Mustafa-zade, Vagif Aziz oglu

Vagif Mustafa-zade was born March 16, 1940 in Baku in the family of a major medical service. After the death of his father, his mother, who taught Azerbaijani folk music, took up the education of the future composer.

In 1957, Vagif entered the Baku Music College named after A. Zeynalli . He studied with Muslim Magomayev .

Vagif Mustafa-zade is the most famous and successful jazz performer in the history of Azerbaijan, the creator of a new direction in jazz - Azerbaijani jazz-mugam ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} He was also the founder of various ensembles, the first of which was jazz trio "Caucasus" at the State Philharmonic of Georgia. In Baku, he created vocal and instrumental ensembles “Leili” (1970), “ Seville ” (1971, on the basis of the State Radio and Television of Azerbaijan), “Mugam” (1977).

Vagif Mustafa-zade is a laureate of the Tallinn-66, Tallinn-67 festivals, the Baku Jazz-69 festival, the All-Union Jazz Festival in Donetsk in 1977, the Tbilisi-78 Jazz Festival, which earned him the title of best pianist ( the debut appearance on the stage of the eight-year-old Aziza Mustafa-zade, who immediately became the winner of the festival) took place here. In 1979, at the International Jazz Composition Competition in Monaco, Vagif Mustafa-zade won the first prize and the prize - a white piano. However, Vagif did not have time to learn about this victory - he died of a heart attack in Tashkent , December 16, 1979 , on stage, during the performance of the composition “Waiting for Aziza”. He was 39 years old. After his death, Willis Conover , the presenter of Jazz Time on Voice of America, completely devoted his watch program to Vagif Mustafa-zade ^[5] .

Communication with such musicians as T. Kurashvili, D. Japaridze (Georgia), G. Lukyanov (Russia), Rafik Babaev (Azerbaijan), (Sweden), Horst Yankovsky greatly influenced Vagif Mustafa-zade’s work. (Germany). BB King said that he would like to play the blues as Mustafa-zade plays ^[6] .

Thanks to his original compositions, rich in oriental flavor, improvisations and mixing of rhythms of mugam and jazz ^[7] , Vagif became a living legend. His work was highly appreciated both at home and abroad.

In 1967, both Vagif Mustafazadeh and Rafik Babayev performed at the jazz festival held in Tallinn . Willis Conover, presenter of the Voice of America jazz program, was also among the guests of the festival. The legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd also performed with his quartet, which included the young Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJonnett. Famous American jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie, who got acquainted with the work of Mustafa-zade, thanked Mustafa-zade for creating the music of the future ^[8] .

In 1968, the first tour of Vagif in the cities of the USSR took place. In 1970, Mustafazade and a number of famous Azerbaijani musicians (R. Beibutov, M. Tagiyev and others) gave several concerts in Latin America.

Vagif Mustafa-zade was the first jazz performer in the USSR to receive the title of “Honored Artist” ^[9] .

Vagif Mustafa-zade conquered the audience with his originality, virtuoso technique, a kind of harmonious language. He was the first to use Azerbaijani flavor, mugam in jazz and became the founder of Azerbaijani jazz. The author of many of his own jazz compositions and arrangements, Mustafa-zade also wrote symphony and chamber music. The concert for the piano and symphony orchestra, which he wrote, where Mustafa-zadeh demonstrated his great potential in this direction, was adopted with great success in the Union of Composers of the Azerbaijan SSR . He also owns many chamber piano pieces.

The name Vagif and Aziza Mustafa-zade was included in the World Jazz Encyclopedia edited by US authors, as well as in the literary revision of Vladimir Feertag in the Russian edition. ^[ten]

Wife - Elsa Mustafa-zade (Bandzeladze), singer, former soloist of the vocal-instrumental ensemble "Seville" ^[11] .

The eldest daughter - Lala Mustafa-zade, an opera singer, taught at the Paris Conservatory , currently works at the Grand Opera ^[12] .

The youngest daughter is Aziza Mustafa-zade , a jazz performer and composer.

• “His music is surprisingly modern, and at the same time it blows from the sacraments of ancient Caucasian melodies, sung by poets of more than one generation. This is a fairy tale told by Scheherazade at 1002 nights! ” - Swedish pianist Johansson.
• "AT. Mustafa-zade is one of the best pianists in the world ” - D. Becker, president of the Washington Jazz Club.
• "AT. Mustafa-zade is a pianist who has his own pronounced style. He perfectly plays his jazz, skillfully uses the Azerbaijani flavor. He can safely be an example for many jazzmen ” - P. Brodowski (Poland).
• "AT. Mustafa-zade is a top-class pianist who finds it difficult to find equal in jazz. This is the most lyrical pianist I've heard ” - American musician and critic W. Conover .

• East Jazz of Vagif Mustafa-zade
• Vagif Mustafa-zade's jazz music was played in Tallinn 40 years later // Novosti ERR , October 12, 2010