Always — Aziza Mustafa Zadeh
A very big thanks to A. for finding the 1993 album “Always” by Aziza Mustafa Zadeh available online. It’s got to be the best album I’ve heard by any jazz artist from the South Caucasus and one of my favorites in general. That’s because Azerbaijani jazz singer and musician Aziza Mustafa Zadeh plays the piano like a dream on this album and manages to fuse western, eastern, jazz, classical and traditional influences to seamless perfection.
In 1993, Columbia released Always, where Aziza was accompanied by then Chick Corea alumni, Dave Weckl (drums) and the irrepressible John Patitucci (bass). The album roared through Europe, dazzling listeners and wowing critics. It was awarded the ECHO prize from the German Gramophone Association. Was the album pure breathtaking jazz? Never quite so. Aziza can never be put into a singular groove. She had already lit up the sky with her otherworldly interpretation of mugam, appropriated to the landscape of jazz! Azeri mugami harmalodics buffeted with the clash and crash of Weckl’s percussion pyrotechnoques and the deeply resonant pedal-point and ostinato of Patitucci’s bass. Mugam-jazz-harmolodia was born at the slender hands of the soulful Azeri pianist.
It’s quite an amazing album so somewhat bizarre to discover it’s now been discontinued. I’ve tried everywhere including Ebay but couldn’t find a copy. This was particularly disappointing for me because I used to have a copy until some dude from the French Embassy in Yerevan took it and never returned. Ignoring my requests for it back, he instead buggered off to France with it when his stint at the Embassy was over. Thankfully, as I had Aziza sign the cover along with her other albums when I saw her perform at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London some time back, I made sure he only had the disc and not the case.
Now, after many years of searching, I have the album again. It’s Caucasus jazz as it should be played, and really conjures up a strong feeling of the region, in my opinion. Her piano playing is magnificent and breathtaking, and it’s quite easy to get lost in the music even though it changes mood and pace constantly. It’s a masterpiece that can sit quite proudly in between the two other magnificent albums that preceded and followed it — her solo debut album, Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, and the totally vibrant and exhilarating Dance of Fire.
To be honest, I’m not so keen on her later albums, but these first three albums are truly amazing and worth having in your collection — if you like jazz or world music, that is.
Incidentally, for those of you that don’t know, Aziza is the daughter of Vagif Mustafa Zadeh, a legend jazz musician, composer and pioneer during the Soviet era who is still revered and respected by many jazz musicians in Armenia today. It’s probably now wonder that they also equally respect the work of his daughter and that her albums, with the exception of Always of course, are widely available at CD shops in Yerevan. Anyway, an Azeri blog also has the album available for listening to online as well.
Enjoy, but I’ll leave you with this footage of “Moment” (not “Women” as the video caption says) from her first and totally brilliant self-titled album being performed live somewhere in Europe. It’s quite insane. 
And something a little more mellow:
Interestingly, Aziza Mustafa Zadeh returned to Azerbaijan last month to take part in the Baku International Jazz Festival, something which was obviously considered important enough an event for the UNDP office there to mention it in their Development Bulletin.
Comment by Onnik — July 30, 2007 @ 3:31 am