The Baku International Jazz Festival is an annual
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
event organized by saxophonist and
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 ...
resident
Rain Sultanov. The festival aims to showcase
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
's long-running attachment to jazz, a connection established in the country during the 1950s and 1960s when jazz was outlawed by
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
authorities. The festival has welcomed musicians from
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, Italy, Israel, United States, Germany, Canada, and Russia.
Acts appearing at the inaugural event in April 2005 included the
Joe Zawinul
Josef Erich Zawinul ( '; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to bec ...
Syndicate,
Christoph Busse Trio from Germany, and
Yakov Okun Quartet from Russia. The fourteen day event included a tribute Azerbaijani jazz musicians
Rafig Babayev
Rafig Farzi oglu Babayev ( az, Rafiq Farzi oğlu Babayev, 31 March 1937 – 19 March 1994) was an Azerbaijani jazz musician, composer, conductor, arranger, author of scores for films, and People's Artist of Azerbaijan (1993).
Biography
Rafig Baba ...
and his Gaya quartet and pianist
Vagif Mustafa Zadeh
Vagif Mustafazadeh ( az, Vaqif Mustafazadə; March 16, 1940 – December 16, 1979), also known as Vaqif Mustafa-Zadeh, was a Soviet-Azerbaijani jazz pianist and composer, acclaimed for fusing jazz and the traditional Azerbaijani folk music known ...
. At the end of the first festival it was announced that the festival would become an annual event. In 2006 the festival took place from 19 to 27 June and was headlined by
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...
and
Al Jarreau
Alwin Lopez Jarreau (March 12, 1940 – February 12, 2017) was an American singer and musician. His 1981 album '' Breakin' Away'' spent two years on the ''Billboard'' 200 and is considered one of the finest examples of the Los Angeles pop and R ...
.
Gallery
Image:Aziza BakuJazz2007.jpg, Aziza Mustafa Zadeh
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh ( az, Əzizə Mustafazadə; born December 19, 1969) is an Azerbaijani singer, pianist, and composer who plays a fusion of jazz and mugham (a traditional improvisational style of Azerbaijan) with classical and avant-garde in ...
2007
Image:BillyCobham_BakuJazz2007.jpg, Billy Cobham
William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian Americans, Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
He was indu ...
2007
Image:HiramBullock.jpg, Hiram Bullock
Hiram Law Bullock (September 11, 1955 – July 25, 2008) was an American guitarist known mainly for playing in jazz funk and jazz fusion, but he also worked as a session musician in a variety of genres.
Biography
Bullock was born in Osaka, Jap ...
2007
Image:TurnerBaku.jpg, Mark Turner 2007
Image:BakuJazz002.jpg, Poster of Baku Jazz Festival 2011
Image:Jazzaz.jpg, Poster of Baku Jazz Festival 2011
Image:Jazz festival in baku.jpg, Poster of Baku Jazz Festival 2011
References
Official site
Music festivals established in 2005
Jazz festivals in Azerbaijan
Culture in Baku
2005 establishments in Azerbaijan
Tourist attractions in Baku
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