Good news! Eldar Djangirov’s “re-imagination” recieves 2007 Grammy Nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album! Eldar is a Kyrgyzstani guy who is only 20 years old, but he already achieved lots of success in the world of music.

According to the information from his website, Eldar’s path from Bishkek to the United States is the stuff of jazz legend. At nine he performed at a jazz festival Novosibirsk, in Siberia, and impressed the late Charles McWhorter, a New York based jazz patron. McWhorter obtained a scholarship for Eldar to attend summer camp at the prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, where he spent each summer between 1998 and 2001. In 1998, he and his parents moved to the U.S., beginning their new life together in Kansas City. Eldar says:

My father worked all around the ex-Soviet Union, and every time he went to Moscow or St. Petersberg, he found a way to get records—that’s how I first heard Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Bill Evans. In the old USSR, when he was 13 or 14, he heard jazz at night on Voice of America and BBC, and he fell in love with it for life. So from my earliest years, I was constantly hearing music; it was part of the atmosphere, and it became a part of me.

Eldar simultaneously continues to pursue his education in jazz harmony and improvisation with Kim Park and John Elliott and performs on the international festival, club, and concert circuits. He does not want to be just a piano player, he wants to be a true musician and artist.

I’m going to be playing jazz, or some form of it, for the rest of my life. It encompasses so much; there’s so much room for self-expression.

Photos are taken from www.eldarjazz.com