Rain Sultanov

Rain Aladdin oglu Sultanov (born April 29, 1965) is an Azerbaijani jazz saxophonist and Honorary Artist of Azerbaijan.

Rain Sultanov was born on April 29, 1965 in Baku. His brothers Rauf and Ramin are also musicians. At the age of 14, Rain entered a clarinet class of a musical school according to advice of his brothers. Rain’s interest in jazz music and especially in the creativity of “Weather Report” band and Miles Davis is connected to this period. At the age of 16, Rain mastered the saxophone. He played at military orchestra while being in army for four years. Continuing his musical education at Baku Musical School named after A.Zeynalli, Rain Sultanov took the first place at the Republican Contest among specialized schools, in 1985. He performed compositions of Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Weber and others. At that time Rain had already begun to perform jazz compositions too, and was invited to work in “Ashiqlar” band of Polad Bülbüloğlu, which also experimented with jazz music.

In 1988, Rain worked at State Song Theatre on Rashid Behbudov’s invitation and performed compositions of Charlie Parker and Michael Brecker. He entered Azerbaijan State Conservatoire in the same year. In 1989, Rain was invited to Azerbaijani State Orchestra “Gaya”. Musical manager of the orchestra was Tofig Shabanov, by invitation of whose Rain worked as a soloist and showed himself not only as a good improvisator but also as a talented music arranger. In 1992, Rain was invited to work as a soloist at Estrada-Symphonic Orchestra of Azerbaijan State Broadcasting Union under the management of Faig Sujeddinov. During that period, Rain performed at jazz programs and solo concerts. In 1992-94’s, Rain played at different jazz clubs and concert halls of Turkey and Moscow. In 1995, Rain composed his first compositions called “Jokers and dance” and “Day off”.

In 1996-97’s, Rain became a member of jazz festivals in Germany. He composed such compositions as “Last moment”, “Crazy world” and others while being in Germany and returning to the motherland he decided to create a group called “Syndicate”. Rain’s elder brother Rauf Sultanov (bass guitar), Eldar Rzaguluzade (piano), Hamdulla Gafari (guitar) and Vagif Aliyev (percussion instruments) were members of this group. The first solo concerts called “Last moment” of “Syndicate” group were held from July 14 to July 15, 1997. “Syndicate” achieved a great success with its original compositions among its listeners in a short space of time. In 1997-98, Rain Sultanov performed “standards” compositions of John Coltrane and Miles Davis in most jazz clubs of Baku and Germany. In 1998, “Syndicate” group received an invitation to international jazz festival in Novosibirsk and performed at jam sessions with such famous jazzmen as Curtis Fuller (trombone), Adam Rogers (guitar), Donny McCaslin (saxophone) and others. In January, 1999 the group “Syndicate”, which has already become popular, released its first compact disk called “Last moment”. Not long after, Rain decided to show his composer works and mastery of performance in other direction and released a solo album called “Mugham – Meqam”. The album had a great success in the motherland and also in foreign countries, too. Compositions from this album were entered the top ten list on radio in Baku and they became the favourite one for listeners of “Russkoe Radio” in Israel.

In 2008, Rain Sultanov finished works on album called “Tale Of My Land”, upon which he worked for two years. Rain called this project with album-book, because it consists of forty pages with photos. The album consists of two discs and intended for three hours. The first disc is musical, but in the second disc has a film lasting 17 minutes, which was shot by Azerbaijani and Turkish film directors. There is an interview with Rain Sultanov in the first part of the album, but in the second part sounds music of the jazzman against the background of photos located in the disc. These are the photos of children, old men and especially refugees. The third part is mini-clip, the main leitmotif of which are war and tragedies which the war brings with.