Baku to celebrate Int'l Jazz Day

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Every year, April 30 is celebrated worldwide as the International Jazz Day.

Declared by UNESCO in 2012, the day raises awareness of the virtues of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for empathy, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people.

Each year, many countries including Azerbaijan hold jam sessions, jazz concerts and workshops timed to the International Jazz Day.

As part of the celebration, jazz concerts will be held in the International Mugham Center, the Rashid Behbudov State Song Theater from  April 29 to May 2.

Jazz music in Azerbaijan

Sophisticated jazz music is very popular in Azerbaijan.

The foundation of Azerbaijani jazz was laid by the State Pop Orchestra known as "State jazz" at the end of the 30-es by Niyazi and T. Guliyev.

Vagif Mustafazade is the founder of Azerbaijani jazz mugham movement that emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s in Baku, as a result of the mixture of these two styles.

Throughout the years, he wrote numerous jazz compositions, including fugues, preludes, ballades and scherzos, many of them written in the 1970s. He released a total of eight albums, all with different line-ups, mood and style.

National jazz is also very rich with such prominent and talented musicians as Rain Sultanov, Jamil Amirov, Salman Gambarov, as well as young genius conquering worldwide fame Isfar Sarabski, Nurlan Novrasli, Emil Afrasiab, Elchin Shirinov and more.