Isfar Sarabski Quartet booking November 2020

Jazzahead Showcase 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM_G13wQ3AQ
Full concert in Sesc Jazz (São Paulo, Brazil) 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I8ecqNU8TE

The origins of jazz-mugham, an unique blend of traditional styles of ancient Persian/ Iranian improvisation with jazz, come from the work of the Azerbaijani pianist Vagif Mustafazedeh in the 1950s, whose Isfar Sarabsky is one of the most prominent followers in the modern scene of jazz from Azerbaijan.

Classically trained grandson of a renowned opera singer, Azerbaijani Isfar struck his first inter- national prize in jazz, winning the 2009 Montreux Festival piano competition – aged 19. By impressing audiences across Europe, the USA and UNESCO with music that is all of sensitive and stunning, classical and jazz, standards and self-penned, he's always on the move. On a solid base – from Mustafazadeh back to Tchaikovsky – his playing always flows artistry and ex- citement. There’s never a dull moment or wavering, an Isfar Sarabski live concert is exactly that.

Along with the renowned azeri tarist Behruz Zeynal, emerging the sound of tar, a typical string instrument with persian origin, this project transports the audiences to sonorities rarely experienced in a jazz concert.

There is something special in Isfar’s music that results from a consistent exchange - and until a few years ago unlikely - between essentially different cultures. As happened in the passage from the XIX century to the XX, with the emergence of a new (popular) music in the port cities of America - such as Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans and Havana - in the second decade of the 21st century there are infinite new possibilities of cultural interaction.