vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #593 / Arts and Ideas / Reading article...

Vladivostok’s Jazz Festival annually held in mid-November has become an enjoyable musical event for the city residents. This year, however, despite its international status the festival will not feature any foreign performers, for the first time in its four-year history.

The festival, scheduled to take place from Nov. 15-17 in the city’s Pacific Fleet Concert Hall and Youth Theater, will focus solely on Russian jazz bands and musicians, the organizers told a press conference on Tuesday.

“This year, we had great difficulty organizing the festival, the lack of finances being the main challenge,” shared Tatyana Chumak, director of Primorye’s Philharmonic Society, the festival’s organizer. Scarce finances did not allow the organizers to invite jazz performers from Japan and Hungary, she said.

Of two alternatives - either to cancel the 2007 festival or hold the event without foreign guests - the latter seemed the only reasonable option. “The festival is popular among the audience and people look forward to it,” Chumak said.

Nevertheless, Chumak stressed, this year’s festival has plenty to offer, with performers from Moscow and the Far Eastern cities of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok to show their skills and entertain the audience.

The festival’s opening show will feature most anticipated guests from Moscow, the duo of Armen and Mariam Merabov, a piano player and a singer. The couple, who have been participants at numerous jazz festivals and contests, was invited to the festival by Vladivostok singer Denis Davydov, who saw them performing in one of the jazz-clubs while his visit in Moscow.

“Their performance made an impression on me, and I suggested to the festival organizers that they participate at this year’s event,” Davydov commented.

Davydov himself will sing with Mad Swing jazz band on the first day of the festival, the band planning to perform songs in various genres, ranging from bebop to classic jazz pieces.

The second day’s program is packed with jazz acts from Khabarovsk, the city presenting the most number of participants this year. Among them is the jazz-quartet Allegria which successfully performed at the last year’s festival.

During the event’s third day, the audience will be treated to a performance by the jazz big-band belonging to Primorye’s Department of Inner Affairs, the only ensemble of the kind in the region. The band, led by Taras Yurichin, will play different pieces including jazz arrangements of Russian folk songs. The final day will also see performances by the Moscow-based ethno-jazz band Marimba Plus.

Since its premiere in 2004, Vladivostok’s International Jazz Festival has featured various noted musicians and performers – among them are three-time Grammy award winning American trumpetist Randy Brecker, Russia’s Igor Butman Quartet and Sergei Manukyan's Trio, the Neighborliness Jazz Quartet from the USA and Japan's Mitsuaki Kishi Trio.