Artur Akhmetov is a young talented jazz guitar player from Russia, now living and playing in Europe and the US. He was born on the 2nd of December 1985 in UFA, a city in the East of Russia. His mother, who is a pianist, started to teach him classical piano when he reached the age of six. Despite of many intensive classical years, it was already soon that the Jazz music caught his ear. The only LP in that “Sovjet house” (of Duke Ellington) seemed to have some magical effect on him. He listened it over and over again, which made his mother realize that her son might actually be cut out for playing Jazz music. Although Artur eventually made the switch to Jazz and Jazz guitar, his engagement with (Russian) classical music is still influencing in his playing today. At the age of 14 Artur entered the Jazz department at the Music College in Ufa and at the age of 16 he got accepted at the Conservatory in Moscow (Jazz Department). His musical career started off very quickly from here. During this time in Moscow, Artur met a lot of musicians and managed to engage in different Jazz projects. At the same time he was busy with a bunch of Pop projects and Pop studio recordings at companies such as 'Infinity' and 'Soyuz'. He won 2 years in a row the first price for best Jazz guitar player in the national Jazz competition in Moscow and was, in 2007, awarded with a President Grant, for supporting Young Talents.This Grant provided him the opportunity to study abroad. In the same year Artur was accepted at the Conservatory in Amsterdam and moved to Amsterdam soon hereafter. Here he started to study with great guitar players such as Jesse van Ruller, Maarten van den Grinten and Martijn van Iterson and took private lessons with Kurt Rosenwinkel and Jonathan Kreisberg. In Fall 2011 Artur completed an exchange program at Temple University in Philadelphia (USA). Here he studied guitar and composition with a broad range of teachers (e.g. Dick Oatts, Terrel Stafford, Bruce Barth, John Swana and Craig Ebner). Back in Amsterdam, he continued to work with his band on new material and completed his bachelor program. In September 2012, he was enrolled in the master program ‘New York comes to Groningen’ at the Prins Claus Conservatory (Hanze University) where he studied with David Berkman, Freddy Bryant, Gene Jackson, Robin Eubanks, Alex Sipiagin, Paul Bollenback, Adam Nussbaum, Don Braden and many more. This program also enabled him to live and study in New York. Here he studied privately with Mike Moreno, Nir Felder, Boris Kozlov and Obed Calvaire. He also recorded his album which is coming up soon: “Somewhere on the other side of the world” featuring David Berkman, Boris Kozlov, Gianni Gagliardi, Cory Cox and Adrian Moring.
1. Have a Passion (Dedicated to McCoy Tyner)
2. Train to Swana
3. Iceberg
4. Sleep to Dream
5. Bass Intro
6. Somewhere on the Other Side of the World
7. C.S
8. The Hive
David Berkman - Piano
Boris Kozlov - Bass
Gianni Gagliardi - Sax
Cory Cox - Drums
