Soviet Jazz on line...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Music : Soviet Union & Czechoslovakia Poland Culture
Listen to a 1-hour compilation of Soviet-era jazz
5 November 2020
Text: Paula Erizanu

A new compilation of jazz from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc is available online on London-based NTS radio.
Curated by DJ and music researcher Chahoud Ernesto, the set includes tracks from classic Russian saxophonist Anatoly Vapirov, Tarkovsky film score composer Eduart Artemy, the delicate improvised singing of the Czech Republic’s Mirka Křivánková, and Polish mid-70s free jazz Trio, Wiaczeslawa Ganielina.

“The Soviet jazz scene was not disconnected from what was happening outside of the Iron Curtain,” Chahoud says. “Take, for example, Benny Goodman’s tour of the Soviet Union in 1962 and Duke Ellington’s in 1971 — they were impressed by Soviet musicians. The Eastern Bloc had great music schools and the material means to produce and record,” he added.

“It’s a very interesting scene and it’s very exciting to dig into it properly — you can see how it was developing from swing to bebop, free jazz, rock, fusion, progressive, electronic. Much like all other scenes, there are a lot of great records and a lot of shit records too, which turns the ride into an adventure,” Chahoud told The Calvert Journal."

The Len Trotsky Bopsters are not featured. Nor the Vlad Illich Itchy Feetwarmers...

[Ian Thumwood]

I was aware of the alleged "impact" of Benny Goodman's tour of the former Soviet Union but you never seem to hear any evidence of a "Soviet scene" to ascertain what exactly was being being absorbed. When I was discovering jazz the main Russian group that garnered a lot of airplay was the Ganelin Trio who were often featured on the local BBC Radio jazz programme at the time. They were really on the Improvised music side of things and their material was largely released through the Leo label was created by Leo Feigin. I won an LP in a competition by a Russian improvising group called "Homo liber" back in the late 1980s and the stark, pencil drawn cover was not enhanced by the music inside. To my ears the technical brilliance of the musicians was evident yet it really had nothing to do with jazz. coupled with the vast list of Leo albums available that came within the sleeve, t was an experience which coloured my perception that bop-rooted players like Valerie Ponomarov and Alex Sipiagin were the exception rather than the rule.

There was a point in the mid 1980s that Russian musicians such as Sergey Kuryokhin had a massive profile with an Edinburgh festival appearance by his "Pop Mechanics" ensemble being broadcast on the nascent Channel Four. If anything, the likes of the Ganelin Trio struck me as having an almost legendary status with one of the presenters of "Jazz on Solent" venerating their music. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Ganelin's emigration to Israel led to the break up of this group and a loss of interest in the jazz-listening public. Veyacheslav Ganelin is still performing and you can find relatively recent clips on Youtube. If anything, it has taken American jazz nearly forty years to catch up with Ganelin's trio although I just feel that this group's approach is taking it's cues more from Russian classical music. I would not really say this was my bag but I would put to the likes of SA and Richard Barrett that Ganelin is probably operating at the same kind of level as the late Cecil Taylor.

The one Russian-American musician who caught my attention was Keshavan Maslak who produced records under the title of Kenny Millions in the mid 1980s. I recall an album called "Loved by millions." He has worked a lot in Holland as well as Russia. The "Kenny Millions" persona always interested me although his records never seemed to get airplay. The one album I have by him is a duet with Paul Bley which is very similar to the collaboration Bley had with Jimmy Guiffre. I had low expectations of this album but it surprised my how good it was. The low expectations stem from Maslak's more recent work which can be seen on Youtube as well this discography on Wicki which is demonstrative of his desire to shock as opposed to make the creative music he is capable of. Ultimately, it just comes across a very boorish....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keshavan_Maslak

[Serial_Apologist]

There was a great series on Soviet jazz broadcast on R3 a few decades ago, in which it was posed that Soviet jazz [sic] was effectively an oxymoronic term from the time of WW2 to the late 60s, when free jazz found popular followings as a statement of revolt against the preceding Stalin period, in which the music had been banned as a degenerate manifestation of individualistic American culture. What a gift to the West!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

WW2...

"The ensembles of the Red Army also played American jazz standards next to jazzed-up Russian folk songs, songs for the masses and ballads. Not only combat supplies came into the country through alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States, but also American culture. In addition, soldiers came in contact with US-jazz through radio broadcasts of the American forces, which were broadcast by shortwave radio. At first the Soviet government had nothing against the steadily growing influence of jazz on the front and in the cities- in villages the situation was different. Some newspapers even published articles about American culture.[41] But after the victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad, attacks on jazz experienced a resurgence. Leonid Utesov was accused of playing too many cheap imports and critics demanded more folk music at the front.[42] Despite this, jazz bands performed everywhere for the celebration of the victory on May 9, 1945. Gosdžaz even played on the Red Square in Moskow."

Kenny Ballski?!

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

WW2...

"The ensembles of the Red Army also played American jazz standards next to jazzed-up Russian folk songs, songs for the masses and ballads. Not only combat supplies came into the country through alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States, but also American culture. In addition, soldiers came in contact with US-jazz through radio broadcasts of the American forces, which were broadcast by shortwave radio. At first the Soviet government had nothing against the steadily growing influence of jazz on the front and in the cities- in villages the situation was different. Some newspapers even published articles about American culture.[41] But after the victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad, attacks on jazz experienced a resurgence. Leonid Utesov was accused of playing too many cheap imports and critics demanded more folk music at the front.[42] Despite this, jazz bands performed everywhere for the celebration of the victory on May 9, 1945. Gosdžaz even played on the Red Square in Moskow."

Kenny Ballski?!

BN.

Chris Barbershop.

[Tenor Freak]

For those of us who used to hear bits of it on the old Radio Moscow World Service.