A new tape recording of Vagif Mustafazade, the legend of
Azerbaijani jazz music, has been found, Azernews
reports citing Azertag .
Director of the Rashid Behbudov Foundation Kamil Shahverdi
informed about this on his social Network account. It is reported
that the tape recording was discovered by Tofig Hasansoy, a singer
and connoisseur of jazz music.
This piece, performed in one of Vagif Mustafazade's last
concerts in 1979, belongs to the head of the Department of
Composition at Baku Music Academy, Professor Aydın Azim
Karimoglu.
The composition "A fantasy about Aydin K. Azim" was performed by
V. Mustafazade and his friends, Alasgar Abbasov (lives in Turkiye)
on guitar, Parviz Adib (lives in Germany) on percussion and Nazim
Guliyev on bass guitar.
"I am proud to present to you for the first time the masterpiece
fantasy performed 45 years ago. Thanks to our valuable friend,
expert connoisseur and propagandist of jazz music Tofig Hasansoy
for revealing this tape!," Kamil Shahverdi wrote in his post.
Note that Tofig Hasansoy is currently working on a book about
Vagif Mustafazade.
"I am busy translating numerous newspaper articles and
interviews about Vagif Mustafazade from Russian into our native
language. I would like to publish a book for Vagif Mustafazade's
85th anniversary next year. I have also set myself the goal of
presenting an album consisting of tape recordings of the maestro's
live performance at the "Tallinn - 66" and "Tallinn - 67" jazz
festivals," he said.
Born in 1940, outstanding composer, pianist, founder of the
jazz-mugham style, Honored Artist of the Azerbaijani SSR, and
laureate of the State Prize Vagif Mustafazade received his first
musical education at music school, where his mother Zivar Aliyeva
worked.
From 1957 to 1963, he continued his education at the Asaf
Zeynalli music school. In 1964, he entered the Uzeyir Hajibayli
Azerbaijani State Conservatoire.
In 1965, the musician was invited to Tbilisi as the musical
director of the famous Orero ensemble, and in the same year, he
created the Caucasus jazz trio at the Georgian Philharmonic. In
1967, he attended the International Jazz Festival in Tallinn.
In 1970, Vagif Mustafazade created the Leyli vocal quartet, and
in 1971 – Sevil vocal-instrumental ensemble under the State
Radio.
Vagif Mustafazade became a laureate of the jazz festival in
Donetsk in 1977. He was awarded the title of laureate and best
pianist at the jazz festival (1978) in Tbilisi.
He also took first place as the best composer at the
International Competition of Jazz Composers in Monaco (1979) for
his composition "Waiting for Aziza" and won the White Grand Piano
award.
In the same year, he was awarded the honorary title of Honored
Artist of Azerbaijan.
Mustafazade combined Azerbaijani mughams with traditional jazz
techniques, creating a synthesis of mugham and jazz.
Similar innovations made by him in Azerbaijani music are still
relevant, and many musicians use the synthesis of jazz and mugham
created by the composer.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews' staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr