Enver İzmaylov

Enver İzmaylov (Энвер Измайлов, Енвер Ізмайлов) (b. 1955 in Fergana, Uzbekistan) is a prominent Crimean Tatar folk and jazz musician (guitarist) resident of Ukraine. Born into a family previously deported from Crimea (Ukraine), İzmaylov returned in 1989.

Enver İzmaylov graduated from the Fergana music school in 1973 majoring on bassoon, and had started playing the guitar at age 15 (about 1970).

İzmaylov does not pluck the strings, but uses jazz tapping - an original technique of electric guitar playing when a musician plays with both hands on the neck by tapping on the strings with his finger-tips, as if it were a keyboard. He developed this technique to a climax simultaneously with, but not knowing of Stanley Jordan. Emmett Chapman developed a similar technique in the late 1960s.

İzmaylov's music is an original blend of mainstream jazz, Crimean Tatar, Turkish, Uzbek and Balkan folk music and classical music. Many of his pieces are composed in time signatures which are not standard in classical music, but are common in Balkan music and Central Asian music, such as 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, 11/8, 11/16 and 13/16.

İzmaylov has toured extensively in Russia, Ukraine and Europe and has participated in several cross-cultural projects in Eastern Europe. He was the first-prize winner of the First European International Guitarist Competition. Enver İzmaylov was voted for the Musician Of The Year 1995 by the Ukrainian music critics.

İzmaylov is also a competent throatsinger.

Enver's daughter Leniye İzmaylova is a popular singer among Crimean Tatars. She combines jazz, folk and pop music in her repertoire.

Discography

 * At A Fergana Bazzar, 1991, solo, live in Münster
 * The Eastern Legend, 1991, solo (RDM)
 * Kara Deniz/Black Sea with Burhan Öçal, 1992 (Unit Records)
 * Dancing Over The Moon with Geoff Warren, 1995
 * Yarimada/Peninsula, 1997 (RDM)
 * Minaret, Crimea Art Trio, 1998 (Symphocarre)
 * Eastern Legend, 2000 (Boheme)
 * With My Best Wishes!, 2004
 * Around the Black Sea, 2007