Wilton Library’s Hot & Cool concert features returning jazz pianist Feb. 4

Compositions from “Blue Whisper” are just some of the original music that will be performed by The Amina Figarova Sextet when it performs in a Hot & Cool: Jazz at the Brubeck Room concert on Saturday, Feb. 4, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The concert is the sextet’s second appearance on the Brubeck stage, having enthralled a Wilton audience first in 2013. Composer and pianist Amina Figarova has toured extensively concentrating on an all-original repertoire for more than 20 years. The Amina Figarova Sextet has triumphed at the main stage of the Newport Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It also has performed in Chicago, Detroit, Paris, Amsterdam, and New York. Her latest album, the aforementioned “Blue Whisper,” is “a beautiful musical journey of discovery, admiration, sensitivity and reflection.” In addition to Amina on piano in the Brubeck Room, the sextet members include Marc Mommaas on tenor sax, Alex Pope Norris on trumpet, her husband Bart Platteau on flutes, Yasushi Nakamura on bass, and Darrell Green on drums.

Amina Figarova was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and as a gifted child studied to be a classical concert pianist. In the late 1980s she entered Rotterdam Conservatory to pursue jazz, coming to the United States in 1989 to complete her formal education at Boston's Berklee College of Music, where she met fellow-student Platteau. In 1998, they were invited to the Thelonious Monk Institute's summer jazz colony in Aspen, and after more than a decade of thriving with bookings in major U.S. jazz clubs, concert halls and festivals, the couple gained legal immigrant status in 2014. They currently live in Manhattan and tour constantly.

The Hot & Cool concerts are funded by the William and Karen Tell Foundation with special thanks to Ed and Catherine Romer and Chris and Tish Brubeck. An informal reception follows the concert where CDs will be available for purchase. There is a suggested donation of $10 per person for the concert. Advance registration is strongly suggested for this popular concert series. Pre-registrants should arrive by 7:20 p.m. to be guaranteed seating; wait-listed and walk-in registrants will be admitted after 7:20 p.m. if space is available. Wilton Library is located at 137 Old Ridgefield Road in the heart of Wilton Center. For information, directions and registration, visit www.wiltonlibrary.org or call 203-762-6334.

Photo credit: Emmanuel Mohlamme