Alim Qasimov Ensemble, Azerbaijan
Alim Qasimov is a prominent mugham singer named a "Living National Treasure" of Azerbaijan. According to the New York Times, Alim Qasimov is simply one of the greatest singers alive, his incredible vocal talent is recognized throughout the world.
Mugham – traditional vocal music of Azerbaijan based on ancient and modern Persian and other Middle-East lyrics and musical traditions – is included into UNESCO List of Intangible Heritage of Humanity . Mugham has a thousand years of musical tradition and is a highly complex art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in specific local modes accompanying an orally transmitted collection of melodies and melodic fragments that performers (called khanende) can draw on when improvising. Performance of mugham demands great professional skills of leading singer and his ensemble, for centuries these skills have been passing from mouth to mouth and every master while improvising added to the leading tune his experience and fantasy.
Qasimov's first remarkable international success occurred in 1988 when he won first prize at the International Festival and Symposium on Traditional Music in Samargand, Uzbekistan. Since then, he has been traveling worldwide to spread the art of Azerbaijani mugham.
In 1999, in recognition for his musical contributions to world peace, Qasimov was awarded the coveted International IMC-UNESCO Music Prize. Past winners of this prize include Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar, Olivier Messiaen and Daniel Barenboim. Qasimov's numerous awards also include the title of the People's Artist of Azerbaijan, the highest artistic rank in the country. In 2007, on the occasion of Qasimov’s 50th birthday, the President of Azerbaijan awarded him the Medal of Glory.
Alim Qasimov is also included in a book on the 500 Most Influential Muslims of The World (2009).
In 2012 Alim Qasimov with his performance opened the final Eurovision contest in Baku.
Alim and his daughter Fergana working together in "Alim Qasimov Ensemble " are the honored guests of the prestigious international world music festivals, they perform on the most famous concert venues of the world like the Barbican Centre (London), Carnegie Hall (New York) and many others.
Thanks to Alim Gasimov, mugham is nowadays widely known not only in Europe but also in the USA , Canada, Japan and other countries.
In an interview given to the British Guardian world famous Iceland singer Björk called Alim Qasimov her “favorite singer alive today". The legendary and late American musician Jeff Buckley in 1995 performed a duet with Alim Qasimov at the Festival of Sacred Music in France. This is how that meeting influenced 29-years-old Jeff: “The second time I saw my life pass before my eyes because of a human being was when I sang with Alim Qasimov. There was a classical music festival in Saint Florent, in France, in this little summer community. Very small venue, a six-hundred seater. Alim came on, and he's from Azerbaijan, and he's a master singer. Usually he has these two string players, who are brothers, but they couldn't come down, so he just came with his drum, and he sang, and it was so pure and effortless, and like...a huge hill of blooms. That's what the voice is for. It really is beyond anything I understand right now. It must be, because the breath doesn't flow through me like it does through those men. The voice is an eternal gust of wind that has never stopped, and never began…” This amazing and unthinkable collaboration that one can hardly imagine to happen left us the unique recorded version of “What Will You Say” and proves the deep influence of Alim Qasimov vocal art and music on different talented and popular musicians.
Alim Qasimov page on worldmusic.co.uk
