Tickets to the jazz estate. Festival “Estate Jazz” at the museum-estate “Arkhangelskoe. When will the Usadba Jazz festival take place in the Moscow region?


JAZZ. The word jazz, which appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, began to denote a type of new,

music that sounded then for the first time, as well as the orchestra that played this music

performed. What kind of music is this and how did it appear?

Jazz arose in the USA among the oppressed, disenfranchised black population,

among the descendants of black slaves who were once forcibly taken from their homeland.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the first slave ships with live animals arrived in America.

cargo It was quickly snapped up by the rich of the American South, who became

use slave labor for heavy labor on their plantations. Torn off

from their homeland, separated from loved ones, exhausted from overwork,

black slaves found solace in music.

Blacks are amazingly musical.

Their sense of rhythm is especially subtle and sophisticated.

In rare hours of rest, the blacks sang, accompanying themselves by clapping their hands,

hitting empty boxes, cans - everything that was at hand.

In the beginning it was real African music. The one whom the slaves

brought from their homeland. But years, decades passed. In the memory of generations

Memories of the music of the country of our ancestors were erased. All that remained was spontaneous

thirst for music, thirst for movement to music, sense of rhythm, temperament. On

the ear perceived what was sounding around - the music of the whites. And they sang

mostly Christian religious hymns. And the blacks also began to sing them. But

sing in your own way, investing in them all your pain, all your passionate hope for

a better life, at least beyond the grave.

This is how Negro spiritual songs arose

spirituals.

And at the end of the 19th century other songs appeared - songs of complaint, songs

protest. They began to be called the blues. The blues talk about need, about hardship

labor, about disappointed hopes.

Blues singers usually accompanied

yourself on some homemade instrument. For example, they adapted

neck and strings for an old box.

Only later were they able to buy themselves

real guitars.

After the end of the Civil War of 1861 - 1865, the United States was dissolved

brass bands of military units. The instruments that remained from them ended up in

junk shops where they were sold for next to nothing. From there the blacks finally

were able to get real musical instruments. began to appear everywhere

black brass bands.

Coal miners, masons, carpenters, peddlers in

in their free time they gathered and played for their own pleasure. Were playing

for any occasion: holidays, weddings, picnics, funerals.

Black musicians played marches and dances. They played, imitating the manner

performances of spirituals and blues - their national vocal music. On

with their trumpets, clarinets, and trombones they reproduced the features

Negro singing, its rhythmic freedom. They didn't know the notes; musical

white schools were closed to them. Played by ear, learning from experienced

musicians, listening to their advice, adopting their techniques. Same for

composed by rumor.

As a result of the transfer of Negro vocal music and Negro rhythm to

In the instrumental sphere, a new orchestral music was born - jazz.

The main features of jazz are improvisation and freedom of rhythm,

free breathing melody.

Jazz musicians must be able to improvise

either collectively or solo against the background of a rehearsed accompaniment. What

concerns jazz rhythm (it is denoted by the word swing from the English swing

Swinging), then one of the American jazz musicians wrote about it like this:

"It's a feeling of inspired rhythm that makes musicians feel

ease and freedom of improvisation and gives the impression of unstoppable movement

the entire orchestra forward at an ever-increasing speed, although

in fact the tempo remains the same."

Since its origins in the southern American city of New Orleans, jazz

I've come a long way. It spread first to America and then

worldwide. It ceased to be the art of blacks: very soon they came to jazz

white musicians. The names of outstanding jazz masters are known to everyone. This is Louis

Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glen Miller. This is the singer Ella

Fitzgerald and Bessie Smith.

Jazz music influenced symphonic and operatic music. American composer

George Gershwin wrote "Rhapsody in Blue" for piano with

orchestra, used elements of jazz in his opera Porgy and Bess.

For many years the composer Dunaevsky linked his creative destiny with him.

You've probably heard this orchestra too: it sounds cheerful, until now

since the successful film "Jolly Fellows".

Unlike a symphony orchestra, jazz does not have a permanent composition. Jazz

It is always an ensemble of soloists. And even if by chance the compositions of two jazz

collectives will coincide, after all, they cannot be completely identical: after all, in

In one case, the best soloist will be, for example, a trumpet player, and in another it will be

some other musician.

Jazz– a unique phenomenon in world musical culture. This multifaceted art form originated at the turn of the century (XIX and XX) in the USA. Jazz music has become the brainchild of the cultures of Europe and Africa, a unique fusion of trends and forms from two regions of the world. Subsequently, jazz spread beyond the United States and became popular almost everywhere. This music takes its basis in African folk songs, rhythms and styles. In the history of the development of this direction of jazz, many forms and types are known that appeared as new models of rhythms and harmonics were mastered.

Characteristics of Jazz


The synthesis of two musical cultures made jazz a radically new phenomenon in world art. The specific features of this new music were:

  • Syncopated rhythms giving rise to polyrhythms.
  • The rhythmic pulsation of music is the beat.
  • Complex deviation from the beat - swing.
  • Constant improvisation in compositions.
  • A wealth of harmonics, rhythms and timbres.

The basis of jazz, especially in the first stages of development, was improvisation combined with a thoughtful form (at the same time, the form of the composition was not necessarily fixed somewhere). And from African music this new style took the following characteristic features:

  • Understanding each instrument as a percussion instrument.
  • Popular conversational intonations when performing compositions.
  • Similar imitation of conversation when playing instruments.

In general, all directions of jazz are distinguished by their own local characteristics, and therefore it is logical to consider them in the context of historical development.

The emergence of jazz, ragtime (1880-1910s)

It is believed that jazz originated among black slaves brought from Africa to the United States of America in the 18th century. Since the captive Africans were not represented by a single tribe, they had to seek a common language with their relatives in the New World. Such consolidation led to the emergence of a unified African culture in America, which included musical culture. It was not until the 1880s and 1890s that the first jazz music emerged as a result. This style was driven by global demand for popular dance music. Since African musical art abounded in such rhythmic dances, it was on its basis that a new direction was born. Thousands of middle-class Americans, unable to learn the aristocratic classical dances, began dancing to ragtime pianos. Ragtime introduced several future bases of jazz into music. Thus, the main representative of this style, Scott Joplin, is the author of the “3 versus 4” element (cross-sounding rhythmic patterns with 3 and 4 units, respectively).

New Orleans (1910–1920s)

Classic jazz appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century in the southern states of America, and specifically in New Orleans (which is logical, because it was in the south that the slave trade was widespread).

African and Creole orchestras played here, creating their music under the influence of ragtime, blues and songs of black workers. After the appearance in the city of many musical instruments from military bands, amateur groups began to appear. The legendary New Orleans musician, creator of his own orchestra, King Oliver, was also self-taught. An important date in the history of jazz was February 26, 1917, when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band released its first gramophone record. The main features of the style were laid down in New Orleans: the beat of percussion instruments, masterful solos, vocal improvisation with syllables - scat.

Chicago (1910–1920s)

In the 1920s, called the “Roaring Twenties” by classicists, jazz music gradually entered mass culture, losing the titles “shameful” and “indecent.” Orchestras begin to perform in restaurants and move from the southern states to other parts of the United States. Chicago becomes the center of jazz in the north of the country, where free nightly performances by musicians become popular (during such shows there were frequent improvisations and outside soloists). More complex arrangements appear in the style of music. The jazz icon of this time was Louis Armstrong, who moved to Chicago from New Orleans. Subsequently, the styles of the two cities began to be combined into one genre of jazz music - Dixieland. The main feature of this style was collective mass improvisation, which elevated the main idea of ​​jazz to the absolute.

Swing and big bands (1930s–1940s)

The continued rise in popularity of jazz created a demand for large orchestras to play dance tunes. This is how swing appeared, representing characteristic deviations in both directions from the rhythm. Swing became the main style direction of that time, manifesting itself in the work of orchestras. The performance of harmonious dance compositions required a more coordinated playing of the orchestra. Jazz musicians were expected to participate evenly, without much improvisation (except for the soloist), so the collective improvisation of Dixieland became a thing of the past. In the 1930s, similar groups flourished, which were called big bands. A characteristic feature of orchestras of that time was competition between groups of instruments and sections. Traditionally, there were three of them: saxophones, trumpets, drums. The most famous jazz musicians and their orchestras are: Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington. The last musician is famous for his commitment to black folklore.

Bebop (1940s)

Swing's departure from the traditions of early jazz and, in particular, classical African melodies and styles, caused discontent among history experts. Big bands and swing performers, who increasingly worked for the public, began to be opposed by the jazz music of small ensembles of black musicians. Experimenters introduced super-fast melodies, brought back long improvisation, complex rhythms, and virtuoso control of the solo instrument. The new style, which positioned itself as exclusive, began to be called bebop. The icons of this period were outrageous jazz musicians: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. The revolt of black Americans against the commercialization of jazz, the desire to return intimacy and uniqueness to this music became a key point. From this moment and from this style, the history of modern jazz begins. At the same time, big band leaders also come to small orchestras, wanting to take a break from the big halls. In ensembles called combos, such musicians adhered to a swing style, but were given freedom to improvise.

Cool jazz, hard bop, soul jazz and jazz-funk (1940s–1960s)

In the 1950s, the genre of music such as jazz began to develop in two opposite directions. Supporters of classical music “cooled down” bebop, bringing academic music, polyphony, and arrangement back into fashion. Cool jazz became known for its restraint, dryness and melancholy. The main representatives of this direction of jazz were: Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck. But the second direction, on the contrary, began to develop the ideas of bebop. The hard bop style preached the idea of ​​returning to the roots of black music. Traditional folklore melodies, bright and aggressive rhythms, explosive soloing and improvisation have returned to fashion. Known in the hard bop style are: Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane. This style developed organically along with soul jazz and jazz-funk. These styles moved closer to the blues, making rhythm a key aspect of performance. Jazz-funk in particular was introduced by Richard Holmes and Shirley Scott.

Although jazz is a global phenomenon today, there are still special jazz places on the planet. These are the cities where the style, or better yet, the whole phenomenon, arose and took shape, the places where the largest jazz events take place, as well as points on the map where the most current transformations of jazz are taking place right now.

Eternal jazz capitals

New Orleans (USA): how it all began

In the French Quarter of New Orleans today, like a hundred years ago, street musicians play everywhere, and not only during New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival or Mardi Gras carnival, but also on all other days... and nights

Perhaps the most un-American of all American cities is called the cradle of jazz for a reason. According to some sources, jazz was born in the local neighborhood of Storyville. (Storyville), when around 1895, among brothels, drug dens and pubs, a black cornet player (a cornet is almost a modern trumpet, only it looks a little different, and the instrument has a different mechanism for blocking the holes in the tubes) Buddy Bolden (Buddy Bolden) assembled an ensemble to play the then fashionable ragtime, but with all the key elements of jazz. According to others - in 1917, when Nick La Rocca (Nick LaRocca) and him Original Dixieland Jass Band(no typos in the title, please note) released the first ever jazz audio recording - Livery Stable Blues. Both musicians were natives of New Orleans.


However, in fact, it all probably started not with them, but with the events that took place at the beginning of the 19th century every Sunday in the local Congo Square. (Congo Square) meetings of hundreds of black slaves. On the only day of the week when they were free from work, the slaves played on simple musical instruments the melodies and rhythms of Africa, which they were never destined to see. Or maybe jazz began with funeral brass bands that marched through the city streets and ensembles in dance halls. One way or another, it all happened right here - in a hot, shabby city located at the mouth of the great Mississippi River.

Maria Syomushkina, author of the idea and president of the Usadba Jazz festival

New Orleans has become one of my favorite places on Earth. This is a city where music is everywhere: in the many bars, on the tourist-crowded Bourbon Street, in the squares, and on the Mississippi embankment - it mixes here with the sound of the wheels of old streetcars, the amazing tastes of Louisiana and Creole cuisine, relaxed and dreamy southern dialect. In 2014, we were able to bring the atmosphere of New Orleans to the Manor Jazz festival. Then the famous saxophonist Donald Harrison and a group dressed in Indian costumes performed in Arkhangelskoye Congo Square Nation Tribe, brass band Hot 8 Brass Band, pastor of one of Tara Alexander's gospel churches. There were also zydeco dance classes and local cuisine by two New Orleans chefs. It was a very difficult project to organize, but a project that will be remembered for a lifetime!

NY (USA): growing up place


One of the legendary places in New York is the Harlem Concert Hall Apollo Theater, who has seen more stars than other astronomers since 1914. Among them are jazz legends Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Art Blackie, Horace Silver, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz and many, many others. And besides jazz there was also soul, rock and roll, gospel. No wonder now Apollo more than a million tourists visit every year

Born in New Orleans, jazz soon captured the whole of America, and New York became its new center. In the 1920s, which F.S. Fitzgerald was the first to call it the Jazz Age (JazzAge), jazz was heard here not only in “decent” places like Carnegie Hall, but also in rather dangerous, semi-underground speakeasy bars with illegal booze. Just then the legendary The Back Room And The Cotton Club, where one could meet still segregated African Americans, and deadly gangsters, and titans of the genre - for example, Duke Ellington, who with his orchestra regularly played in The Cotton Club for at least five years (since 1927) and often visited the club later.


Jazz did not end in New York with the end of the Roaring Twenties. On the contrary, in 1935 the legendary Village Vanguard, in 1949 - even more legendary Birdland, the holy of holies of jazz, where, it seems, all the patriarchs of the style performed.
All these places, as well as hundreds of others, are still open today - from large and world famous ones like Blue Note, to small types Smalls, very similar in atmosphere to those chthonic ones from the 1920s and 1930s. Except that now you can’t smoke in them, but drinking, on the contrary, is possible, and more than legal.

New York is another synonym for jazz, as is New Orleans. Moreover, to feel it, you don’t even have to go to the legendary Blue Note or Village Vanguard- you can go into a random three-table bar in Brooklyn or get into Union Square station and hear a saxophonist there of such a level that you will stand with your mouth open for a long time. Can you go to Cafe Carlyle, where sometimes on Mondays Woody Allen plays clarinet, or some crazy free jazz jam with John Zorn, or a guitarist concert Sonic Youth Thurston Moore in the Protestant Church. In addition, the city is now quite safe - you can safely go to an African party at the club Shrine in East Harlem or to a hip-hop concert in S'mon Everybody in the Bedford Avenue area. However, you still won’t be able to make it everywhere.

Havana (Cuba): wind from the south


Jazz in Havana may not be as sophisticated as in New York or northern Europe, but it is closer to the people and the roots

There is no doubt that jazz has African roots, but already in his childhood he experienced strong influences from Latin America, in particular from Cuba. It was from there that Spanish melodies and rhythms came to New Orleans and to the north, which mixed perfectly with African ones. Thus, habanera can be clearly heard in proto-jazz plays of the second decade of the last century, and in the next decade conga drums, bongos and other specific instruments begin to be used in jazz.

This is not surprising: already in those days, a ferry sailed between New Orleans and Havana twice a day, and there was active communication between the residents, most of whom were former slaves. By the mid-1940s, Afro-Cuban jazz emerged as a separate genre and acquired its own leaders, one of whom was Machito.


After World War II, the great American musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker drew attention to Afro-Cuban jazz, and Cuban elements penetrated into the jazz of the East Coast of the United States and strengthened there for many years, and in New York in the middle of the 20th century, the development of the style was more active than in Cuba. But if you go anywhere for Afro-Cuban jazz today, it’s clearly not New York, but there, to the birthplace of the style. In clubs and small cafes, on the streets and on the terraces of shabby Havana, you can find both professional musicians and talented amateurs - jazz sounds here, as it did a century ago, as the music of ordinary people.

Cuba, despite its poverty, remains a dream country, where time seems to stand still among vintage cars and colonial architecture. A daiquiri cocktail, unchanged since the time of Hemingway, a cigar and coffee, whose strength no capitalism can weaken... There are still many colorful characters preserved here: any shoeshine boy can turn out to be a great singer, like Ibrahim Ferrer from Buena Vista Social Club. In distant Soviet times, it was the Cubans who introduced jazz to domestic listeners. A great friend of our festival, pianist Chucho Valdez, still remembers those tours with trepidation. And during his concert in St. Petersburg, he set the song “City over the Free Neva” to a broken Latin American rhythm, and this was one of the most magical moments of the festival. And my last trip to Cuba gave me the opportunity to meet the legendary pianist Roberto Fonseca!

Paris (France): dash across the ocean


On the small street Lombard, in the 1st and 4th arrondissements of Paris, there are three main jazz clubs of the French capital - Le Baiser Salé, Le Duc des Lombards And Sunset/Sunside

American jazz moved to Europe during the First World War - with American soldiers. The new-fangled style, along with swing and ragtime, was greatly loved by the capitals of the Old World, but was especially well received in vibrant and cosmopolitan Paris. At the end of the Great War, black musicians from America flocked to the French capital, not least because racial prejudice was practically absent in Paris, especially compared to New York. Jazz quickly captured the city's clubs, as well as the minds and hearts of Parisians and, more broadly, Europeans. By the mid-thirties, local superstars appeared here - for example, the creator of gypsy jazz Django Reinhardt and violinist Stefan Grappelli.

Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Tommy Iommi and many other famous musicians of the second half of the 20th century acknowledged that Reinhard had a deep influence on them, and his music became one of the sonic symbols of the 1930s.


During the Second World War, music in Paris did not die down - on the contrary, jazz was the connection between occupied Paris and the outside world, and after 1945, not a single tour of the titans of style took place without a date in this city.

It is not surprising that jazz is heard here today - be it the above-mentioned golden triangle of Lombard Street (Rue des Lombards), park lawns during Paris Jazz Festival in June - July or small basement establishments where professionals and amateurs gather to play and listen to music over a sandwich and a glass of wine.

After the war, Paris became the European Mecca for jazzmen from the States: they received an excellent reception here and were surprised at the absence of everyday racism, which they often encountered in their homeland. Miles Davis, who adored Paris, describes this well in his autobiography, and the film “About Midnight”, in which the only Oscar-winning role was played by saxophonist Dexter Gordon, also talks about this. My activity as a concert organizer began with a position at the French Embassy, ​​so I oversaw many French cultural projects in Russia. Subsequently, my colleagues from the agency and I Art Mania We've been doing a French jazz festival for many years Le Jazz and brought such stars to Moscow and St. Petersburg as guitarist Bireli Lagren, accordionist Richard Galliano, pianist Jackie Terrasson and many others. There was a love for French culture and a special attitude towards France even in the USSR during the coldest days of the Cold War, and, to my great pleasure, this love has not faded over the years.

Cape Town (South Africa): call of blood


The best time for music lovers to travel to Cape Town is the end of March and the beginning of April. It is at this time, at the end of the South African autumn, the most comfortable time for walking around the city, that the , the fourth largest in the world and the largest in Africa. Every year it begins with a free concert on the main street of Greenmarket Square

Where should one go for jazz if not to the ancestral home of its creators, Africa! The best place for this today is Cape Town. This city is just like jazz: it is a fusion of all kinds of cultures: African, European, Asian, and the music here sounds appropriate. Moreover, the city is quite safe (in comparison with the rest of Africa) and in recent years has attracted tourists not only with music, although music, especially jazz and especially on days Cape Town International Jazz Festival, there's enough here.


In the afternoon, head to the Museum of Contemporary African Art (“African Tate Modern”, as the locals call it), stroll through the colorful Bo Cap district, go to the ocean beach or climb Table Mountain, and go clubbing in the evening - on Monday and Friday Lounge 021 @ Swingers, where they play both African jazz and supranational experimental, on Tuesday - on Asoka, where excellent cuisine, and every Sunday afternoon on the veranda Kloof Street House give a free concert. On other days you are welcome Thuthuka Jazz Café, Jackson Hall and dozens of other places where a wide variety of jazz goes well with local wines.

The African continent has significantly enriched the language of jazz and blues. This includes Afrobeat, which originated in Nigeria, the founder of which was the legendary saxophonist Fela Kuti, and the unique Ethiojazz, one of the most prominent figures of which is vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke, and a meditative version of the blues, invented by a native of Mali, Ali Farka Toure. South Africa has also made a significant contribution to African music: artists from the famous Soweto region, which became a symbol of the fight against apartheid, have inspired numerous Western musicians like Paul Simon and David Byrne since the 1980s. In addition to the festival in Cape Town, the Moroccan festival provides an excellent opportunity to meet a wide variety of musicians from the African continent. Visa For Music, which takes place in Rabat - I go there every year.

Copenhagen (Denmark): dissenting opinion


Jazzhus Monmartre is the most famous jazz club in Copenhagen, but far from the only one. Residents of Scandinavia and, in particular, Denmark love jazz and are proud of the contribution of their musicians to its development, and the Danish government even funds a special organization JazzDanmark, which helps Danish jazzmen and promotes them on the European and world stage

Scandinavian jazz is cold, sometimes shrill, detached. It is considered a relatively new movement, emerging in the late 1960s and flourishing in the next decade, but jazz as a whole came to the region early: back in 1923, the Dane Waldermeer Eyberg formed the first jazz orchestra, and a year later released the first jazz recording in Denmark , and perhaps throughout Scandinavia.


Over the past four decades, in Sweden, Denmark and especially Norway, musicians have been conducting bold experiments with form and sound (yes, free jazz was very popular with the harsh northern people), mixing styles and instruments to create sounds. For example, a frequent guest of the Moscow Manor Jazz festival, future jazz pioneer Nils-Petter Molvær boldly and masterfully combines electronics and jazz improvisation, or saxophonist Jan Garbarek, who contributed to the meeting of jazz and Renaissance chorales.

The main, although far from the only, jazz place in the capital of the Danish kingdom is the legendary club Jazzhus Montmartre, which featured Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson and many other musicians from around the world. It is also important because the largest and most famous event related to Scandinavian jazz and jazz in Scandinavia in general is Copenhagen Jazz Festival- since 1979, it has been taking place within these walls as well.

Scandinavian jazz is a very interesting and independent school. The music of Norwegian musicians has, of course, the most characteristic sound: self-absorbed and self-sufficient, dramatic and incredibly beautiful. Throughout history, we have tried to bring a wide variety of musicians from Scandinavia to our festival. Among them are the Norwegian pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, the Finnish eccentric Jimi Tenor, and the saxophonist Hakon Kornstad, who very elegantly combined opera and jazz (in addition to his instrument, he also mastered the operatic tenor). As for the festival in Copenhagen, here you can hear both excellent local musicians and world stars. So, in 2015, I remember the performance of the legendary duet Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga in Tivoli Park.

Festival capitals - the “big three”

The six cities that we listed above are permanent world capitals of jazz, but, in addition to them, there are also temporary, transitory ones. These can be considered cities that host the most famous, important and major jazz festivals once a year.

Montreal (Canada): the largest jazz festival in the world


Festival International de Jazz de Montréal annually brings together about 3,000 musicians from several dozen countries around the world and attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators. In 2004, the festival even entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in terms of the number of spectators - that year there were more than 2 million of them

Hundreds of concerts take place in clubs, concert halls and outdoor venues over the course of a week and a half, with many events free to the public. This is such an important event for the city that many blocks in its central part are closed to car traffic during the festival and are completely given over to musicians and music lovers.

In 2018, the festival will take place from June 28 to July 7 - there is still time to buy tickets and plan your trip. If you don't have time, you can go to Montreal in October, when the city hosts an alternative festival organized by jazz musicians in accordance with their vision and ideas L'Off Jazz. It is, of course, smaller in scale, but also very interesting.

Montreux (Switzerland): largest in Europe and number two in the world

Montreux, a small town on the shores of Lake Geneva in the foothills of the Alps, has been attracting musicians from all over the world for the second century. At various times, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Freddie Mercury (the monument to him can be seen in the photo above) and David Bowie lived here. But at the beginning of July every year since 1976, the concentration of music in the clean mountain air has increased many times: the city has opened the second largest in the world after Montreal Montreux Jazz Festival.

Despite the “highly specialized” name, today the festival in Montreux is more than jazz: it attracts musicians playing a variety of styles - from classical to rap - both professionals and beginners. There is even a competition organized for the latter.

Main feature Montreux Jazz Festival- variety: here everyone can find an event to their liking: from free concerts in the park, where some musicians will replace others for several hours without a break, to private events taking place on a small ship sailing on the waters of Lake Geneva. This year, the 52nd Montreux Jazz Festival will take place almost simultaneously with the Montreal one - from June 29 to July 14.

Switzerland is associated among compatriots primarily with fantastically beautiful nature, bourgeoisism and excessive regulation of life. Nevertheless, it was here that the most famous European jazz festival in the world was created, which has not lost ground for more than 50 years. In general, the program of the festival in Montreux needs to be shown to those who every year complain that “Estate Jazz” is no longer a jazz festival: they performed here Massive Attack, Portishead, David Bowie and a great many other musicians who are quite far from jazz. This does not change the fact that many jazz giants can only be heard in Montreux. One of my most unforgettable Montreux festival experiences was the Prince concert in 2013. By the way, his group New Power Generation will perform this year at Usadba Jazz".

Monterey (USA): one of the oldest in the world



This year, for the 61st time since 1958, the Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the oldest regularly held jazz festivals in the world. How many legendary musicians have these oaks seen and legendary concerts heard - it seems that there was not a single major jazz name in the second half of the last century that was not on the Monterey Festival posters.

Compared to the other two festivals in this section, Monterey seems quite small - only three days (this year September 21–23), only 8 hectares of territory and only two main venues, and there are not hundreds of musicians. But they are very different - veterans and very young, native Americans and visitors from Japan and Africa.

This year, among other things, the American Navy Band from New Orleans will perform - 32nd Street Brass Band; they promise to bring a Bourbon Street vibe to the West Coast during Mardi Gras.

Rotterdam (Holland): the largest indoor festival

On your way home from Montreal or Montreux, be sure to stop by Rotterdam, because in the second half of July (this year July 13-15), it hosts “the world’s largest indoor jazz festival” - North Sea Jazz. On four floors of the complex Ahoy Rotterdam It brings together musicians from a variety of genres and performing in a variety of compositions - from classical chamber trios to symphony orchestras.

In front of an adult North Sea Jazz in the last few years there has been a children's North Sea Jazz Kids, designed to introduce children to jazz, musical instruments, and how music is made in general.

The art of creating a festival poster has been approached with creativity: since 2006, before the start of the festival, a competition has been organized for students of the local art university, the Willem de Kooning Academy, who are asked to come up with a design for the official poster. Shortly before the start of the festival, the winner is announced, and the finalists' works are included in the exhibition. Above is Nelleke van Lomvel's winning entry last year. The works of past winners are also published on the festival website.

North Sea is a festival designed for a wide range of age audiences, which Elena Moiseenko, musical director of Usadba Jazz, and I try not to miss. Here you can hear both classics and cutting-edge electronics, as well as discover something exotic from the world world music- A lot of interesting things are happening in African and Middle Eastern music right now. In short, this is almost an ideal festival for immersing yourself in the world musical context in the shortest possible time.

Something important is happening here too

Krakow (Poland)


The main jazz place behind the Iron Curtain was, without a doubt, Poland. Dozens of talented musicians from this country were well known in the USSR, and Polish jazz became an independent phenomenon with a unique sound and approach to composition and performance.

To get to know this phenomenon better, go to Krakow in the second half of July. Firstly, there will be Jazz Summer Festival, and secondly, at this time of year it is best to walk there and see the sights (the city suffered little damage during the Second World War - its ancient buildings were perfectly preserved). And if it doesn’t coincide with the festival, you can easily find music to suit your taste in the Old Town, in parks and squares.

I have a special relationship with this city: my ancestors once lived here. My distant great-grandfather was the chief postmaster of Krakow. There are a lot of advantages here besides jazz: beautiful architecture, the wonderful Vistula embankment, Wawel Castle... Moreover, traveling to Krakow is relatively inexpensive, and in our time this is also important. Besides legends like the soul band Take 6 and saxophonist Farrow Sanders, at this year’s Krakow summer festival I recommend paying attention to the performances of Polish jazzmen. This country is perhaps the only one in Eastern Europe that managed to create its own school: Polish jazz is more analytical and intellectual than passionate and impulsive; the traditions of musical romanticism and avant-garde are clearly felt in this music.

Tel Aviv (Israel)


Although jazz came to Palestine during the British Mandate, it became a truly serious and noticeable phenomenon on the world stage in the Middle East in the mid-1990s, not without the participation of well-known musicians Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and Avi Lebovich.

Israeli jazz is interesting because, although it is made according to American patterns (a large number of Israeli jazzmen studied in the USA), it is at the same time imbued with an oriental flavor - there are unusual rhythms, harmonies that are strange to the European-American ear, and a wild pressure. And all because Israeli jazz has a history of klezmer, folk music of Eastern Europe, Morocco and Yemen.

In summer Tel Aviv is uncomfortable due to the heat, so Tel Aviv Jazz Festival takes place in December (and in February they also organize Red Sea Jazz Festival) is a great way to get acquainted with all shades of local exoticism.

Israeli jazz is distinguished by exciting rhythms, drawn by local musicians from the traditional music of the Middle East, and spicy, close to our soul melodies, in which there is so much sublime sadness. About ten years ago, we discovered double bass player Avishai Cohen for Russia, who instantly made our lovers of improvised music fall in love with him, and at the Usadba Jazz festival in Tsaritsyn we showed our audience another talented Israeli double bass player, Omer Avital. There are undoubtedly many more musical treasures to be found on the shores of the Red Sea. This year, Israel will be represented at our festival by Mark Elyahu, who plays the most ancient instrument of the East - the kemanche (or Pontic lyre).

Tokyo, Japan)


The largest concentration of jazz lovers, according to some data, is not observed in the USA or Norway, as one might think, but in Japan. Moreover, jazz penetrated the islands not at all together with American soldiers, as one might again think, but much earlier - back in the 1920s, when the first dance halls opened in Osaka and Kobe. And since Japanese culture is very peculiar, closed and with great distrust of phenomena penetrating from outside, local jazz has a very specific Japanese or, more broadly, Asian sound, and echoes of folk songs or Buddhist prayers are heard in the plays every now and then.

It is not surprising that here, in addition to hundreds of other establishments, there is a branch of the New York club Blue Note and several major festivals - e.g. Tokyo Jazz Festival, which this year will take place from August 31 to September 2.

Istanbul, Türkiye)


Turkey was lucky with jazz: its rapid spread throughout the world coincided with the decades of Europeanization of the country in the first half of the last century. The new style took root, merged with local and generally Islamic musical traditions and produced a huge number of amazing performers and recordings. Today, jazz is in demand in the country no less than in the last century. This is guaranteed by at least two jazz festivals in Istanbul ( Akbank Caz Festivali Alexey Arkhipovsky

The main jazz event in Russia in the last ten years is the Usadba Jazz festival. Why exactly this? Firstly, because this is a showcase of what is happening in jazz in the countries of the former USSR, and we are talking not only about experienced musicians, but also about young and even children (the Jazz Kids Estate stage, competitions, master -classes and other events). Secondly, the festival is very diverse: in the open areas there is a place for jazz musicians, rockers, and bluesmen, that is, any quality music. Thirdly, in recent years, “Usadba Jazz” has become not only the usual Arkhangelskoye near Moscow, but also venues in five other cities of Russia. In general, to get acquainted with the jazz scene of the largest (but not the jazziest, let's be honest) country in the world, there is no better place to find.

Over the 15 years that we have been organizing the “Estate Jazz” festival, I have heard more than once from world stars and fellow organizers of major festivals in other world capitals that they have never seen anything like it: a musical festival surrounded by the architecture of an ancient estate - this is our know-how -how. For me personally, this is my favorite brainchild, which takes a huge amount of energy, but gives back several times more.

This year at the anniversary festival in Arkhangelsk we will show the entire cross-section of modern jazz: there will be New York saxophonist Donnie McCaslin, who played with David Bowie, and a Prince tribute band New Power Generation, and a very young multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier, to whom such titans of the genre as Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock sing hosannas. And, of course, many Russian musicians: from Igor Butman, who is rightfully considered the face of our jazz in the world, to the winners of the music competition that we hold every autumn in the mountain resorts near Sochi.

We have come a long way. More than a thousand musicians have performed on our stages over the years: from such undeniable classics as Youssef Latif or Branford Marsalis, to musicians who turned into stars literally before our eyes, such as Robert Glasper or Avishai Cohen. When Usadba Jazz stepped from the capital to the regions, it became clear how interesting and promising our history is. All festivals are very different: in St. Petersburg they love more intellectual and sophisticated music, Voronezh is open to any experiments, it is a city with the most receptive and appreciative audience, in Yekaterinburg drive and groove are most valued. But the atmosphere of unity and creativity for which Usadba Jazz is famous remains the same everywhere. In order to unite such different people, we continue to work.

Photo: VisionsofAmerica/Joe Sohm/Getty Images, Busà Photography/Getty Images, Lost Horizon Images/Getty Images, Mbzt/commons.wikimedia.org, Jeff Greenberg/Contributor/Getty Images, Soeren.b.c/commons.wikimedia.org, Maria Swärd / Getty Images, Anton Petrus / Getty Images, Prasit photo / Getty Images, Ondrej Cech / Getty Images

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