By Vestnik Kavkaza
The ninth Moscow International Festival “Russian stars of world jazz” took place in the Moscow International House of Music on November 9-11 and was devoted to the 90th anniversary of jazz in Russia. In 1922 the first eccentric orchestra jazz-band of Valentin Parnakh appeared in the RSFSR.
Anatoly Kroll, People’s Artist of Russia, art director and producer of the festival
All our life we pay great attention to American and European jazz, but we are not attentive to our own musicians. It was important to present works by Russian jazz musicians, the best Russian jazz musicians and bands. This is the essence of the festival which will take part in Moscow for the ninth time, and for the first time in the House of Music. We wanted to unite all styles of modern jazz in the festival. The first day of the festival is called “Festival of Forgotten Jazz.” We will present music which is forgotten, unfortunately. It is wonderful that today we have musicians and bands thanks to whom we have organized a special day devoted to old jazz – Festival of Forgotten Jazz.
Boris Frumkin, the head of O. Lundstrem Orchestra
It is a great honour for our orchestra to take part in the festival, as Mr. Kroll always organizes interesting programs. Of course, musicians are lazy and want their home, so from their point of view these concerts might be a bit long, but the audience is happy because people can listen to the full cutoff of jazz art in every festival. Anyone can find something what he or she likes. I would like to say that we have many guest tours from the Far East to our western boundaries, we have been in many places in north and south, and the jazz audience becomes younger. This is wonderful. It means the art has not withered, it is not an exhibition in a museum. It is a live art which is developing and attracting young people. Many cities have jazz colleges. Young people are interested, they try to play. And this is great. Today jazz is almost a full-scale kind of art, as for other musical styles, it took much more time, for example classic music. For example, from baroque to modern times it took 300 years. Jazz developed in one century. However, there are clear directions which are followed by various musicians. It has pop, modern music, big-bands playing traditional swing jazz, big-bands playing more progressive music. At the same time, we have music written in the 1930-1950s. And young people are enthusiastic about it, they turn to the roots. This is great. I think it confirms jazz's status as an art which has directions which can be described and played.
Pyotr Vostokov, Big Jazz Orchestra
Our orchestra is very young, and it has few opportunities to perform on such stages as the Moscow International House of Music. We will play there for first time. Our orchestra was created as a commonwealth of young musicians who express their ambitions and love for traditional jazz music. We had no opportunity to fulfil our ambitions in other bands and decided to found our own. The initiator of the orchestra is our singer Daria Antonova, who organized everything. She is our director. Our orchestra is aimed at playing music which we love, music which makes us continue to work with jazz. It is a set of programs and dedications to great people. First of all, it is music of the swing era: Duke Ellington, Jimmy Lanceford, Bobby Crosby, Kasaloma-Orchestra, Stan Kenton.
Konstantin Gevondyan, singer, trumpeter
Such a wonderful jazz forum it is. These festivals are long-awaited, and many people come there and stay till the end, which is a rare thing in big jazz forums. We have been to some festivals which were not so bright and interesting for people. It is difficult to perform in the second part of the concert because it is easier to play in front of a mirror than in front of a half-empty hall. At these festivals the halls are full, and the audience is great. It happens year after year, whichever hall they are held in. I remember the festival took place in the Pavel Slobodkin Center and the Estrada Theatre. The halls were always full. I’m glad to perform at these festivals due to the audience, the professional atmosphere, and the level of organization of arrangements, as it is important for performing.
As a band playing traditional jazz, we see our mission in sharing music with people, which is not simply music for the soul or brain, for the heart or eyes. We present jazz which gave an impulse to the development of a great art called jazz. It used to be common, practical, spectacular, that is why it became so popular and international.
