Aziza: Aziza

This worldly modern-jazz supergroup — a collective made up of the bassist Dave Holland, the saxophonist Chris Potter, the guitarist Lionel Loueke and the drummer Eric Harland — toured widely before recording its self-titled debut. As one might expect, it’s an album on which every granite-carved rhythmic vamp accrues many subtleties of texture and inflection, and any solo heroics (of which there’s no shortage) are absorbed into a larger flow.

Pianist Aziz Mustafa Zadeh, a native of Baku in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, is quite impressive on her American debut. This solo set finds her influenced by Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett to a certain extent but also infusing the music with her heritage. The scales she often utilizes are clearly from the Near East yet her improvisational skills show that the 23-year old has long loved jazz. She takes three vocals (two of which feature rapid and exotic scatting) that display a wide range and an appealing voice. Zadeh performs fifteen diverse originals and the virtuosic pianist clearly has the potential to be a major force in jazz.

Shamans is the seventh album released by Azeri jazz artist Aziza Mustafa Zadeh. It was released in 2002. In the liner notes, Aziza left a comment about each song. The artwork also contains a number of paintings by Aziza. Around 2.000.000 copies of this album were sold worldwide.

There are many contrasts in Aziza Mustafa Zadeh's work, not least due to the conflict between hands and voice, which Aziza Mustafa Zadeh acts out to the joy of her listeners, and which has continuously been documented on CD since 1991. Aziza Mustafa Zadeh is a pianist. She is a pianist like her father, the acclaimed jazz-pianist and composer Vagif Mustafa Zadeh, who passed away much too early in 1979. Aziza Mustafa Zadeh is a singer. She is a singer like her mother Eliza Mustafa Zadeh, her mentor and constant companion.

The Azerbaijan pianist Aziza's Dance of Fire – her second American record – combines be-bop-derived jazz with elements Russian folk music. Supported by Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola, and Bill Evans, Aziza's playing is graceful and fluid, eclipsing her super-star backup musicians.