Dance On Bones

Resources and info for upcoming play about an American Jazz musician, traveling to St. Petersburg, Russia to rediscover her artform and lay bare her own history, conflicts, and identity as a musician.

This project has been supported by a Likhachev Foundation/Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center Fellowship in May 2013.

Notes:

Jazz is a language all its own.

Russian Jazz?  American Jazz?  Rather there are Russians and Americans who play Jazz.

Basic Questions:

How has that culture evolved or changed over the past 91 years?

What is “Russian jazz”?

What is the jazz catalog that’s played in clubs in St. Petersburg (Piter)?

What is the folklore (who are the legends?) and language (speech rhythms, textures, and tones) of jazz clubs in Piter?

How is jazz culture organized in Russia?

• Is Piter the trad jazz fortress and Moscow where the experimental work happens?
• Is there still a rift between New Jazz and Traditionalists?
• Does that equivocate to a rift/rivalry between Piter and Moscow?

Are there Americans involved in the Russian jazz scene as listeners, musicians, producers, etc?

Resources:

Texts:

Russian jazz:

• Feigin, Leo. Russian jazz : new identity. London ; New York : Quartet Books, 1985.
• Minor, William. Unzipped souls: a jazz journey through the Soviet Union. Philadelphia :  Temple University Press, 1995.
• Starr, S. Frederick. Red and hot: the fate of jazz in the Soviet Union, 1917-1980. New York : Oxford University Press, 1983.   [NOTES from Red and Hot]
• Van Can, Brianna.  Blue Notes from the Underground: Jazz in the USSR (Wesleyan Honors Thesis, 2012) – Section on Stigyagi (Hipsters):
  • “What the film does not show is that Lyandres, and there are others like
    him, was poisoned by the KGB some years later.  For Lyandres, it was a consequence
    of his writing, but for countless others, playing, possessing, or even admitting a
    fondness for jazz could lead to beatings, arrest, and even death.  One feels inspired by
    the dedication of musicians and devoted fans like the stiliagi, but appalled by its
    necessity.” (pg 7)
  • “…but in the end, the reasons some people risked their lives and freedom for love of music, while others took the opposite stance, are rooted in supremely individual experience and taste.” (pgs 12-3)
  • “To the Soviets, Jazz was dance. It was sexuality. It was black. It was Jewish. It  was American. It was decadence and commercialism, a mechanism of repression, or conversely, a triumph of the oppressed Negro proletariat. But in the Soviet Union
    itself, it was never entirely authentic. It was over-the-top Charleston-ing learned from theater. It was rushed, forced syncopation and the saxophone.” (pg 15)
  • “The most authentic jazz was produced where it could be least restrained.  If public at all, this took place in obscure and dingy clubs.  More socially relevant was the jam session, unpaid and after hours.  The true norms of jazz were shaped and reinforced here, rather than onstage.” (pg 53)
• Greg Gaut, “Soviet Jazz,” Jazz in Mind: Essays on the History and Meanings of Jazz, ed. Reginald T. Buckner and Steven Weiland Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991.

Jazz in Cold War:

• Davenport, Lisa.  Jazz Diplomacy: Promoting America in the Cold War Era
• Von Eschen, Penny.  Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War

Articles/Videos:

• Info on Russian Jazz Research Center:
  • http://www.openworld.gov/article/print.php?id=258&lang=1
  • http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/preface-to-russian-jazz-archive
  • http://journal.jazz.ru/2011/06/14/rcjs-project/
• “St. Petersburg Museum of jazz” in Jazz Philharmonic
  • Frommer’s Info
  • Lonely Planet Info (w/map)
  • Larry Applebaum Interview with David Goloshchokin
• World Jazz Masters Play the Russian Regions
• The Free Jazz Scene In The Former USSR: Between Vilnius And Arkhangelsk
• Q&A: Igor Butman’s Tune Mixes Loyalty and Service (21 Feb 2013, Moscow Times)
• Jazz to Get a Triumphant Welcome in Moscow (21 Feb 2013, Moscow Times)
• Chapter 5, Jazz Behind the Iron Curtain (1961-1966) from Jazz Diplomacy: Promoting America in the Cold War Era by Lisa Davenport
• Russian-American Jazz Summit Featuring Cyril Moshkow and Larry Appelbaum

Russian Jazz Websites:

• http://www.jazz.ru/eng/
• http://www.jazz.ru/eng/history/default.htm

Films:

• Hipsters (Stigyagi) (film), 2008 [a bit of a bubblegum musical, very polished and flashy, but got across the idea of the Stigyagi quite well]
• Taxi Blues (film), 1990 [the jazz musician (he’s a saxaphone player) in this film is portrayed as a drunk, antithesis to the Soviet Man, but it is the connection of the two of them that winds up completing them both]
• Jolly Fellows (film), 1934 featuring Leonid Utyosov and co-written by Nikolai Erdman [hilarious and zany fun, the music is at times completely wild, especially once the jazz band is formed (the rehearsal scene is priceless).  From the very first moments, it is a madcap romp]

Musicians:

• Musicians bios and videos (my own assemblage: a variety of artists info)
• Jazz.ru Youtube Channel (85 youtube clips)
• Leo Records (founded by Leo Feigin)
  • Golden Age of Soviet New Jazz Vol. 1 – 4 (16 discs)