Salman Gambaraov & Bakustic Jazz
Live at Morgenland Festival Osnabrück

Salman Gambarov, piano

Emil Hasanov, bass

Vagif Aliyev, drums

Mirjavad Jafarov, oud & tar

catalog number 21063

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is a fascinating musical metropolis: traditional mugham, symphonic music (the first conservatory in the Soviet Republic was built here) and a lively jazz scene have made the city a musical epicentre in the Caucasus. One of the most important exponents on the jazz scene is the pianist Salman Gambarow. Together with the ensemble Bakustic Jazz, which he founded in 1996, he gave a highly acclaimed concert in 2009 at the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück which is now available on this fantastic CD.

“… Gambarow, Hasanov and Aliyev celebrate the high art of trio playing with the aesthetics of a Keith Jarrett. However, the third piece makes it clear that these musicians are not from the USA, but from Baku: a fourth person joins them on stage, Mirjavad Jafarov, who adds the oriental colours of the string instruments Tar and Oud to the jazz idiom. What is sometimes tried out as a spontaneous ‘musical happening’ is something which is here part and parcel of the band’s structure and is therefore taken totally for granted. And so something really special happens: two completely different musical worlds merge. … high-energy jazz at its best.”
Martina Binnig in Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung