Ganelin Trio was the first Soviet (actually, Lithuanian) jazz group to tour the U.S. in 1986. Not that many in the U.S. were getting them at the time, as they were clearly not emulating American jazz, but searching for their own thing instead, mostly in the realms of free improvisation on the verge of jazz and modern classical music.
Time passed, and the three musicians went in their own directions: drummer Vladimir Tarasov stayed in Vilnius, Lithuania, after 1991, and went into sound installations and international collaborations; reedist Vladimir Chekasin was more interested in happenings and theatralization of music, and ran a series of successful monthly music/happening extravaganzas at Moscow's House of Artists; and pianist Viacheslav (Slava) Ganelin moved to Jerusalem, where he taught improvisation at two music schools, composed to his soul's content, and ran a small annual festival in the Holy City, Jerusalem Jazz Globus (next time, late November, 2012.)
Two days ago he made a very rare solo improv appearance in Moscow, and I filmed his massive, 22-minutes-long improvisation at the Jewish Culture Center in Russian capital.
Moscow-based jazz journalist Cyril Moshkow, publisher and editor of Jazz.Ru, Russia's only Jazz magazine, writes about how does it feel to run a jazz magazine in Russia.
No comments:
Post a Comment