Jazz Articles about Rain Sultanov

About Rain Sultanov

Multiple Reviews

Rain Sultanov: Two From The Baku Jazz Festival Vaults

by Ian Patterson
December 18, 2025

Since the 1990s Azerbaijani saxophonist Rain Sultanov has forged an increasingly high-profile international career, collaborating with musicians of the caliber of Bobo Stenson, Enzo Favata, James Cammack, Tord Gustavsen, Simin Tander, Arild Anderson and Anja Lechner, to name but a handful. His own albums, such asVoice of Karabakh (Ozella, 2015), which features the outstanding singer Alim Qasimov, Inspired by Nature (Ozella, 2017) and Cycle (Ozella, 2018)--for soprano saxophone and church organ--are the works of a sensitive composer and ...

Live Review

Baku Jazz Festival 2025: Part 1

by Ian Patterson
November 11, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2 Baku Jazz Festival 2025 Various venues 20th Edition Baku, Azerbaijan October 24-31, 2025 For any jazz festival to clock up 20 years is a notable achievement. But in Azerbaijan, where jazz is often met with indifference, this landmark is of particular merit. The birth, growth and survival of Baku Jazz Festival is down to the vision, faith and tireless efforts of its founder and Artistic Director, ...

Book Review

Global Jazz: A Research And Information Guide

by Ian Patterson
January 2, 2024

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.

Interview

Rain Sultanov: Putting Baku On The Jazz Map

by Ian Patterson
November 20, 2018

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 ...

Album Review

Rain Sultanov & Isfar Sarabski: Cycle

by Ian Patterson
June 17, 2018

The church organ has been a bit player in jazz history, impacting about as much as an Alfred Hitchcock cameo--blink 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 ...

Album Review

Rain Sultanov: Inspired by Nature

Read "Inspired by Nature" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
July 14, 2017

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 ...