Amina Figarova is without doubt one of the most productive jazz composers and talented jazz piano players from Europe. Amina started playing piano and composing at a very early age. She studied as a classical concert pianist at the Baku Conservatory, jazz performance at the Rotterdam Conservatory and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Amina made her recording debut with Attraction in 1994, and was accepted into the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Colony in Aspen, Colorado in 1998.

With her husband multi-flutist Bart Platteau central to the three horn frontline Ms. Figarova arranges for her sextet, she plays compelling, artful and heartfelt changes on the urbane, bluesy lyricism originally developed by the likes of Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, et al. Though the recipient of rigorous Russian musical education in the classics, Amina has come to identify her sound with these master mainstream-progressives of recent jazz decades after having explored aspects of the avant garde (in September Suite, her shocked and sad response to terrorists attacks on American soil) and multi-keyboard fusion-oriented funk (on Another Me).

On the CD Above the Clouds (Munich Records) one of the most cosmopolitan and accomplished artists in jazz today proves that the music is a natural not a national language. Amina Figarova, the globe-trotting Azerbaijan-born, Rotterdam-based composer-pianist-bandleader with more than a dozen recordings to her credit has created a new album of original songs that refresh the classic post-bop idiom established by labels such as Blue Note, Prestige and Impulse! during the 1950s and 1960s. Far from derivative or concept-conscious, though, Above the Clouds unfolds as a personal, vividly colored, confidently-propelled contemporary soundtrack, satisfying in and of itself.

Amina is stylistically wide-ranging, unwilling to be pinned down, but most of her compositions on Above the Clouds continue in the direction she set forth on Come Escape With Me, a 2005 release which reached top 10 status on the Jazzweek radio airplay charts (two tracks preview her next project, a suite for nonet). Throughout the entire album Amina's measured, graceful, touching pianism and cooly-controlled ensemble writing demonstrate commitment and ease with a jazz idiom.

Amina Figarova performs with her own group at many jazz festivals and jazz clubs around the world: Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, France, UK, Denmark, Israel, Bahrain, United Arabs Emirates, Mexico, USA, Canada, Brasil, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, South Africa, Tunisia, Dutch Antilles, Croatia, Italy, etc…

(Partly form the press release by Howard Mandel c 2008)

International performances:

september 1997: Dubrovnik Jazz Festival, Croatië; august 1998: Aspen Jazz Festival, Colorado, USA; december 1999: Bahia World Jazz Festival, Salvador Brazilië; januari 2000: jazzclub performances New Orleans, USA; maart 2000: California Tour with Dmitri Matheny. USA; april-mei 2000: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; juli 2000: North Sea Jazz Festival The Hague, NL; april 2001: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; mei 2001: Tour of the Western States of the USA; juni 2001: Curacao, Nederlandse Antillen; juni 2001: JakArt 2001 Jazzzfestival, Indonesia; september 2001: Blue Note, New York with Denise Jannah; maart 2002: Jazzfestival Nimes, France with Denise Jannah; april 2002: Caspian Jazz and Blues festival, Azerbaidjan; april 2002: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; juni 2002: West Coast Tour USA; february 2003: California, USA; april 2003: Basel, Swiss; may 2003: Tuscany, Italy; Juin 2003, Florida, USA; June 2003, Florida, USA; April 2004 : Dubai, UAE; April-May 2004: Mexico and California, USA; June 2004: New Mexico and California; January 2005: California, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida; March 2005: Capetown International JazzFestival; April 2005: Israel Tour with Denise Jannah; April 2005: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.; December 2005: Jazzstandard New York; January 2006: MIDEM, Cannes, France; March 2006:Spring of Culture Festival, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain; April 2006: Tunis, Tunesia; May 2006: USA tour in Chicago, Ann Arbor, Memphis and New Orleans; June 2006: EU-Jazzfestival Athens, Greece; February 2007: USA-Canada tour: Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver; April 2007: Tunis Jazz a Carthage Festival, Tunisia; May 2007: USA tour: Philadelphia, Washington, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago and New York; May 2007: London; April-May 2008: Copenhagen, Denmark; Berlin, Germany; USA-Canada tour: Cleveland, Ann Harbor, St Louis, New Orleans, Edmonton, Whitehorse, Berkeley CA, Carmel CA; June 2008: Vienna Austria, Munchen Germany, USA tour: Erie PA, Rochester NY, Baltimore MD, New York NY, Philadelphia PA, Cincinnati OH, Chicago IL, Minneapolis MN; July 2008: Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands CD release tour; August 2008: Croatia tour, Brecon Jazzfestival, Wales UK; South Africa Tour. 2009: February West Coast USA tour; Dubai Jazzfestival; March: Dublin, Ireland; June: Canada Festival tour; July: Ukraine; August: Serbia; September: USA tour: Chicago,Minneapolis, Washington DC, New York; Beaune Jazzfestivcal France.

CD-DVD Discography: