Aziza Mustafa Zadeh was the daughter of musical parents. Vagif Mustafa Zdeh, her father, was a composer and pianist. He created a blend of jazz and traditional Azerbaijani music called mugam. Eliza Mustafa Zadeh was a classically trained singer from Georgia. Aziza was a child who loved all art forms, including singing, dancing, painting and painting. At the age of three, she performed in public with her father, performing with her voice. Her talent for playing the piano was what eventually made her shine. Despite her love for Frederic Chopin and JS Bach, she began to learn classical piano at an early age. She also discovered a talent for improvisation. She admits that she didn’t practice enough. “If I don’t feel like playing, then I don’t play.” It was a shock for Aziza at 39 and a turning point in her adult life. Her father tragically died on stage. Her mother responded to the crisis by giving up her career as a classical singer to dedicate herself to her daughter’s musical talents. Aziza now has her manager and Aziza can rely on her judgement when writing or recording new music. Aziza says, “I trust her because…she’s very experienced as a classical musician” and that she also had jazz experience with my dad. She is also an expert in music, literature and history. She won the Thelonious Monk piano contest in Washington DC when she was 17. She played some Monk compositions, but her own mugam-influenced style. She also moved to Germany in the same year with her mother and began to develop her own musical style. Her debut album, simply Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, was released in 1991. It was obvious that she was an extraordinary artist, capable of blending her ethnic roots with jazz and classical influences. The 1993 album, Always, earned Aziza the ECHO Award as well as the German Phono Association Jazz Award. Her talents were so impressive that a distinguished group of jazz musicians joined her in the studio to record 1995’s Dance Of Fire. A line-up that included guitarist Al Di Meola and bassman Stanley Clarke, Omar Hakim, Bill Evans, and Omar Hakim, a Weather Report drummer, might have been overwhelming to less confident artists. But Aziza once again produced an album that was clearly infused with her musical talents. “Aziza is both a composer as well as a performer. Di Meola said that her music is more than jazz to me because it has a deeper meaning than straight jazz. ‘I hear Azerbaijan.’ Her live concerts in Europe were packed from London to Paris to Istanbul to Tel Aviv. She created a slight frisson of excitement by only wearing long hair and Seventh Truth (1996) on her sleeves. This image may have been created to reflect the music inside, which was mostly a solo piano and vocal performance. Jazziza was her second album. Jazziza mixed jazz standards with her own compositions, including My Funny Valentine, Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, and other jazz standards. Shamans is her debut album under a new Decca Records contract. The disc, recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, draws together the varied strands of Aziza’s music, brilliantly showcasing her classically-influenced piano playing on Bach Zadeh or Portrait Of Chopin, and giving full rein to her highly personalised vocal technique on compositions such as Ladies Of Azerbaijan or Sweet Sadness. Aziza’s title piece is a departure from the norm. It features only percussion and the chirruping sound of a cricket. She also uses multiple overdubs to her voice to create a mysterious shadow-world. She says, “The spiritual part of my life is the most important.” “Shamans can heal you. They are special people.” From www.mymusicbase.ru
