Music from Azerbaijan comes in many forms, but one of the genres not well-covered on disc outside of the country is its rich tradition of love songs. Caucaso Records, a Baku-based record label, has begun the process to fix this issue.
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We have here a slab of R&B and modern soul courtesy of Akshin Alizadeh, the wunderkind originally from Azerbaijan who records for Cold Busted Records out of Oregon. It’s strangely radio-friendly, but the funk is pleasant on this single
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Now and again I stumble onto something pleasant, even if there is no CD or download available (yet) of the artist’s music. Nigar Marjanova (see her Youtube channel here) is a jazz singer out of Baku, Azerbaijan, a country known for producing some rather fine musicians (think of Vagif Mustafazade and his daughter, Aziza). I like that her voice is incredibly relaxing, a pleasure to hear. If she has the opportunity to produce a proper album in the future, we’ll be happy to share it.
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Rüstəm Quliyev’s story is one of tragedy. First, he was born in the Nagorno-Karabach area of Azerbaijan (contested by Armenia as recently as last year, where a small war was fought over the territory). The fighting was so bad in Quliyev’s youth that he had to flee. He would move to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where his music blossomed into a mix of local Azeri music, psych, progressive rock, and whatever else his rapacious appetite for music all over the world could be fit into each composition. His releases could be bought as far afield as Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,…