Background
He grew up in a house located next to Derbent"s famous historical Naryn-Kala sight. Asaf Zeynally"s father died shortly after his birth, and his mother Asband, a weaver, became the family"s breadwinner.
He grew up in a house located next to Derbent"s famous historical Naryn-Kala sight. Asaf Zeynally"s father died shortly after his birth, and his mother Asband, a weaver, became the family"s breadwinner.
She was also an amateur musician and singer, and played the accordion contributing to her younger son"s growing passion for music In 1920, the family moved to Baku, Azerbaijan, where Zeynally continued his education at a military school, at which in addition he learned to play the trumpet.
In 1916, 7-year old Zeynally started attending the Derbent Realschule, a local primary school, where he became a member of the school choir and was taught to play the clarinet often participating in public performances of an amateur brass band outside school. In the early 1930s, he was among members of intelligentsia who opposed the goal of the Soviets to ban tar.