Odessa JazzFest ’2016:
An Evening in Memory of Yuri Kuznetsov

September 23, 2016 at 18:00

The second day of the Odessa International Jazz Festival 2016 JazzFest, which will be held in Odessa from September 22 to 25, will be dedicated to the memory of the president and founder of the festival, Yuri Anatolyevich Kuznetsov, who passed away this year.

In the hall of the Regional Odessa Philharmonic Hall, where the maestro’s piano has been played more than once, the first music award will be presented to him after his laureates. As well as the presentation of the large-scale project “Film Music of Yuri Kuznetsov”, which will be presented by vocalist and arranger Tamara Lukasheva (Germany-Ukraine). The concert will be attended by the National Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Hobart Earle (conductor Igor Shavruk) and famous Odessa jazzmen. The program includes copyright arrangements of melodies written by the founder of Odessa JazzFest. This dedication project to a colleague and teacher is without a doubt the most anticipated premiere of the festival.

As a composer, Yuri Kuznetsov is known to real music lovers no less than as a performer. In the creative legacy of the legendary pianist there are not only jazz compositions, many of which can be safely called hits in their genre, but also large-scale works for theater and cinema. Here it will be enough to recall only a few films on the soundtracks of which Yuri Kuznetsov worked: this is “The Smell of Autumn”, and “Sinner”, and the famous “Taxi Blues” by Pavel Lungin, who received the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival.

The melodies created by Kuznetsov for the movie formed the basis of the concert program prepared especially for Odessa JazzFest by the frequent guest of the festival Tamara Lukasheva. The talented singer and the wonderful arranger and the most popular jazz compositions of the master did not go unnoticed. Such as Waltz Pierrot and Mysyats Yasny.

The stylistic diversity of the program is due, first of all, to the personality of Yuri Kuznetsov and his music, which is not easy to fit into any kind of genre framework. This project will become a musical portrait of a pianist and composer, as it covers virtually all periods of his work. And especially - the last decade, marked by pronounced melody.

Different forms and moods of the work will be performed differently on the stage: the audience will hear both chamber jazz trios and quartets, as well as large-scale symphonic numbers, which will be attended by a large symphony orchestra conducted by Igor Shavruk.

According to Tamara Lukasheva, while working on the arrangements, she adhered to Yuri Kuznetsov’s reading of her own works as much as possible (except for those compositions that were worked on after the author’s death).

Remarkable Ukrainian jazz musicians will take part in the concert: pianist Andrei Pokaz, double bass player Maxim Kondratyev, drummer Yakov Taruntsov, guitarist Vitaliy Tkachuk, saxfonists Oleg Subbotin, Marina Subbotina, Dmitry Ryzhuk, Yevgeny Pachkin, trombonist Andrei Tsukanov and, of course, Tamara Luka herself.

Recall that the vocalist and composer currently resides in Germany. There, as a student at the Cologne Conservatory, Tamara Lukasheva managed to perform as a soloist with the State Youth Jazz Orchestra (BuJazzO), as well as the famous big bands WDR and UDK. The vocalist has won prizes from several prestigious competitions, including Voicingers (Poland), Master Jazz Fest (Ukraine), Keep an Eye Jazz Awards (Netherlands), BuJazzO (Germany). Tamara is also the leader of several copyright projects performing music at the junction of jazz, folklore, classical and world music.