About group

       Welcome to the MIRAIF jazz group site. We are together for seven years. It’s not too much but something to talk about our peculiar way of playing. We play different styles of music: from jazz & blues to funk & soul. Sometimes we mix these styles & we are happy with creation of somewhat new.
       Also, one of the most important points is you - our audience. The main thing for us is to make you feel free & easy during our concerts & to create a certain atmosphere that can unite spectators and performers.
       And now, Ladies & Gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you our musicians:
Oleg Shuntsov (Schultz) - drums, Denis Prushinsky (Demis) - saxophone and flute, Anton Davidjan - bass-guitar, Armen Merabov – keyboard. As to a vocal, we are lucky to play with a fantastic singer Mariam.
       Mariam was born on January 28, 1972. Though a lawyer, her father was highly musically gifted. Her mother worked as a journalist for different publishing companies. Since her childhood, Mariam was growing in the atmosphere of love for music. Her grandmother played the piano brilliantly and sang romances. At the age of five, Marian started learning at the Tchaikovsky Central Musical School (Yerevan), then she continued her education in Moscow at the Gnesins School piano classes. After getting acquaintance with the outstanding pedagogue, Irina Georgievna Turusova, Mariam was transferred to the Myaskovsky school and graduated from the school cum laude. Then Mariam continued her education at the Moscow Conservatory school, but did not graduate from it as her fate made its own changes. Once Mariam was invited by her friends to the cultic Blue Bird club, the only jazz club in Moscow at the time. It was for the first time that Mariam heard music which was new to her and fell in love with that style’s freedom, improvisation, admirable harmony and rhythm. The decision was taken instantaneously and definitely: at the same day, Mariam withdrew her documents from the school.
       Now it was necessary to think over something to have an opportunity to listen to that music every night, as the entrance fee to her sacred place was incredibly high for the young girl (as much as 5 rubles!). She came to the club director Vartan Tonoyan and he recruited her to work at the cloak-room (!). But the aim was reached, and every night Mariam listened to fantastic concerts in terms of the people who played. But how could it be another way, if such masters worked at the time at one place as Victor Dvoskin, Mikhail Alperin, Vyacheslav Nazarov, Igor Bril, Sergey Manukyan, Nikolay Levinovsky, and this list could be continued to infinity! How could she imagine that her creative fate would bring her together with many of them?!
       A year later, Mariam entered the entertainment and jazz department of the Gnesins school. She chose the vocal department, which was unexpected even for herself. In 1996, Mariam graduated from the school, and the examination board headed by Igor Bril, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Professor of the Rusian Gnesins Music Academy, was unanimous to give her the 5+ grade. But the main present for her was Igor Bril’s proposition to give a joint concert. Just see – not bad for fire baptism!
       Then there was the professional improvement of the talent disclosed in her. The rumor of the new talented singer promptly spread among jazz musicians, as her distinction was the perfect feeling of the works she sang, and propositions did not wait to come: Alexey Kozlov, Sergey Manukyan, Vyacheslav Gorsky, Boris Kurganov, Oleg Kireev, “Trans Atlantic” group. In Rostov-on-Don, at the invitation from Ivanovs brothers, Mariam sang together with Igor Butman and David Goloshekin and became a sensation for Rostov’s jazz-lovers. In parallel, immediately after the graduation from the school, Mariam started working as a back vocalist in studio and in concerts. For about two years, Mariam worked with Nikolay Noskov and, as she says, it was a very important experience for her that wiped out her “dependence” on voice and opened the freedom of sound.
       In 1998, together with her future husband and current producer, Armen Merabov, a son of the conductor and composer known in the Soviet years (Robot sung by A.Pugacheva, M.Magomaev’s dance orchestra), Mariam started working in the “Miraif” jazz project (a derivative from the Russian “the world is kaif”).
       It is especially to be noted that Armen Merabov played the trombone in the early years of his career, and his transition from trombone to the piano was a complete surprise for everybody. Originally gifted with a unique musical feeling, Armen disclosed himself as a pianist with an unusual and unique thinking. It was as if three streams merged together: the listener, the wind player, and the piano player. Vyacheslav Gorsky once said as he visited “Miraif” concert: “The whole concert through, I listened and tried to foresee what he would play next, but I didn’t manage. He is a very interesting player”. His growth was so fast that none of his folks never felt the transition. At first, Armen Merabov played and improved his skills with the Phonograph orchestra conducted by Sergey Zhilin. But it was far before the start of “Miraif”.
       In 1999, People’s Artist of Russia, a member of the Union of composers Yury Saulsky introduced to the public “Miraif” as a new promising jazz project. Presently, the band is firm on the jazz stage, alone with well-known names. Their concerts are always sold out, and their admirers and adorers include public figures of different fields of culture, science and politics. At the order from the George Soros Foundation and the Goskino of Russia, two documentary films were made in 2000, directed by Mikhail Kuprava and Arkady Gridnev (Positive studio, lead by Alla Surikova): Adult Games of Children and Kaluga-Mars, with Armen Merabov as composer. In addition, “Miraif” band recorded several jazz compositions for Maxim Voronkov’s feature film, Intimacies of Sevastian Bakhov. Individually, Armen Merabov is in active cooperation with different advertisement and commercial projects, such as the Audio Force Production and Millenium companies, and the 21st Century radio station.
       The Miraif band includes Moscow’s strongest musicians such as Denis Prushinsky, saxophone, flute; Alexander Bakunin, bass; Anton Davidyan, bass, Armen Merabov, keyboards; Mariam, vocals. In 2000, the band recorded their first album, “The Bridge”, it was released by Bogema Music. Its presentation was a great success, it took place at the Imperiya casino. About three hundred people came to congratulate “Miraif”, and though there was not enough room for everybody, nobody came home till late at night. Mariam and Miraif were congratulated by their old friends on the stage such as Murat Nasyrov, Pascal, Sergey Voronov, leader of the Crossroads group, Alex-show, Sona, Giya Dzagnidze and many others. Stas Namin, Alexey Kozlov, Andrey Rudensky were also seen among the guests. In 2004, Mariam and Miraif recorded their next album, “Intelligent Music”.
       At the moment, the third album is under preparation, it is a fully authors’ album. Armen Merabov was the musical producer and the author of most compositions. Beside the fact that Mariam is the band’s irreplaceable voice, in this album she also expressed herself as a lyrics writer. Some songs in Russian sounded absolutely unusual for the Russian jazz. Mariam said to the Russian TV Channel: I’m not afraid of singing in my native language and I do not understand many our jazzmen’s biased attitude to the fact. I think there is no uncomfortable phonetics, there are immelodious authors. We live and work in this country and we want to remain absolutely honest with our audience. Jazz is just a style in music and a manner of playing, and it’s important for us not to lap up with our works but to be comprehensible for the public many of whom do not understand neither English nor Portuguese. It is very important if, beside getting pleasure out of the musical ornamentation, the listener understands the text as well”.
       In 2003, Miraif played at the ceremony of giving the Internet Intel Prize at the MKhAT. At the end of the concert, Mariam sang duo with Pyotr Podgorodetsky. Miraif took part in the Kitchen program on the TVTs channel and in the Night VJ program on the DaryalTV. A one-hour program about Miraif was shown on the second channel of the Berlin Television, as part of culture exchange between our countries.
       In 2004, Mariam received a unique proposition from Russian producers to take part in a new project, We Will Rock You musical. Mariam was proposed as one of the leading roles, Killer Queen. The musical was written by the legendary Queen musicians, Brian May and Roger Taylor, in memory of Freddy Mercury, the band’s unforgettable singer. The musicians personally came to Russia for the last casting tour and approved Mariam as Killer Queen in the first team. Moreover, after the first night, Mariam sang solo with the great musicians at an auto party at the Kremlin. After the concert, Brian May said: You have a unique voice with a distinct stage charisma. I’m glad that this role has been entrusted to you. Though the musical existed for just half a year, the meeting with the legendary world-level musicians was not in vain.
       In the same year, Mariam starts close work with the Trans Atlantic fusion jazz band. The band repeatedly played at the Theatre at the Nikitskiye Gates as part of the Jazz Open Air festival, it’s engaged in touring and is preparing a program to participate in the Jazz-Farm jazz festival at the Arkhangelskoye. As part of the festival, a collection CD with its participants was released, including the original version of Everything Must Change (Randy Crowford, Chucka Khan) by Mariam and Trans Atlantic. After a joint concert at the Music House featuring Trans Atlantic and Fill Perry (a legendary American soul singer alongside with such signers as Lion Ricchie, George Benson, Michael Bolton), the signer was impressed by the level of Mariam’s vocal he heard on the CD, so after returning home, he showed the material to his friend, a great composer, conductor and producer Quincy Jones (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Steevie Wonder), and he immediately send a letter addressed to Sergey Chepenko (leader of Trans Atlantic): I think your version is one of the best I’ve ever heard. In 2005, the Trans Atlantic gave a concert in the Music House together with the famous saxophone player Erick Moriental (he worked with the famous Chick Koria for a long time), and Mariam was invited again to represent the Russian jazz vocal school. Erick Moriental was delighted and assured the signer that he would at any moment gladly meet her on stage again. Generally, the fact that even more jazz musicians from the whole world come with concerts to this country gives a perfect opportunity for Russian jazz musicians.
       Mariam and Armen Merabov played at the Blue Bird club together with the oldest representative of the bi-bop style, saxophone player Ricchie Cole and trumpet player Saskiya Laru. Ricchie Cole said about Armen Merabov and Mariam: “You have the main thing – the spirit of jazz!” From 2004, Mariam periodically sings with a famous pianist Grigory Fine. In 2005, two concerts took place in the Music House, one of which was the chamber version of the Little Red Riding-hood children musical. In 2005, a one-hour live radio bridge between Miraif and Mariam from New York was broadcast in Oleg Frish’s program, Musical Show Bill from Oleg Frish. According to the moderator, the program was not simply a success but a phenomenon, judging by the number of calls. The program earlier featured B.B.King, Brenda Lee, Ima Sumak, Chucka Khan, and John Kender, the author of such musicals as Chicago, Cabaret, and New York, New York. Recently, excellent saxophone players Alexander and Dmitry Bril, sons of the famous pianist Igor Brill, invited Mariam to take part in the concert also featuring the French comic artist Pierre Richard and his sons with their own band. On his part, Pierre Richard especially mentioned the singer’s stage charisma and her special ability to control the public’s emotions, as if taking them after herself.
       Now Mariam and Armen are completely engaged in the work at the Miraif authors’ album and a festival program to take part in jazz festivals in Sweden and Netherlands. Mariam’s and Armen’s creative and conjugal unity adds a special feeling to the works and their sounding that won’t leave anybody untouched.