March 16 is remembered as the birthday of musical legend Vagif Mustafazade (1940-79). Blending jazz and folkloric Azerbaijani music, Mustafazade introduced mugham jazz and electrified audiences with his piano playing. As a musically curious teenager in Soviet-occupied Azerbaijan, Mustafazade attended movie screenings where he was able to listen to jazz and to BBC radio. He sang meykhana, a rhythmic poetic song tradition that also had been banned. Vagif Mustafazade’s music remains a favorite for many music lovers decades after his death. His daughter Aziza Mustafazade (b. 1969) has made her own mark on the jazz world with an ever-evolving improvisational style of her own.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 01:04:22 +0000
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