Vagif Mustafa Zadeh was an Azeri jazz pianist and composer, famous for fusing jazz and traditional Azeri folk music known as mugam. (His daughter Aziza Mustafa Zadeh now follows in his footsteps as a pianist, composer and singer in the jazz-mugam style.) He was born March 16, 1940 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and died of a heart-attack after a concert on December 17, 1979 in Tashkent, shortly before the birthdays of his wife Eliza (December 17) and daughter (December 19).