Bayati - Shahin Novrasli

Description

Product Description Pianist and composer Shahin Novrasli has had the occasion to play some of the most prestigious stages in the world, such as London s Royal Festival Hall, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Black Sea Jazz Festival, Prague s Mezinarodni Piano Festival and numerous clubs and festivals throughout the United States. Elegantly blending his classical knowledge, Azerbaijan s traditional folk Mugham and his jazz influences, Shahin created his own unique and accomplished musical universe, where he combines eastern and western cultures. A gentle wave of exotic melodies, powerful and sharp harmonies, capricious eastern rhythms struck by an American Jazz lightning, majestic and vigorous. With a solo project, a trio with Ari Hoenig and Nathan Peck, countless collaborations with notably Kenny Wheeler, Iain Ballamy and Tim Garland, to name a few, Shahin is today an icon for Azerbaijan Jazz and has received enthusiastic comments from worldwide critics and audiences. Review Shahin Novrasli is an eclectic Azerbaijani musician, who like compatriot pianists Vagif Mustafazade and Aziza Mustafa Zadeh has built a reputation beyond his homeland for a tumultuous fusion of American jazz and the local mugam folk tradition. Novrasli was a local classical star in his teens, and his jazz virtuosity is often breathtaking like Brad Mehldau's contrapuntal-improv approach delivered at blazing tempos, or Herbie Hancock's left-hand chording reworked with jarring harmonies and wilful rhythmic diversions. Novrasli's themes seem informed by his folk roots and Broadway songs, and he loves rapidly churning ostinato patterns over rocking hooks, multi-themed slow-burners (the tune of Bayati Shiraz is a rumble of low chords, briefly harrumphing rejoinders and short bursts of whirling dance melody), soft meditations against left-hand walks that snap into silky, Bill Evans-like swing. His touch is exquisite and his speed jaw-dropping, and if his flood-tides of sound can swamp you after an hour or so, there are more than enough startlingly fresh ideas here, from a culture still relatively unfamiliar to jazz. FOUR STARS --Guardian4 STARS 'His delicate, filigree touch conceals a love of broad, harmonically rich clusters…' April 2014 --Stuart Nicholson Jazzwise