Customer Reviews

Seventh Truth

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While Jazziza sounds awkwardly misplaced (I mean, what Azerbaijan immigre to Germnay has to do with American soul jazz?), in this record she sound firmly at home. Here she succeeds in the difficult task to bring together diverse influences and traditions (jazz, azerbaijani traditional music, classic music).
Ay Dillber starts with jazzified mugam that morphs into western-style choral singing. In Fly with me she begins with smooth jazz sung in English, only to end with westernized mugam in Azeri.
That free play with styles, influences, traditions and languages is something that makes this record exciting and is prove of the high mastery of this musician.
Obvioulsy, this is not background music for dinner parties.

Obviously not the previous reviewer's cup of chai, and I will admit this is not my favourite album from this fabulous jazz-mugam composer/pianist/vocalist, but it is a superb album nonetheless.

WOW!

THIS WAS THE FIRST ALBUM I BOUGHT BY AZIZA.
IF YOU CAN PLAY PIANO LIKE THAT, SING LIKE THAT, WRITE LIKE THAT AND LET'S FACE IT; LOOK LIKE THAT,
YOU CAN'T GO WRONG.
THE TRACK DAHA (ALWAYS) IS HER BEST EVER, VOCALLY! BUY IT!

A mixture of romantic piano, mugham e jazz, with the great voice of Aziza!

from it's brazil '66 style intro of the first song (that seques into more of a bad jazzified irish jig than a middle eastern jam) to the cd's crashing end with an annoyingly loud seagull screaming above wave sounds, "seventh truth" demands your attention -you won't put it on for a dinner party like pink martini's "sympathique" or the early "moonlighters" records or django reinhardt's records. the best of zadeh's piano playing is when she echoes richie beirach's with deep rich held polytonal and slash chords that suggest something worth investing in (cut 5: F#). interlude 1 is meant to be the dazzler -combine a coked up piano solo broadway style overture with a fast chopin style and snatches of "windmills of your mind" and the playing of veronique sanson at her most ponderous -et voila.

"fly with me" starts with a rainstorm that gets faded out and is replaced by dinner theatre music with a standard "when in doubt add a crescendo". it's kind of nice to hear middle eastern improv on the piano from a would be film composer -some interesting ideas happen -but she doesn't hold the poignant chord bits and paint the picture, create space, a mood. there are times where she sounds like the average hotel bar hack combining a classical backround with eccentric smatterings of bill evans, debussy, and this case art lande, and beirach. also, her singing voice on "desparation" is really annoying -unless you enjoy broadway.

what would i recommend instead? the soundtrack to "the last temptation of christ", cds by ustad fateh ali khan, noor jehan, richie beirach's "hubris", or red lanta with jan garbarek and art lande (the last two on ecm records). i hear some fun finger exercises and some jam sessions on this cd but i don't hear a record unless you are related to the artist. i hear no atmosphere; it sounds like busy piano driven show music alternatively mixed with some effective solo bits on ay dilber mixed but most is jarring. if i want music that demands my attention, i'll listen to elliot carter's string quartets, hans werner henze, krzysztof penderecki, or iannis xenakis -not this. the cover photographer got as much mood from her face for the cover as the listener will get from the remarkably non-evocative, non-orchestral backround tracks behind a reverb drenched performer who needs better direction.

this is the fusion music from Azerbaijan