"He's one of the most astounding artists I've heard in a long, long time."  BENNY CARTER

Eldar Djangirov - piano, Armando Gola - bass, John Brown - drums

Eldar was labeled a prodigy with the release of his debut CD "Eldar" in 2005 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for his 2007 CD "Re-imagining." Billboard magazine has praised him for having "the fastest hands in jazz." Eldar has recorded 5 albums.  

Eldar was born on January 28, 1987 in Kyrgyzstan in the former Soviet Union. At the age of five, he began studying the piano with his mother Tatiana Djangirov (who was a music teacher in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). In 1996, a nine-year-old Eldar Djangirov performed at a jazz festival in Novosibirsk, Russia, where a visiting American jazz supporter named Charles McWhorter heard him for the first time. Feeling that the young pianist had a great deal of potential, McWhorter arranged for him to attend a summer camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. Djangirov ended up staying in the United States.

The improviser's first album, Eldar [D&D], was released in 2001, when he was 14; that disc was followed by the release of his sophomore disc, Handprints, in 2003. In 2004, Djangirov signed with Sony Classical and recorded his third album, which is also titled Eldar [Sony]; the album boasts John Patitucci on bass and Michael Brecker on tenor sax and was given a March 2005 release date. Two years later Eldar released Re-Imagination, which saw the pianist stretching out into solo acoustic piano and even electronic territory.

2008 is a banner year for Eldar including a 2008 Grammy Nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Eldar currently lives in New York City. "The fastest hands in jazz." BILLBOARD