Born: December 19, 1969 Primary Instrument: Piano
The pianist Aziza Mustafa Zadeh was born on December 19, 1969, in Baku Azerbaijan in the former USSR, into a musical family. Her father was a Jazz pianist and one of the first to incorporate ethnic musical styles, in his case the traditional improvisational mugam, into western Jazz music. Her mother was a professional singer who collaborated with her father in his musical endeavors. Aziza Mustafa Zadeh started playing the piano when she was 3 and gave her first concert at 14. Despite her father’s untimely death when she was only 10, his musical ideas influenced her significantly. She also received training in classical music at the Baku Conservatory. At the age of 17 she won Thelonious Monk piano competition in Washington, D.C. That same year she moved to Germany with her mother. She released her first album Aziza Mustafa Zadeh in 1991 and in 1994 won both the Phono Academy Prize, Germany's most prestigious award in music and the Echo Prize from Sony, for her second album Always. Since then she has released half a dozen critically acclaimed albums and collaborated with several jazz stars such as Toots Thelemans and Stanley Clarke. She currently resides in Mainz, Germany and continues to tour and compose. In her leisure time she paints.
Aziza
Columbia/Sony
1991
Tracks: Chargah; My Ballad; Exprompt; Quiet Alone; Inspiritation; I Cannot Sleep; Oriental Fantasy; Moment; Blue Day; Character; Tea on the Carpet; Cemetery; Reflection; Aziza's Dream; Two Candles.
Personnel: Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: piano and vocals.
Always
Columbia/Sony
1993
Tracks: Always; Heartbeat; Crying Earth; A.J.D.; Yandi Ganim Daha; I Don't Know; Vagif; Marriage Suite; Insult; Kaukas Mountains; Dangerous Piece
Personnel: Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: piano and vocals; John Patitucci: bass; Dave Weckl: drums.
Dance of Fire
Columbia/Sony
1995
Tracks: Boomerang; Dance of Fire; Sheherezadeh; Aspiration; Bana Bana Gel (Bad Girl); Shadow; Carnival; Passion; Spanish Picture; To Be Continued; Father.
Personnel: Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: piano and vocals; Al Di Meola: guitar; Bill Evans: saxophone; Stanley Clarke and Kai E. Karpeh De Camarg: bass; Omar Hakim: drums.
Seventh Truth
Columbia/Sony
1996
Tracks: Ay dilber; Lachin; Interlude I; Fly with me; F#; Desperation; Daha; I am sad; Interlude II; Wild beauty; Seventh truth; Sea monster.
Personnel: Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: piano, vocals and congas; Ramesh Shotam: drums and indian percussion.
Jazziza
Columbia/Sony
1997
Tracks: Lover Man; Sunny Rain; My Funny Valentine; Scrapple from the Apple; Character; Nature Boy; You've Changed; Butterflies; Black Orphaeus; How Insensitive; Take Five; I Can't Sleep.
Personnel: Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: piano and vocals; Toots Thielemans: harmonica; Eduardo Contrera: percussion; Phillip Catherine: guitars.
Inspiration - Colors & Reflections
Sony
2000
Tracks: Insomnia; Insult; Spanish Picture; March; Oz Allahina Dusman; Hearbeat; I am Blue; Waiting for Aziza; Vocalise; Inspiration; Vagif Prelude; Bana Bana Gel; 139 Colors of Sea; Naje Sevim; Night Interlude.
Personnel: Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: piano and vocalsAl Di Meola: guitar; Bill Evans: saxophone; Stanley Clarke and Kai E. Karpeh De Camarg and John Patitucci: bass; Omar Hakim and Dave Weckl: drums.
Shamans
Decca
2002
Tracks: Holiday Blessings; Ladies of Azerbaijan; Uv (Unutma Vjdani); Sweet Sadness; M25; Ayrilik; Fire Worship; Shamans; Strange Mood; Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayim; Traditional; Endless Power; Melancholic Princess; Bach-Zadeh; Portrait of Chopin.
Personnel: Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: piano and vocals.
Contrasts
Jazziza
2006
Tracks: Singing Nature; Night Life in Georgien; Stars Dance; Dreaming Sheherezadeh; Bachuana; Last Day of Chopin; Past of Future; Contrasts; Egocentric Bumble-Bee; Jazzerei in Träumerei; Bolero; The Way to the Palace; The Mirror of the Miracles; The Nightingale & the Rose; Cloudy Evening
Personnel: Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: piano and vocals.
As A Side Musician
Ragga Love
Regis Tareau
Celluloid
1997
Tracks: Regarde Cette Etoile Briller; Sone Kon l'En; No Illusion; En Harmonie; A Feu Doux;Sone Kon l'En [dub]; Combat la Ka Diwe; L' Anmou Ce Feeling Mwen; Plus Fort; No Illusion [dub]; Gade Zetwal la Ka Bwie; Plus Fort [dub]
Personnel: King Daddy Yod: chant; Raphael Tareau: guitar; Regis Tareau: chant, drum programming, mixing, keyboard programming; Monique Visiano: chant; Aziza Mustafa Zadeh: vocals.
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