Aziza was awarded the gold medal, which was a worthy beginning of her creative work. At the age of just 17, she won the competition of pianists named after Thelonious Monk in Washington. In Europe she gained titles of the ‘Eastern diva’, ‘Scheherazade at the piano’ and ‘Princess of Jazz’. After the concert in 1997 in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, she was awarded the title of Queen of Jazz, which she retains till today.

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Follow Laman Sadigova on Twitter: @s_laman93

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