Enver İzmaylov

Enver İzmaylov was born in Fergana, Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union into a Crimean Tatar family previously deported from the Crimea in which he later returned to 1989.

Although he played guitar since he was fifteen, he studied bassoon at the Fergana Music School and graduated in 1973. For eight years he was a member of the band Sato with leader Leonid Atabekov and appeared on the albums Efsane (1986) and Pass the good around in (1987). He went back to school and got a degree from Tashkert University, then began a solo career.[1]

In 1995 he won the First European International Guitar Competition in Lausanne, Switzerland. During the same year, he was named Musician of the Year by Ukrainian music critics. He has toured in Ukraine, Russia, Estonia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and the U.S.[1]

In addition to recording solo albums, he has worked in duets with French keyboardist Xavier Garcia, Turkish drummer Burhan Ocal, and British saxophonist Geoff Warren. He founded the Art Trio of Crimea with Bari Rustem on percussion and Narket Ramazanov on clarinet, saxophone, and flute.[1] İzmaylov is also a throatsinger.

İzmaylov plays guitar by tapping the neck of the electric guitar with his fingertips as if it were a keyboard.[1][2][3] A similar technique is used by jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan.[1]

İzmaylov combines Crimean Tatar traditional music, Turkish, Uzbek, Balkan, classical music, and jazz. Many of his pieces are composed in time signatures such as 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, 11/8, 11/16, and 13/16 which are common in Crimean Tatar music. He has a triple-neck guitar that was custom made for him in Kyiv. He uses two nonstandard tunings: (low to high) E, B, E, E, B, E and C, C, G, C, C, C.[2]

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

• At a Ferghana Bazaar (Tutu, 1993)
• Art of the Duo with Geoff Warren (Tutu, 1996)
• The Eastern Legend (Boheme, 1998)
• Minaret (Boheme, 1999)

• Official web site
• Enver Izmailov: A Guitar From The East That Conquered The West (interview with Olga Potekhina)