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Amina Figarova
Amina Figarova is without doubt one of the most productive jazz composers and talented jazz piano players from Europe. Now living in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Amina started playing piano and composing at a very early age. She studied as a classical concert pianist at the Baku Conservatory, jazz performance at the Rotterdam Conservatory and the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Amina performs with her own group at many jazz festivals and jazz clubs around the world, such as The North Sea Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz Festival, Capetown International Jazzfestival, Salvador Bahia Jazz Festival, Brasil, JakArt Festival, Indonesia, Yoshi's in Oakland, CA, Blue Note jazz club New York, and has given concerts in Israel, Europe, United Arabs Emirates, Mexico, USA, Azerbaijan, and many others. Recorded her first CD "Attraction" in 1994, a start of a wonderful career as pianist and composer, a CD with all compositions and arrangements of Amina, almost all the music on her CDs are composed by herself.
In 1998 she was invited to study at the Thelonious Monk Jazz Colony in Aspen, Colorado. A summer camp for the most talented young musicians. That same year she released her second album "Another Me", a mix of funk, fusion and R&B, influenced by jazz, reggae and latin music, again with all original compositions. In March 2000 she was invited as artist in residence for the Dmitri Matheny Home Season in the San Fransisco Bay Area. That is how the Amina Figarova International Band got started, now released two live recorded CDs. Also the collaboration with Kim Prevost and Bill Solley from New Orleans resulted in the recording "On Canal Street". Amina is touring and performing often with Denise Jannah.
Amina performed with the American All Stars Band with James Moody, Nathan Davis, Claudio Roditi, Larry Corryell, and Wynard Harper. "Come escape with me" (Munich Records, MRCD 465) showcases Amina's exceptional compositional and arranging skills. Her music (all of the CD's 12 tunes are written by her) is tasteful and refined, showcasing her talents as well as those of her band - a three-piece horn section and one amazing flute player. This new release is the most logical follow-up of her septet CD releases "Firewind" and "Night Train", celebrating the fifth anniversary of her septet. At the moment Amina tours with two different groups.
Her septet features other wonderful musicians from The Netherlands and Belgium, and her Amina Figarova International Quintet.
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Enrico Granafei: It's Hard to Say Goodbye
by Nicholas F. Mondello
With It's Hard to Say Goodbye, multi-talented Italian guitarist and harmonica player, Enrico Granafei and a group of standouts offer eleven Latin-flavored jazz selections. The effort, recorded over an extended period, also features two artists who have unfortunately passed--trumpeter Claudio Roditi and pianist, Mike Longo. Granafei has dedicated the album to them and to the memory of Granafei's mentor, Toots Thielemans. “Claudinho," a Granafei original samba, opens the session. Upbeat in tempo, Granafei and Roditi make the ...
Continue ReadingAmina Figarova & Matsiko World Orphan Choir: Suite For Africa
by Dan McClenaghan
Happenstance played a hand in two of pianist Amina Figarova's finest recordings. The first time around it was September Suite (Munich Records, 2005). Though based in the Netherlands at the time, Figarova was staying in New York City when the planes flew into the World Trade Center buildings on September 11th, 2001. The music for the album was her reaction to the event, to the grief and mourning it caused. Heading a superb sextet, she created a beautiful ode to ...
Continue ReadingAmina Figarova: Joy
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Amina Figarova released an album in 2005 that was about as far away from the theme of “joy" as could be. September Suite (Munich Records) explored the deadly events of September 11, 2001 (she was in New York at the time; she experienced it). It is an album that she called: “An Ode to Mourning striving to articulate the various stages of grief in musical terms." In 2022 Figarova turns 180 degrees to embrace optimism and a ...
Continue ReadingAmina Figarova: Persistence
by Maurizio Zerbo
Il pregio della varietà sostanzia la cifra artistica della pianista Amina Figarova, non circoscritta entro i soli confini del jazz. Dopo il progetto orchestrale del penultimo CD, la musicista azera residente a New York apre la finestra del suo etereo pensiero compositivo verso i territori della fusion, del funk, del rap. Da queste premesse discende un disco ibrido nella sua eccellente realizzazione, che testimonia la continua evoluzione del jazz e la nobiltà dei suoi migliori protagonisti. A far da tessuto ...
Continue ReadingAmina Figarova: Persistence
by Edward Blanco
Veteran jazz pianist Amina Figarova embarks on a bold new step with her genre-bending Persistence, creating a new sound for the pianist with music that produces an electric-influenced groove mixing funk-jazz, jazz fusion, hip-hop, classical and R&B rhythms found on this new exploratory album. After two decades leading an acoustic sextet, her new quintet ensemble, Edition 113 (named after the block where she and her and husband, flautist Bart Platteau make their home) was assembled specifically to perform the eclectic ...
Continue ReadingAmina Figarova: Road To The Sun
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Amina Figarova, born in Baku, Azerbaijin, experienced one of the United States' darkest days--the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack--up close, from the vantage point of a friend's apartment in Brooklyn. The experience resulted in the creation of perhaps the most poignant and heartfelt artistic representations of the event, Figarova's sextet recording September Suite (Munich Records, 2005), an “Ode To Mourning" of sorts for America. Figarova has stayed busy since then, releasing Above The Clouds (Munich Music, 2008), Twelve (In ...
Continue ReadingAmina Figarova: Blue Whisper
by Dave Wayne
Pianist and composer Amina Figarova is truly a citizen of the world. Born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan, she decamped to the Netherlands in the 1980s to study at the Rotterdam Conservatory, and then to Boston in 1989 to continue her studies at Berklee. Blue Whisper is her 12th recording as a leader, but her first to feature a band comprised primarily of US-based musicians. Aside from Bart Platteau (also Figarova's husband), the only holdovers from her excellent Netherlands-based band, ...
Continue ReadingJazz This Week: Jim Pugh, Jeremy Haynes, Amina Figarova, Jazz St. Louis Gala, Jeff Coffin, Chris Botti, Dan Thomas, and More
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
There's jazz and creative music happening early and often throughout this week in St. Louis, and so to help make sure that you don't miss anything, here's a special early edition of the weekly highlights post: Tonight, trombonist Jim Pugh is in town for a free concert at at Maryville University presented by the St. Louis Low Brass Collective. Pugh is best known for his work with Woody Herman and Chick Corea, but also has been a top studio trombonist ...
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STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Amina Figarova's Jazz Journey
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
St. Louis jazz fans this year already have been able to hear the local debuts of several noteworthy musicians, and there's another one coming next week who's made a long journey, both physically and culturally, to get to where she is now. We're speaking of pianist and composer Amina Figarova, who will be in St. Louis with her sextet to perform a free concert this coming Thursday, February 21 for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Figarova, 46, ...
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MCG Jazz To Stream A Concert Live Today!
Source:
Renée J. Govanucci
MCG Jazz Live Stream and Archive of Amina Figarova Sextet and Tineke Postma Quartet Concerts: May 18 through July 17 Don’t miss the first ever high definition, live stream of an MCG Jazz concert featuring the Amina Figarova Sextet and Tineke Postma Quartet. Friday, May 18 beginning at 8 pm. Visit mcgjazz.org and follow the prompt to sign in for our live stream or visit anytime from May 18-July 17, to watch the concert at your convenience. Part of the ...
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Internationally Renowned Pianist/Composer Amina Figarova Celebrates New CD Twelve With 12-City U.S. Tour, May 3-18
Source:
Braithwaite & Katz Communications
Twelve to be released May 1 on German In + Out label Tour Dates May 3-18 in New Orleans, Detroit, Cleveland Heights, NYC, Albuquerque, NM; Fresno, Bakersfield, Half Moon Bay, CA; Seattle, WA; Missoula, MT; Portland, OR; Pittsburgh, PA “A skilled and imaginative composer…Born in Azerbaijan and based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Figarova brings a remarkably broad range of influences to her works, which may help explain their appeal. You can hear the influence of her classical training in the care ...
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Amina Figarova - Sketches (2010)
Source:
Something Else!
By Pico It used to be, all good jazz originated out of New Orleans, then Chicago, then New York. And a lot of it still does these days. Eventually, Western Europe became the place of origin for a lot of great jazz for several generations, now, and even Eastern Europe is the home of some mighty good jazz performers, a few of whom have been profiled here. But nowadays, you can find good jazz from the Caucasus region where Europe ...
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Internationally Renowned Jazz Pianist/Composer Amina Figarova Tours America
Source:
Braithwaite & Katz Communications
MARCH 4 - 20 with stops in Cleveland and Cincinnati, OH; Winston-Salem & Ashville, NC; Richmond, VA; NYC; Chicago, New Orleans and Victoria, B.C.
Figarova to Return in August for Performance at the Main Stage of the Newport Jazz Festival “...Above the Clouds confirms that Figarova is among the most important composers to come into jazz in the new millennium..." -- Thomas Conrad, JazzTimes November 2008 “...Amina Figarova boasts a graceful and erudite piano style, but ...read more
Pianist/Composer Amina Figarova Tours to Minneapolis, Oshkosh, Chicago, NYC and Washington, DC, September 3 – 8, 2009
Source:
Braithwaite & Katz Communications
"...Amina Figarova boasts a graceful and erudite piano style, but her second instrument is her band….A first rate jazz pianist, Amina Figarova - with September Suite, Come Escape With Me and now the excellent Above the Clouds--is staking out her ground as a top level composer-arranger...” --Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz “…Above the Clouds confirms that Figarova is among the most important composers to come into jazz in the new millennium..." --Thomas Conrad, JazzTimes November 2008 Fresh on the heels ...
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Pianist Amina Figarova Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
Born in Azerbaijan, but located now in the Netherlands, and in demand at festivals and clubs around the globe, pianist Amina Figarova is a case study in the internationalization of jazz. A prodigious talent from early childhood, Figarova was drawn to jazz as a young player, even as she established herself as a formidable professional classical performer.
While studying composition by invitation in Rotterdam, she switched to a jazz course, and within a year was at the Berklee School in ...
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Amina Figarova at the Erie Art Museum
Source:
All About Jazz
Direct from Amsterdam, celebrated Jazz pianist Amina Figarova and her ensemble will be holding a public concert at the Erie Art Museum on Thursday June 12, 2008 at 8 p.m. The performance will be held in the Erie Art Museum Annex, 423 State Street. Admission is free; a $10 donation is suggested. This performance is sponsored by Connoisseur Media. Amina Figarova is a remarkable composer and pianist. Classically trained in her native Azerbaijan, she plunged into jazz as a very ...
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"... She is a major artist..." by Jack Massarik for the London Evening Standard
"... one that showcases one of jazz’ very best working bands..." by George Kanzler for The New York City Jazz record
"...With this rewarding date, Amina Figarova makes her case as an important composer of her generation..." By Ken Dryden for www.allmusic.com
"... This is a band that built its reputation playing original repertoire, each musician a powerful soloist in his or her own right; yet it is their signature interplay that moves the Amina Figarova Sextet above and beyond the vast majority of large chamber ensembles in modern jazz and places the pianist among the top echelon of composer/ bandleaders...." by Andrea Canter for www.jazzpolice.com
Tom Lemczyk
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From: SketchesBy Amina Figarova
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Amina Figarova
Location: New York City
Instrument: Piano
Born: December 2, 1966
