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Rain Sultanov
Rain Sultanov was born on April 29, 1965 in Baku, Azerbaijan. After graduating from a music school as a distance student, specializing in clarinet and surprising his teachers with hard work and natural talent, Rain demonstrated his extraordinary ability for the first time. In 1985, Rain Sultanov was awarded at the Republican clarinetists contest.
In 1988, having received an invitation from the master of Azerbaijani vocal arts Rashid Behbudov, he began working at the Azerbaijan Song Theatre. After Behbudov's in 1990 Rain becomes jazz soloist of the ‘Qaya' State Jazz Orchestra. After this period of life can be called Rain Sultanov's emerging professional jazz career.
In 1997 he founded the band Syndicate and released his first album ‘Last Moment’.
In 2003, Rain Sultanov published a work of many years, his book ‘Anthology of Jazz in Azerbaijan’. The book featured archival materials collected from all over the world, as well as facts and photographs of those who were somehow associated with jazz in Azerbaijan. The book also contains two Cd’s with the music of past years and the compositions of contemporary musicians. It became the first comprehensive reference material on jazz in Azerbaijan, showing the whole process of historical development of jazz in Baku.
Along with scientific research and analysis of the development of jazz, Sultanov did not limit himself in musical activity. A year later, Rain Sultanov became the art director and organizer of the festival, which he named the Baku Jazz Festival. Starting that year, the international festival in Baku has been held annually and is the largest jazz event in the country.
He also possesses his own unique style of performance and an everlasting series of new ideas, albums and projects. Beginning in the Soviet time and to this day, Rain Sultanov has been a participant of a large number of concerts and jazz festivals held worldwide.
Rain Sultanov – authoritative jazz musician and leading exponent of different forms of music, with his own style and a plethora of ideas and projects, drawn inexorably to the mysterious world of the future.
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Global Jazz: A Research And Information Guide
by Ian Patterson
Global Jazz: A Research And Information Guide Clarence Bernard Henry 394 Pages ISBN: 9780367724849 Routledge 2023 Jazz musicians often talk about jazz as a global language. For sure, this African American art form wasted no time in travelling beyond US borders, its world- wide dissemination accelerated by numerous factors. These included the advent of radio, the mass production of vinyl, and the vast global movements of American soldiers in two world wars.
read moreRain Sultanov: Putting Baku On The Jazz Map
by Ian Patterson
The Baku Jazz Festival has been a labor of love for its founder and Artistic Director, Rain Sultanov. And, like most love stories, there have been a few bumps along the road. Thirteen editions in, however, the Baku Jazz Festival is well established as one of the highpoints of Azerbaijan's annual cultural calendar. It mightn't draw the crowds or the sponsors of the Baku Formula 1 Grand Prix, but the Baku Jazz Festival is driven by something other than the ...
read moreRain Sultanov & Isfar Sarabski: Cycle
by Ian Patterson
The church organ has been a bit player in jazz history, impacting about as much as an Alfred Hitchcock cameoblink and you'd miss it. Jan Garbarek and Kjell Johnsen's meditative duo album Aftenland (ECM, 2000) and a trio of gothic jazz recordings by Asaf Sirkis and the Inner Noise spring to mind, but after that you'd really have to dig. Cycle sees Azerbaijan's leading jazz musicians, soprano saxophonist Rain Sultanov and pianist/organist Isfar Sarabski embrace the solemnity of church organ ...
read moreRain Sultanov: Inspired by Nature
by Ian Patterson
Azerbaijani saxophonist/composer Rain Sultanov has long drawn inspiration from his country's rich culture and stunning landscapes. On Inspired by Nature--Sultanov's eighth release as leader--the saxophonist toggles between lyrical balladry and passionate exposition as he takes Azerbaijan's nature as his muse. And it has been an epic venture. With a band of trusted musicians, Sultanov led an expedition around Azerbaijan, recording the natural sounds they encountered in the great mountains, by the Caspian Sea and on the flat plains. These recordings ...
read moreThe quality of musicianship, interaction and parlando is at times on a good and inspired level - Manfred Eicher, ECM Records
Rain Sultanov is a great saxophone player and composer, with his music he has a lot to say - Dagobert Bohm, Ozella Music
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson