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Amina Figarova's Post-Bop Jazz Star Is On The Rise

Globe-trotting composer and pianist Amina Figarova’s career path has taken her from classical piano studies in Baku, Azerbaijan to jazz at the Rotterdam Conservatory and Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Today, she tours almost constantly from her home base in Manhattan, still managing to record 13 albums since 1994. Somewhere along the way, Figarova discovered her compositional calling updating the knotty, post-bebop jazz popularized in the 1960s. With her touring sextet of Dutch players, Figarova played several concerts in Montana in 2018, and brought her exquisitely written explorations in jazz to “Musician's Spotlight.”

"... Figarova is always the one in the driver’s seat. She shines not only as a pianist on Blue Whisper, but also, as a composer and a producer—and the result is a consistently satisfying listen..."  (Alex Henderson,  Jazzinside)

(Broadcast: "Musician's Spotlight,"  9/6/18 and 12/27/18. Listen on the radio Thursdays, 7:30 p.m., or via podcast.)

John Floridis, the host and producer of Musician's Spotlight, has been with Montana Public Radio since 1997. He has interviewed over 200 musicians during that time. He is also an independent recording and performing artist in his own right and a former registered music therapist.
Beth Anne Austein has been spinning tunes on the air (The Folk Show, Dancing With Tradition, Freeforms), as well as recording, editing and mixing audio for Montana Public Radio and Montana PBS, since the Clinton Administration. She’s jockeyed faders or "fixed it in post” for The Plant Detective; Listeners Bookstall; Fieldnotes; Musicians Spotlight; The Write Question; Storycorps; Selected Shorts; Bill Raoul’s music series; orchestral and chamber concerts; lecture series; news interviews; and outside producers’ programs about topics ranging from philosophy to ticks.
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