Jazz

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Always (1993)

2009-10-15T18:46:07Z

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Always (1993)


1. Always 
2. Heartbeat 
3. Crying Earth 
4. A.J.D. 
5. Yandi Ganim Daha 
6. I Don't Know 
7. Vagif 
8. Marriage Suite 
9. Insult 
10. Kaukas Mountains 
11. Dangerous Piece

Personnel: 
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh (vocals, grand piano); 
John Patitucci (acoustic bass); 
Dave Weckl (drums).

The Chick Corea Elektric Band album "Eye of the Beholder" has been one of my favorite jazz albums for 20 years. I love the perfect combination of electric jazz, latin, and middle-eastern elements; and I had never found anything else quite like it. Until this morning. I stumbled upon this 1996 release from Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, who is a vocalist and pianist from Azerbaijan. Weckl and Patitucci are the rhythm section. There is no guitarist, nor saxophone, but Aziza's vocals are outstanding and seem to serve the sound spectrum where the saxophone did on "Beholder". In any case, it's the same recipe and an outstanding recording. The album "Always" stands on its own, but anyone who particularly likes "Eye Of The Beholder" will be drawn to it. That's me. --- William Greer Jr., amazon.com

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Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Contrast II Opera Jazz (2007)

2009-10-15T18:53:56Z

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Contrast II Opera Jazz (2007)


01 - Introduction (Zadeh)
02 - Mozart's Jazz Ballade (Zadeh/Mozart)
03 - Guarding Dreams (Zadeh)
04 - The Queen Of The Night (Zadeh/Mozart)
05 - Gothic Jazz (Zadeh/Handel)
06 - Red In Black (Zadeh)
07 - If You Love Me (Zadeh/Pergolesi)
08 - Bachmania (Zadeh)
09 - Do Not Tell Me (Zadeh/Mozart)
10 - One Day, Perhaps (Zadeh/Mozart)
11 - Lonely Dolphin (Zadeh)
12 - Barabashka (Zadeh)
13 - Peace, Peace, My God (Zadeh/Verdi)
14 - Two Brothers (Zadeh)

Take an abundance of Liszt, a little Shumann, add some Ravel and Rimskiy-Korsakow and just a little more Bach.

As if that was not enough contrast already, Aziza Mustafa Zadeh mixes in Jazz - a lot of Jazz - and Mugam music from her Azerbaijani hometown of Baku. There are many contrasts in Aziza Mustafa Zadeh's work, not least due to the conflict between hands and voice, which Aziza Mustafa Zadeh acts out to the joy of her listeners, and which has continuously been documented on CD since 1991.

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh is a pianist. She is a pianist like her father, the acclaimed jazz-pianist and composer Vagif Mustafa Zadeh, who passed away much too early in 1979. Aziza Mustafa Zadeh is a singer. She is a singer like her mother Eliza Mustafa Zadeh, her mentor and constant companion. Now the pianist and the singer meet again and again and there are contrasts, as they could only be experienced before in her concert - “Opera Jazz". It seems to be that two worlds meet. There is the pianist-composer - the Jazzer with romantic inclinations - who tells of angels, guarding dreams, of lonely dolphins, of two brothers and of colors, red and black. And then there is a completely new world: the world of the great opera.

Mozart. His Countess Almaviva from “The Marriage of Figaro", Donna Anna from “Don Giovanni" and also the Queen of the Night from “The Magic Flute" borrow Aziza Mustafa Zadeh voice. She sings Leonora from Verdi's “The Power of Destiny" and Handel's Xerxes aria “Ombra mai fu", better known as “Largo". Her voice swings from mezzo-soprano to highest coloratura, always accompanied from her own arrangements on piano.

Here too can be heard, that all the contrasts, that Aziza Mustafa Zadeh uses are all that which Aziza Mustafa Zadeh loves: simply music. And perhaps a line from the Pergolesi attributed “Se tu m'ami" is something like a trademark for this glamorous singer, pianist and composer: “Non perche me piace il giglio gli altri fiori sprezzero." - “Just because the lily pleases me, I do not have to despise the other flowers." --- Werner Wenzel, news.allaboutjazz.com

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Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Contrasts (2006)

2009-10-15T18:55:43Z

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Contrasts (2006)


01 - Singing Nature (Zadeh) 5:09
02 - Night Life In Georgien (Zadeh) 3:28
03 - Stars Dance (Zadeh) 5:23
04 - Dreaming Sheherezadeh (Zadeh) 2:50
05 - Bachuana (Zadeh) 1:45
06 - Last Day Of Chopin (Zadeh) 3:38
07 - Past Of Future (Zadeh) 5:12
08 - Contrasts (Zadeh) 5:36
09 - Egocentric Bumble-Bee (Rimskij-Korsakow/Zadeh) 1:30
10 - Jazzerei In Trumerei (Schumann/Zadeh) 4:30
11 - Bolero (Ravel/Zadeh) 5:43
12 - The Way To The Palace (Zadeh) 1:38
13 - The Mirrow Of The Miracles (Zadeh) 1:45
14 - The Naghtingale & The Rose (Rimskij-Korsakow/Zadeh) 4:45
15 - Cloudy Evening (Zadeh) 3:26

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Grand piano and vocals

Aziza was born on 19 December 1969, in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, into an immensely musical family: Her father, Vagif Mustafa Zadeh, an established Jazz legend throughout the former USSR, of whom BB. King said "people call me the king of the blues, but if I could play the piano like you do, I would call myself God," was a pioneer in as much as he was the first musician to incorporate the traditional music of his homeland, known as "mugam" into popular Western Jazz music. Mugam, itself a highly improvisational style, refers to a modal system of music of which there exist over 70 types, all defined by their specific pattern of intervals, range, as well as direction of melodic movement and rhythm. With her father as architect of the Azerbaijani Mugam Jazz Movement, and her mother Eliza Mustafa Zadeh (in Soviet times known as Eliza Khanom), herself a professional singer and one of the first women to sing in the new Mugam Jazz style, it was only a question of when and how Aziza would express her musical heritage, never an if...

Still, she came a long way from the headstrong child fascinated by any kind of art-form (be it music, dance or painting, but bored and annoyed by her early musical teachers, who demanded more commitment to her practicing) to the disciplined professional pianist/singer/composer. Not that she would have lost any of her self-determination. She always liked to have things her way, a philosophy that did not necessarily go down well with her teachers at Baku conservatory where she received classical piano training. While her all to obvious talent was never under dispute, her handling of musical icons was: neither Aziza's trangressive "additions" to Beethoven Sonatas, nor her improvisations on Bach fugues were very much appreciated. "I'm sure Bach would have agreed with it," she said with a smirk at an interview. It was in this same self-confident fashion that she would later on recruit Jazz celebrities such as Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke, Omar Hakim or Bill Evans as supporting guests on her CD Dance of Fire. The fact that they all came to play her music is not a small achievement for a then 25 year old, not exactly well-known musician. Asked whether she was in the least intimidated by the famous lot she replies: "No. Not at all. In fact, I think I intimidated them a little. It took a lot of time to record and the music was very different. We had to stay up long hours and even then we recorded for the best part of a month."

Aziza started playing the piano when she was 3 years old, gave her first concerts with 14, and won her first international prizes with 17."It would have been a sin not to use this god-given gift," she muses. Next to God her parents are Aziza's most important musical leaders, especially her father. He tragically died at the early age of 39 of a heart attack after a performance in Uzbekistan, an event both devastating and strangely motivating for the ten-year old girl: With Vagif's death she not only lost her father but a source of inspiration and a gifted mentor for whose unceasing creativity Aziza continues to have the highest appreciation. "He was a genius. A true genius." Vagif continued to influence his daughter beyond his death it seems. Commenting on his death she muses: "For me, my father has never died. He simply has left this earth. I still feel his energy surrounding me. Sometimes, it's like his soul is flying around me, you know. There are times when I give concerts that I feel his presence so strongly, it's almost tangible. It's like I could reach out and touch him." Little surprise that her father is omnipresent in Aziza's work, be it in the form of one of his compositions or in a song dedicated to him.

She first recorded in Ludwigsburg for German Columbia, an eponymous solo album '91 of her own music except for her father's 'Quiet Alone'; Always '93 was a trio with Chick Corea sidemen John Patitucci and Dave Weckl, again all her own except for her father's 'Vagif'. She played at the Brecon Jazz Festival '95; Dance Of Fire '96 incl. Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and others, and played solo at Queen Elizabeth Hall early '96. One critic described the album as 'a supercharged Eastern-flavoured fusion' and her solo playing as a 'mixture of Bud Powell, Rachmaninoff and the Arabian Nights'; she sang somewhere between 'Betty Carter and the top of a minaret'. Seventh Truth '96 featured photos of her exotic self half-naked; she multi-tracked herself singing harmony and playing congas on some tracks as well as piano, with percussionist Ramesh Shotam on three tracks and drummer Ludwig Jantzer on one. Some of the songs were based on Azeri classics and some had English lyrics by Aziza; there was Middle Eastern flavour in the vocal style, but the total effect smacked of New Age rather than Bud Powell, complete with dubbed sounds of surf and birds. Jazziza '97 showcased singing, incl. jazz standards plus her own 'Sunny Rain' and 'Character', with Toots Thielemans, Philip Catherine, Eduardo Contrera on percussion. ---home.online.nl

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Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Shamans (2002)

2009-10-15T18:59:20Z

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Shamans (2002)


1  Holiday Blessings 4:30
2  Ladies of Azerbaijan 5:00
3  Uv (Unutma Vjdani) 5:48
4  Sweet Sadness 4:59
5  M25 2:58
6  Ayrilik 4:54
7  Fire Worship 4:34
8  Shamans 9:10
9  Strange Mood 5:26
10  Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayim 4:13
11  Endless Power 3:43
12  Melancholic Princess 4:20
13  Bach-Zadeh 2:56
14  Portrait of Chopin 5:36

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Piano [Steinway & Sons], Vocals, Composed By, Arranged By

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh was born in Baku, the Capital of Azerbaijan, to musical parents. Her father, Vagif Mustafa Zadeh, a pianist and composer, became famous by creating a fusion between jazz and the traditional Azerbaijani music known as mugam. His wife, Eliza Mustafa Zadeh, was a classically-trained singer from Georgia. As a young child Aziza enjoyed all forms of art - dancing, painting, singing - and at the age of 3 she appeared in public with her father, improvising with voice. But it was her talent for the piano that eventually shone through.

Having studied classical piano from an early age, and despite her enthusiasm for the compositions of JS Bach and Frederic Chopin, she soon began displaying a gift for improvisation. "I didn't practise enough," she admits. "If I don't feel like playing then I don't play." When her father died tragically on stage at the age of 39, it was a shocking blow to the young Aziza, and a major turning point in her life. Her mother's response to the crisis was to give up her own career as a classical singer and dedicate herself to nurturing her daughter's musical gifts. She now acts as her manager, and Aziza has come to rely on her judgment when she's writing or recording new pieces. "I trust her because she's extremely experienced as a classical musician and she had jazz experience with my father," Aziza points out. "And she knows a lot about music and history and literature."

When she was 17, she won the Thelonious Monk piano competition in Washington DC, playing some of Monk's compositions but in her own mugam-influenced style. Around the same time, she moved to Germany with her mother, and concentrated on developing her own distinctive musical direction.

In 1991, she released her debut album, entitled simply Aziza Mustafa Zadeh. It was immediately clear that this was an artist with an unusual and remarkable voice, able to blend her ethnic roots with both classical and jazz inputs. Early favourable impressions were reinforced by 1993's Always, which won Aziza both the ECHO Award and the German Phono Association's Jazz Award. So impressive were her talents that a prestigious squad of jazz musicians chose to join her in the studio for 1995's Dance Of Fire. Many less self-assured artists might have been overawed by a line up comprising guitarist Al Di Meola, bassman Stanley Clarke, former Weather Report drummer Omar Hakim and saxophonist Bill Evans, but once again Aziza produced an album unmistakeably imbued with her particular musical inclinations. 'Aziza is a genius, both as a composer and as a performer. Her music has much more meaning for me than just straight jazz because what I hear is her culture', said Di Meola. 'I hear Azerbaijan.'

With audiences now packing out her live concerts across Europe and beyond, from London and Paris to Istanbul and Tel Aviv, she created a mild frisson of excitement by wearing little more than long tendrils of hair on the sleeve of Seventh Truth (1996). Perhaps this image was designed to mirror the music within, which was mostly stripped down to solo piano and voice. The follow-up, Jazziza, mixed up her own compositions with jazz standards including My Funny Valentine and Dave Brubeck's Take Five.

Now there's Shamans, her first album under a new contract with Decca Records. The disc, recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, draws together the varied strands of Aziza's music, brilliantly showcasing her classically-influenced piano playing on Bach Zadeh or Portrait Of Chopin, and giving full rein to her highly personalised vocal technique on compositions such as Ladies Of Azerbaijan or Sweet Sadness. The title piece is an unusual departure for Aziza, using only percussion, the chirruping of a cricket, and multiple overdubs of her own voice to evoke a mystical shadow-world. "For me, the spiritual part of life is the most important," she explains. "Shamans are special people - they can heal you." --- bremme-hohensee.de/aziza.htm#english

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Aziza Mustafa Zadeh – Dance of Fire (1995)

2009-10-15T18:57:47Z

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh – Dance of Fire (1995)


01. Boomerang
02. Dance of Fire
03. Sheherezadeh
04. Aspiration
05. Bana Bana Gel (Bad Girl)
06. Shadow
07. Carnival
08. Passion
09. Spanish Picture
10. To Be Continued
11. Father 

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - Grand Piano and Vocals
Al Di Meola - Acoustic Guitar
Bill Evans - Soprano and Tenor Sax
Stanley Clarke - Acoustic Bass, Electric Basses
Kai E. Karpeh De Camargo - 5-String Electric Basses
Omar Hakim - Drums

Jazz all the way. Smooth, relaxing, and different from your average Jass album. If you're an Al Di Meola fan and enjoyed the "Guitar Trio" CD in which Paco De Lucia and John Maclaughlin were featured then this is something you wouldn't want to miss out on. Aziza is a great talent. I'm surprised her name isn't out there among the big names of Jazz, but there you go. ---Sufyan, amazon.com

The Azerbaijan pianist Aziza's Dance of Fire -- her second American record -- combines be-bop-derived jazz with elements Russian folk music. Supported by Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola, and Bill Evans, Aziza's playing is graceful and fluid, eclipsing her super-star backup musicians. ---Daevid Jehnzen, Rovi

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