Amina Figarova (born 1964) is an Azerbaijani jazz pianist. Trained as a classical pianist in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, she became interested in the local folk music, later specializing in jazz. Since the late 1980s, together with her husband, the flutist Bart Platteau, she has performed in jazz festivals around the world.

Biography

Born in

on 2 December 1964, Amina Figarova learnt to play the piano as a small child and began composing when only six. She attended the

Baku Academy of Music The Hajibeyov Baku Academy of Music (Azeri: ''Hacıbəyov adına Bakı Musiqi Akademiyası'') is a music school in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was established in 1920 in Baku and was previously known as the Hajibeyov Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. H ...

where she studied to become a classical concert pianist. In 1988, while at the Moscow Jazz Festival, she was invited to study at the Rotterdam Conservatoire where she soon developed an interest in jazz. She completed her education at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. While in the United States, she became involved in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Colony in

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Mounta ...

. Together with the flutist Bart Platteau whom she later married, she began to perform in jazz concerts around the world. Her albums ''September Suite'' and more recently ''Blue Whisper'' were inspired in part by the events of 11 September 2001 when she was in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

playing at the

Blue Note Jazz Club Blue Note Jazz Club is a jazz club and restaurant located at 131 West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on September 30, 1981, by owner and founder Danny Bensusan, with the Nat Adderley Quintet being the featured ...

. Chicago critic

Neil Tesser Neil Tesser (born 1951) is a Grammy Award–winning American journalist, radio host, music critic, and author. In 2015, he received the Jazz Journalists Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in Jazz Journalism. Biography Born in New York, Tess ...

rates her as one of the leading contemporary jazz composers both with ''September Suite'' and ''Come Escape With Me''. Figarova's compositions include the musical ''Diana'', and ''Tehora'' which she wrote for the Israeli singer Shlomit Butbul. She has released 13 albums, becoming one of ''

DownBeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

s Rising Star Composers of the year in both 2014 and 2015.

Discography

* ''Rachmaninov/Skriabin/Wieniawski'' (Erasmus, 1993) * ''Attraction'' (1995) * ''Another Me'' (Munich, 1998) * ''Firewind'' (Munich, 1999) * ''Night Train'' (Munich, 2002) * ''On Canal Street'' (STR, 2002) * ''Come Escape with Me'' (Munich, 2005) * ''September Suite'' (Munich, 2005) * ''Above the Clouds'' (Munich, 2008) * ''Sketches'' (Munich, 2010) * ''Twelve'' (In+Out, 2012) * ''Blue Whisper'' (In+Out, 2015) * ''Road to the Sun'' (AmFi, 2018) * ''Persistence'' (AmFi, 2020)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Figarova, Amina 1964 births Living people Musicians from Baku 21st-century pianists Soviet emigrants to the United States Azerbaijani women composers Azerbaijani jazz pianists Azerbaijani women pianists Baku Academy of Music alumni Berklee College of Music alumni Jazz pianists Women jazz pianists 21st-century women pianists