Azerbaijan is one of any number of geocultural settings in which the electric guitar is equated with a unique sound and highly evolved musical domain. Anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Stefan Williamson Fa's documentary Gitara (pronounced jee-ta-ra) reflects on the particulars behind this uniqueness within the Azerbaijani context. Extended musical sequences—both archival and filmed during production—are contextualized through extensive commentary and demonstrations provided by key contemporary Azerbaijani guitarists: Rahman Mammadli, Ramal “Roma” Isgenderli, Alakbar Mehdiyev, and Rüstam Quliyev.
In Azerbaijan, the electric guitar is not only emblematic of genres such as rock, blues, jazz, and country but also marks a terrain where the aesthetics of mugham-based art music and the bardic ashig repertoire—both in many senses national arts of Azerbaijan—comingle with the iconography of the sleek electric guitar and its varied sounds. Williamson Fa includes interviews in which guitarists specify how their playing incorporates aspects of the techniques and mugham repertoire...
