Jabbar Garyaghdioglu (1861-1944), one of the prominent Azerbaijani musicians, was born in the “Pearl of Karabakh” – Shusha city, which was liberated on November 8, 2020, after 30 years of illegal Armenian occupation.

Garyaghdioglu was a singer, composer, musician and People’s Artist of Azerbaijan. He was one of the most prominent representatives of the art of singing. His voice was a strong dramatic-tenor type.

With this strong and majestic voice, he sang “Segah”, which is considered to be an extremely lyrical-minor spirit mugham, very sad and soft, but at the same time burning, giving the impression that the mugham is sung by a lyrical tenor, not a dramatic tenor.

Garyaghdioglu also played a great role in the emergence of opera in Azerbaijan.

He was the first actor on the country’s opera stage. His “Shahnaz”, “Qatar”, “Heyrati” are the most precious pearls of Azerbaijan’s musical treasure.

Jabbar Garyaghdioglu was one of the first organizers of the Azerbaijan State Conservatory.

On May 30, 1934, at the South Caucasus Art Olympiad in Tbilisi (Georgia), 74-year-old Jabbar Garyaghdioglu was awarded the first place for his outstanding performance and purity and received the First Order of Honor of the Transcaucasian Central Executive Committee.

On March 31, 1936, the 75th birth anniversary of Jabbar Garyaghdioglu was solemnly celebrated in the building of the Azerbaijan State Drama Theater.

Azerbaijani singers followed the tradition of performing mugham melodies with Persian poems until the beginning of the 20th century. It was prominent Azerbaijani singer Jabbar Garyaghdioglu who has put an end to this tradition and thus, performance of mughams in the Azerbaijani language has become a tradition in Azerbaijan, as well as in the entire South Caucasus, where Azerbaijani mughams are very popular.

Source: Azerbaijan State News Agency