Gurban Bakhshali oglu Pirimov was born in Karabakh, in mountainous village of Gülablı near Shusha, Azerbaijan then in the Russian Empire.

The Primov family had had long lasting musical traditions: Gurban's great-grandfather Valeh was a famous Karabakhi ashik; and his older brother Aghalar was a saz-player.

Deeply in love with folk music, Gurban Primov dropped out of school at age 13 to move to Shusha, then one of the important cultural centres of the Caucasus.

[1] Later in life Pirimov was also a music consultant to prominent composers such as Muslim Magomayev, Reinhold Glière, Fikrat Amirov, and Gara Garayev.

Gurban Primov married to Nabat khanum Aghalar gizi and issued four children: Asgar, Sara, Tamara, Adela.