vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #543 / Arts and Ideas / Reading article...

Various performers from Russia and the U.S, including the big band Far East Edition of the US 7th Fleet and a noted Russian piano player and composer Anatoly Kroll, will deliver their performances at the upcoming third International Jazz Festival scheduled from November 16-18 in Vladivostok.

The three-day festival, organized by Primorye’s Philharmonic Society with assistance from the U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok, aims to continue exposing local residents and visitors to the best Russian and foreign jazz musicians as well as stimulating the local jazz culture.

Overall, the annual festival will feature a total of nine bands and performers who will demonstrate their musical artistry for listeners, with styles varying from big band to jazz-rock.

The festival will open with a performance from the Far East Edition. The 22-piece band, whose musicians have an academic musical education, already visited Vladivostok this July giving several audience-winning performances. The band’s performances are a mixture of traditional jazz, modern big band, Latin and pop music.

According to Daniel Hastings, Public Affairs Officer of the Consulate, the visit of the American musicians is a great way to start celebrating the next year’s 200-year anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia.

“It is an indicator of the strength of our relationship and the mutual respect,” Hastings said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Vladivostok performers include the band Sektor Dzhaza (The Jazz Sector) led by the young and talented saxophone player Pavel Bragin. The group, which plays jazz-rock fusion, is the festival’s regular participant.

Vladivostok musician, piano player Andrei Vinichenko, will deliver a performance both with his quartet and as part of the Tranzit band which includes musicians from Khabarovsk.

Among the festival debutants are noted Vladivostok jazz singer Irina Gayevskaya, who will present a traditional jazz program, and the jazz-quintet Allegria from the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk.

For Doctor Jazz, a band from the Siberian city of Irkutsk, this will be their second appearance at the city’s jazz fest. Last year in Vladivostok, the group played a set one evening with American trumpeter and Grammy award winner Randy Brecker and an acclaimed Russian saxophone player Igor Butman. The band’s talent did not remain unnoticed: they were invited by Butman to give a number of concerts in Moscow jazz-clubs, which was followed by a visit to New-York. This October, the Siberian jazz performers participated in the international jazz fest in the city of Hartford, U.S.

The festival’s closing day will feature performances from the jazz-quartet headed by 63-year-old Anatoly Kroll, who is known as one of the most successful and respected performers on the Russian jazz scene.

According to Hastings, Vladivostok should be proud of this festival since it features top-notch musicians.

“The city has every reason to consider itself the host of a world-class jazz festival,” Hastings emphasized. “Vladivostok has not developed its image on an international level yet, but this is a very lively and dynamic city.”

Besides, the festival boasts affordable ticket prices, Hastings added. According to him, a ticket for similar performances from the Far East Edition big-band in Las Vegas would cost around $200, while the tickets for the Vladivostok festival vary from 150 rubles to maximum of 800 rubles ($30).

Since 2004, when the International Jazz Festival premiered in Vladivostok, it featured such noted musicians and performers as three-time Grammy award winning American trumpetist Randy Brecker, the Neighborliness Jazz Quartet from the USA, Japan's Mitsuaki Kishi Trio, Russia’s Igor Butman Quartet, Sergei Manukyan's Trio, and a prominent Russian trumpet player Alexander Fisher.