RAIN
SULTANOV
NEW RELEASE COMING
IN JANUARY 2026
ABOUT
THE MUSIC PLAYED WITH A DEEP FEELING. I ENJOYED IT VERY MUCH.
STAY AS YOU ARE. YOU ARE GREAT MUSICIAN MY FRIEND.
BEST WISHES AND GREATINGS
- JOE ZAWINUL -
"A MUSIC THAT SOUNDS CLEAR, LONGING AND IMAGINATIVE."
- JAZZTHING -
I AM VERY HAPPY THAT WE ARE PLANNING A RELEASE OF AN ARTIST FROM YOUR COUNTRY THAT I LIKE VERY MUCH, HIS MUSIC HAS MUCH HEART AND SOUL:
RAIN SULTANOV IS A GREAT SAXOPHONE PLAYER AND COMPOSER, WITH HIS MUSIC HE HAS A LOT TO SAY.
- DAGOBERT BÖHM - OZELLA MUSIC
TODAY I LISTENED AGAIN TO “SEVEN SOUNDS” (INSPIRED BY NATURE), WHICH REALLY REMINDS ME TO JAN GARBAREK’S OFFERINGS IN THE OLD DAYS, “SART” FOR INSTANCE – INCLUDING THE SOUND CONCEPTION WE DEVELOPED AT THAT TIME TOGETHER.
THE QUALITY OF MUSICIANSHIP, INTERACTION AND PARLANDO IS AT TIMES ON A GOOD AND INSPIRED LEVEL.
- MANFRED EICHER - ECM
PRESS MENTIONS
Rain Sultanov mans jazz's Azerbaijan outpost, running the Baku Jazz Festival and writing a history of the music in the former Soviet republic. This tribute to influences including Coltrane, Miles and Kenny Wheeler doesn't mimic them. Instead, his tone most resembles another saxophonist who distilled Coltrane's early heat into cool restraint, Jan Garbarek.
„Influence“ ist eine Geisterbeschwörung der besonderen Art. Die sieben Stücke hat der aserbaidschanische Sopransaxofonist Rain Sultanov sieben längst verstorbenen Jazzmusikern gewidmet, die ihn bei seiner Entwicklung vorangebracht haben – von John Coltrane bis Miles Davis, von Joe Zawinul bis Kenny Wheeler.
The church organ has been a bit player in jazz history, impacting about as much as an Alfred Hitchcock cameo—blink and you'd miss it. Jan Garbarek and Kjell Johnsen's meditative duo album Aftenland (ECM, 2000) and a trio of gothic jazz recordings by Asaf Sirkis and the Inner Noise spring to mind, but after that you'd really have to dig. Cycle sees Azerbaijan's leading jazz musicians, soprano saxophonist Rain Sultanov and pianist/organist Isfar Sarabski embrace the solemnity of church organ in intimate dialogues that, without a doubt, owe a debt to Garbarek and Johnsen's aforementioned collaboration.