Azerbaijani jazz musicians thrill music lovers in Belgium

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani jazz musicians Isfar Sarabski and Rain Sultanov have thrilled the audience in Belgium recently.

The musicians performed at the concert organized by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Belgium jointly with the Centre for Fine Arts  (BOZAR) to promote Azerbaijani culture, Azertag reported.

Isfar Sarabski and Rain Sultanov took the listeners into the magical word of jazz music.

At the beginning of the program, the audience was informed about the music album "Cycle”.

"Cycle" is not just a music project. It is interesting due to its content. Organ, saxophone and piano which have not been used before in combination are magically merged in one theme. They are a perfect combination and harmony in space. Each instrument brings its own philosophy in. Organ - divinity, saxophone - emotions, piano - evolution.

The guests of the concert then enjoyed a wonderful organ and piano music accompanied by saxophone. As musicians say, organ music takes a special place in the jazz repertoire. The atmosphere was just amazing. The concert was met with great interest of the audience.

Isfar Rzayev, better known as Isfar Sarabski, is the great-grandson of opera singer Huseyngulu Sarabski. His musical talent manifested itself at an early age.

The musician began playing the piano at the age of seven. Sarabski studied classic piano for eleven years at the Bulbul Music School. After that, he continued his education at the Baku Music Academy.

He completed his studies at the Academy in 2011, graduating as a classical concert pianist. In the same year the pianist received a scholarship from the Berklee Music College, Boston, the U.S.

Azerbaijan's young virtuoso has performed in the most prestigious concert halls, including the Royal Albert Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Miles Davis Hall, the Vibrato Jazz Club, Jazz Club Ronnie Scott's, the Zinco Jazz Club, the Konzerthaus, Asphalt Jazz Club, Duc des Lombards Jazz Club, Porgy & Bess Jazz Club, Bird’s Eye Jazz Club and the Apollo Theater.

Rain mastered saxophone at the age of 16. He played at military orchestra while being in army for four years.

Continuing his musical education at Baku Musical School named after A.Zeynalli, he took the first place at the Republican Contest among specialized schools, in 1985. He performed compositions of Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Weber and others. At that time Rain had already begun to perform jazz compositions too, and was invited to work in “Ashiqlar” group of Polad Bulbuloglu.

In 1996-97’s, Rain became a member of jazz festivals in Germany. He composed such compositions as "Last moment", "Crazy world" and others while being in Germany and returning to the motherland he decided to create a group called “Syndicate”.

"Syndicate" achieved a great success with its original compositions among its listeners in a short space of time.