Azerbaijani pianist performs at Rome Jazz Festival

On Tuesday 15 November the Sala Petrassi of the Auditorium Parco della Musica "Ennio Morricone" hosted one of the most awaited events of the 46th edition of the Rome Jazz Festival, the concert by the Azerbaijani pianist and composer Isfar Sarabski.

Born in 1989 in Baku, Isfar Sarabski, an Azerbaijani artist born in 1989 in Baku, blends the experimentalism of Nils Frahm with the ethereality of Ólafur Arnalds, the electronic explorations of Martin Kohlstedt with the symphonic brilliance of Max Richter and the jazz virtuosity of Herbie Hancock, Caliber.Az reports, referring to the Italian media.

Isfar has been immersed in music since he was a little child. He received training at Boston's renowned Berklee College of Music and went on to win the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition. His mother teaches violin, his father is an avid music enthusiast, and Huseyngulu Sarabski, a prominent figure in Azerbaijani music, was his great-grandfather.

“I was a child when I discovered that I was fascinated by the mechanics of the turntable, by the shapes of those big black records, and, of course, by that universe of tones, harmonies, and rhythms that came out of them. I remember exactly the feeling I had the first time I heard Gillespie records and compositions by Bach and Chopin: how could music be creating all those images in my head? I realized that by becoming a musician,” the musician stressed.

Released in 2021, the album Planet marks his recording debut. An album that is the mirror of a radically eclectic idea of jazz, where the language of Afro-American derivation mixes with electronics and where symphonic echoes meet pianism that can recall Rachmaninov.

With a style that can sometimes be compared to that of Brad Mehldau, Sarabski's is an impressionist jazz with a strong sense of storytelling, full of references to the Azerbaijani tradition, for which he has great respect, but at the same time marked by minimalism and open to electronic experiments, thanks also to the various collaborations with some of the protagonists of the Baku clubbing scene.

The Itaca 4et gave a live performance at the Casa del Jazz at the same time. This international ensemble was formed when the quartet's members, avant-jazz musicians from Canada and Italy, met at festivals around the world, including the Sile Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, and Toronto Jazz Festival.

The ensemble, formed by François Houle on clarinet, Nicola Fazzini on alto sax, Alessandro Fedrigo on bass, and Nick Fraser on drums, offers dynamic, rhythmic music dedicated to the cult of improvisation.

The Rome Jazz Festival, now in its 46th edition, will once again excite the capital from November 6 to November 19 with 23 events in the "Ennio Morricone" Auditorium Parco della Musica, the Casa del Jazz, and the Monk club. Directed by Mario Ciampà, the Roma Jazz Festival 2022 is realized with the contribution of the Culture Ministry of Rome Capital and is produced by the IMF Foundation in co-production with the Musica per Roma Foundation.