Amina Figarova & Isfar Sarabski - double bill! Buta festival of Azerbaijani arts

Doors open 6pm, Amina Figarova 7.30pm, Isfar Sarabski 9.15pm, late late set 11pm-late

Amina Figarova - line up is: Amina Figarova - piano, Bart Platteau - flutes, Frederik Koster - trumpet, Johannes Mueller - tenorsax, Jeroen Vierdag - bass, Jason Brown –drums

"...Many of the strongest composer-arranger-orchestra leaders in jazz are women. Think Toshiko Akiyoshi, Carla Bley, Maria Schneider. Amina Figarova has a chance to join their company. All she needs is an orchestra. Figarova's compositions for small ensemble have been brilliant since at least 2005, when she released September Suite, still the deepest, most powerful jazz response to the events of 9/11..." - Thomas Conrad

‘Isfar Sarabski. Remember the name. No, it doesn’t flow … freely across the lips … but you’re going to be hearing it, nonetheless.’ So says veteran US jazz critic Don Hackman. He was speaking after Sarabski’s 2012 performance at Montreux, a festival where the young Baku-born jazz pianist is becoming an institution after winning there in 2009.

The pianist played twice during the first Buta festival in London, with a solo recital and a live soundtrack for the audio-visual ‘Oil & Jazz’ experimental project, and to much acclaim at the launch of the current festival at the Royal Albert Hall in November 2014. Sarabski’s influences include Azerbaijan’s own Vagif Mustafa Zadeh and the likes of Hancock and Keith Jarrett.