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 m ...

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 an ...

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 th ...

, 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. 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 hel ...

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 i ...

2007 Image:BillyCobham_BakuJazz2007.jpg,

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a 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 inducted into the ''Mode ...

2007 Image:HiramBullock.jpg, Hiram Bullock 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 {{Jazz-festival-stub