Good news: free jazz was not sanctioned. It was in the USSR that they wanted to bend saxophones, but here they are so clever that they are quite enough for a couple of major events.
Waiting for the festival Leo Records in Russia we are talking with the hero of the occasion - once a Soviet emigrant, and now a British subject, a legend of free music Leo Feigin. The publisher and promoter of contemporary art told us what to expect from jazz concerts in Voronezh, what he knows about nostalgia, and who is at the highest level of musical development.

Sounds.ru: Festival of your label Leo Records takes place in Russia for the third time. What has changed, what traditions are important to you?
Leo Feigin: The festival is gaining momentum. For the first time this year it becomes international. We are expecting performances by German musicians - pianist Semyon Nabatov ( Simon Nabatov), saxophonists Frank Gratkowski ( Frank Gratkowski) and Gebhard Ullmann ( Gebhard Ullmann), trombonist from Switzerland Yannick Barman ( Yannick Barman). The geography of the festival has expanded enormously. Concerts will be held in seven cities - St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, Moscow, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Saratov. The festival is far from exhausting itself with concerts in Russia. It will continue in Berlin at the end of December.

Sounds.ru: Germans and Swiss are playing at the festival. Why not the British?
Leo: The English don’t play for one simple reason - there is no money to invite the English. Thanks to a German sponsor, Goethe Institute, we were able to invite German musicians, but the British Council refused to help us, which is very sad.

Sounds.ru: Some of the Leo Fest concerts will be included in the program festival "Chernozem"– a multicultural event in the Russian outback. Is there any desire to further develop Leo Fest in this direction?
Leo: I know little about the Voronezh festival "Chernozem", but our main promoter, musician Alexey Kruglov, speaks very positively about this festival. It is possible that if everything goes well, our cooperation will continue.

Sounds.ru: Your legendary films "New music from Russia" finally published - by a Russian label "Geometry". Please comment on this event.
Leo: I created these films, so for me there is nothing unprecedented in them. As for "Geometry", I haven't seen what they've done yet. Another thing is that I have an idea to make a new film about Russian new music. I met a wonderful producer Oksana Matievskaya, with which we decided to make another film. This filming will take place exactly 25 years later, so let's see what comes out of our idea.

Sounds.ru: The beginning of work on films will be presented with a jam in “House of Culture”. Leo Records discs are also presented there. How is the distribution of your label's releases going?
Leo:: There is simply no distribution in Russia. In general, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do business with Russia. In many ways, it is a third world country and these 25 years of relative freedom have taught it nothing.

Sounds.ru: Tell me, is nostalgia for Russian emigrants now a reality or is it just an ancient myth?
Leo: I have no idea about Russian emigrants. I live 500 km from London, I don’t communicate with emigrants. I know there are a lot of Russians in London, but I don't know any of them.

Sounds.ru: The Russian artists whose CDs are released by you have changed recently - as people, as musicians - Alexey Kruglov, Tim Dorofeev, Anastasia and Evgeny Masloboev?
Leo:: As musicians, Russian artists are becoming better and better. If they have the opportunity to perform, if the public comes to their concerts, this means that there are all the prerequisites for them to play even better.

Sounds.ru: Basically, in essence, a person is drawn to rhythmic and timbre organization, comfort. Why do people even listen to free?
Leo:: I'm not sure that a person is inherently drawn to rhythmic music and comfort. Maybe this is true for most people who have nothing in their heads except rhythm and comfort. We all, of course, love to jam to this kind of music, but this music is very limited. It is limited by the same rhythm, tonality, harmony - this is closed music and it cannot break out of the restrictions that the same harmony, tonality, rhythm, etc. impose on it. Free jazz, which our musicians play extremely rarely, is open music. Everything is possible in it, everything except clichés. It opens up completely new opportunities for the musician to create spontaneously completed structural compositions. This is the highest form of music making. The degree of creativity in this kind of music is the highest. Musicians who create spontaneous compositions are at the highest level of musical development.

The third Leo Records Festival in Russia, this time dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the company, will be held from September 5 to 21 in St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, Moscow, Voronezh, and cities of the Volga region. The festival will be supported by the Goethe-Institut, which made it possible for Simon Nabatov, Frank Gratkowski and Gebhard Ullmann to participate in the festival.

Plan of Moscow days of Leo Records Festival:

Opening of the festival. A creative meeting with Leo Feigin, a photo exhibition dedicated to avant-garde jazz in Russia, a concert by Oleg Yudanov - Alexey Kruglov.

1st department: Art Ensemble (Arkhangelsk), Second Approximation
2nd department: Evgeny and Anastasia Masloboev (Irkutsk), Goat`s Notes
3rd department: Ensemble of Moscow Composers under the direction. Solovyova, guests - Brom.

1st part: Duet of Andrei Razin - Oleg Yudanov, Russian Free Folk Quartet
2nd department: Experimental project "Double Duet" (two double bassists + two singers, composition to be decided), Moscow Composers Orchestra
Section 3: Guests - Godze, Anton Kotikov - Alexey Chichilin

Department 1: Theater hall. Performance "Physics and Lyrics" - Mikhail Mitropolsky, Alexey Kruglov, Second Approximation.
Section 2: Club hall. Folk Improv Meeting: Evgeny and Anastasia Masloboev, Art Ensemble, soloists of the Dmitry Pokrovsky Ensemble. Special guest - Yannick Barman (Switzerland).

Presentation of the publication of Leo Feigin's films "New Music from Russia" by the Geometry label, jam session.

1st department: Ensemble of Simon Nabatov - Frank Gratkowski (Germany - Russia).
2nd department: Goat`s Notes Orchestra. Special guests - Yannick Barman (Switzerland), Tim Dorofeev, Konstantin Sedovin, Evgeniy and Anastasia Masloboev.

Echo of Leo Records Festival.
Solo concert of Simon Nabatov (Germany).

This is a book of memories, memoirs about life in jazz. Leo Feigin is a master of sports in high jumping and the author of the first sports dictionary in the USSR, which was never published due to his emigration. Finding himself in England, he managed to make a profession out of his beloved jazz: he created a wonderful program of avant-garde music on the BBC Russian Service, which he hosted under the pseudonym Alexey Leonidov. His politically engaged bosses were constantly trying to close this jazz program, but he showed a sportsmanship and managed to fight it off and defend it. His colleague and jazz saxophonist Seva Novgorodtsev helped him in this. Then his private independent company Leo Records was born, which for many years stood on the edge of a financial abyss, but was the only one in the West that released recordings of Soviet (or better yet, “anti-Soviet”) avant-garde musicians illegally exported from the USSR. However, the Leo Records catalog has gradually collected hundreds of discs from dozens of wonderful musicians from all over the world. Leo Feigin communicated with these world stars and writes about it in his book.

Among such stars is Sergei Kuryokhin, with whom we were friends, and I even had a chance to have a hand in ensuring that some of Sergei’s recordings from Leningrad ended up in London, and then were released on Leo Records records. We corresponded intensively with Leo through various channels, and for 3-4 years we had an amazingly close mutual understanding, which is generally possible between people who do not know each other personally and are separated by the Iron Curtain. Then my life took a different track: I went to work at a post office, traveled to secret facilities, and at this sensitive enterprise I had to stop unnecessary contacts with a BBC employee. Some of the photographs published in this book were taken by me and sent to Leo in the early 1980s, although they are marked in the book “Photos from the author’s archive” - at that time we did not care at all about some insignificant copyrights, so I have I have no complaints about Leo.

In addition to such world jazz stars as Anthony Braxton, Sun Ra, Sunny Murray, Cecil Taylor, Evan Parker, Bill Dixon, Marilyn Crispell, Amina Claudine Myers, Leo also writes about the legendary Soviet semi-underground musicians - Sergei Kuryokhin, the Ganelin Trio (Ganelin- Tarasov-Chekasin or GTC), Valentina Ponomareva, Vladimir Rezitsky, Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky, Vladimir Volkov, Arkady Shilkloper and other musicians, many of whom I also happened to know personally. Leo also writes about his relationship with the Leningrad music critic Efim Barban, whose home I visited several times along with Sergei Kuryokhin, as well as about Joseph Brodsky, with whom Leo had a difficult relationship. Efim Barban and his wife Alla told me about their meetings with Brodsky (at that time he was not yet a Nobel laureate, but was undoubtedly a poet of the first magnitude), about their trips to Tartu to see Yuri Lotman, about playing tennis together... But Leo Feigin In New York, relations with Brodsky did not work out: he did not help promote, through connections in the Ardis publishing house and the Proffer spouses, the records of underground Soviet musicians who illegally released their recordings overseas on Leo Records...

On August 8–11, Moscow will host the Leo Records Festival in Russia, dedicated to the British label, founded in the late 70s and releasing Soviet and Russian avant-garde jazz together with famous musicians and ensembles - Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Art Ensemble of Chicago. In 1990, Leo Feigin made a series of 10 films about the legends of Russian improvisational music - Vyacheslav Ganelin, Sergei Kuryokhin, the Arkhangelsk group and others. The festival will feature films from this series and performances by new jazz performers in Russia, which are published by the Leo Records label. T&P spoke with the event organizers.

Leo Feigin

“I worked for the BBC, making a program about jazz. I arrived in England in January 1974. By 1979, I was already a regular at new music concerts, knew all the musicians, and played their recordings in my program. And I felt not fully in demand at the BBC. And just at this time the group “Ganelin Trio” matured and my friends in Russia smuggled their recording to me. I tried to place it somewhere, was refused and realized that it was better to release the record myself. To the question of why I started making this music, the answer is simple: probably out of stupidity. But then I was no longer interested in anything else.

Of course, I made an incredible number of mistakes. I made the first two records in America - there was a person there who pressed the records and sent them to me. I go to the airport to get these records, and at customs they tell me: “You have twelve hundred pounds.” I ask: “For what?” They answer me: Value added tax, that is, value added tax. "Are you registered? Then you have to pay tax.”

As far as I know, I am the only person who manages to release such music without sponsorship and government support. Everything for me is based on personal contact. Leo Records is not Columbia, which has a staff, a board of directors who invite musicians and sign contracts. Leo-Records is one person: a loader, a driver, an accountant and, in his free time, a producer.

Now the label's catalog contains more than eight hundred titles. Every day I receive new entries from Italy, France, Japan. And of course, from Russia. Now the music in Russia is absolutely amazing, and good musicians are growing here like mushrooms. There is a group in Moscow called Goat’s Notes - brilliant musicians. Or the Masloboev duo from Irkutsk - they have exactly what I’m looking for: originality and uniqueness. Another thing is that Russian musicians are at a disadvantage compared to Western ones, who all, without exception, receive subsidies.

It would be possible to make a film about the new wave of avant-garde musicians. But alas, there is no money. I have a very bad attitude towards what is happening in Russia now. Imagine, a thousand families have a billion-dollar fortune - and it does not occur to these people to allocate a thousandth of their fortune to the development of new music. This is called poverty of spirit.”

Alexey Kruglov

Saxophonist, festival organizer

“Meeting Leo Feigin several years ago turned out to be fateful for me. I think we met in 2009, when Leo was in Moscow presenting his book All That Jazz. I gave Leo my published CDs and recordings of unreleased music at that time. Of course, I dreamed of publishing on Leo Records.

After some time, I wrote to Leo and received a letter from him that changed my whole life. Leo wrote that my music continues the line of Russian new jazz music and he is ready to publish me. By now I have already 7 albums recorded on Leo Records. This includes compositional music, and experiments with the combination of improvisational music and structures close to academic music, and total improvisation.

In 2011, Leo organized the Leo Records International Tour in Austria and England, which featured the wonderful English band Four Page and our duet with Estonian guitarist Jaak Soojaar. Leo and I had an idea to do something similar in Russia. And in February 2012, the first Leo Records Festival in Russia was held with great success in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Arkhangelsk. After that, it was decided to hold the festival every year, especially since next year is the 35th anniversary of Leo Records.”

Oleg Yudanov

Drummer, "Art Ensemble", group "Arkhangelsk"

“We listened to a lot of different music, although in Soviet times there was, of course, less choice. The principle was this: learn, but not repeat, but go your own way. This is very individual music. Any jazz music, even mainstream, is always very individual. And in improvisation there is even more of a huge field for ideas.

My approach to the instrument developed gradually. Now parallels with painting arise - many of my artist friends say that I paint with sounds.

In Arkhangelsk there was one group that played such music - the Arkhangelsk ensemble. And throughout the country there were many fans of this music - they listened to it and played it. The groups “Arkhangelsk” and “Art Ensemble” are, of course, different - now is a different time, different ideas. But for me personally, nothing has changed in music.

I see this music in concert performance - not in clubs, but in concert halls, along with academic music. The problems that are solved in improvised music are almost the same as in modern academic music. Using sound to express something more, to answer philosophical questions. You don’t know where your creativity will take you, you just follow the sound and sometimes it’s hard to imagine how it will all end.”

Leo Feigin

Founder of the Leo Records label

“It so happened that I released the first record of the duet of Gaivoronsky and Volkov late. There were very serious punctures. I found out too late that the recording was made on four tracks. I edited one part of the reel, and then it turned out that I cut the second part of the concert. I regret, of course, that they were somehow deprived compared to the others. But over time, all this was leveled out - they had many recordings on Leo Records.

I consider Gaivoronsky an outstanding musician and an equally outstanding composer who feels at home in any musical genre. I can tell you with confidence that Kuryokhin treated Gaivoronsky with the greatest respect. His discography contains a lot of interesting and unique projects, starting with his musical “correspondence” with Mozart and ending with Indian ragas, and between them - compositions for large orchestras, jazz quartets, chamber music. In my series of films “New Music from Russia” one film is dedicated to the brilliant duet Gaivoronsky-Volkov. They play a suite based on the American anthem "Yankee Doodle". Throughout this suite, they “pass” the motive through all possible permutations of harmony and rhythm, and only at the end of the work does the listener finally know what they are playing.

It seems to me that the Arkhangelsk group should have been much more famous than many others from the Soviet Union. Her music had elements that perhaps no other group in the USSR had. Rezitsky and other musicians of the group, on the one hand, listened to folk music - they lived in Arkhangelsk and were simple Russian guys - on the other hand, they had elements of rock music, rock avant-garde, and again, they based all their performances conceptually.

But “Arkhangelsk” is far from the only group whose music featured this synthesis - folk, jazz, rock, avant-garde. They were in the foreground, but now they are doing this all the time; there is even a new branch in music called “ethnic jazz.” For example, Sainkho Namchylak is an absolutely amazing singer and musician.”

Andrey Razin

Pianist, composer, trio “Second Approximation”

“The “Second Approximation” trio plays modern jazz, without limiting itself to any narrow framework of dogmas and canons. Freedom to handle thematic material, harmony, and form is associated, first of all, with an interest in the interpenetration of improvisational and compositional elements. At the same time, in our compositions we use elements of folklore, modern academic music, musical theater and, of course, the “signs” of jazz associated with phrasing, meter rhythm and harmony.

If we compare this with the traditional jazz presentation of the main theme and the subsequent improvisations of the participants in a strictly defined structure, then we can probably say that these are two different environments of jazz, quite far from each other.”

Leo Feigin

Founder of the Leo Records label

“Kurekhin wrote to me in 1979. It was a revelation for me. It was the letter of a freeborn man who wrote as if he lived in France or Germany. Kuryokhin was not afraid of anything. He wrote that he was such and such a musician, he wanted to record and show me his music. That's how it all started. No one really knew him then; they knew him only in the Saigon cafe, on the corner of Liteiny and Nevsky, where he spent most of his time. He was an absolute renegade, a man of the underground. So I was especially pleased to give him such a push. We immediately found a common language.

I released his record, and, of course, reviews began to appear on it. Some reviews were brilliant, some were very incredulous. Someone wrote that the tape was somehow sped up because a person cannot play the piano that fast. As for the situation inside the Soviet Union, having a record released in the West is already the beginning of a great career.

Kuryokhin, in fact, has a split personality. You can look at him as a pianist, and he really was a brilliant pianist. But he got tired of playing the piano very quickly, maybe after I released one or two of his records. I consider Kuryokhin, first of all, a genius of conceptualism. He even considered his solo performances on the piano from a conceptual perspective. In this, I believe, Kuryokhin is much stronger than Kuryokhin the pianist. And, of course, “Pop Mechanics” is one of the concepts of Sergei Kuryokhin. Interestingly, he has a joint record with American guitarist Henry Kaiser, Popular Science, on which one of the compositions is called The Concept of Concept. He was so obsessed with this idea.”

Tim Dorofeev

Guitarist of the group "Art Ensemble"

Of course, the influence of the Arkhangelsk jazz group is present. I think that there is no secret in spontaneous improvisation, there is surprise, which is why it is interesting. It is very important to understand each other and listen. The role of the organizer is to give freedom to the project participants, but, at the same time, to closely monitor what is happening and, if possible, correct it. It is very important to have a sense of form.

I have no fears that new jazz will be marginalized, because people always strive for something new, unknown, and someone has to do it. Unfortunately, the media does not always cover this process, but the progressive part of society always participates in it. Although this is not a large percentage, thanks to this, there is no stagnation in art and music. In my opinion, today pop culture as a whole is undergoing degradation and its figures are trying to save the situation by turning to the population for new ideas.”

19:00 Press conference with Leo Feigin (at the Esse jazz club).

20:00 Opening of the festival (“Art Ensemble” by Tim Dorofeev from Arkhangelsk and Alexey Kruglov, Andrei Razin’s trio “Second Approximation”, “Moscow Composers Ensemble” conducted by Andrei Solovyov, Goat's Notes, Sergey Starostin, Renat Gataulin. Special guests of the festival - Roman Stolyar and Sergey Letov, group “Brom”, Maral Yakshieva, Alexey Chichilin, Anton Kotikov, group Happy 55. Admission is free.

19:00 The Lutheran Cathedral of Peter and Paul will host a concert of the duet Duet of Andrei Razin and Oleg Yudanov.

21:00 The following will play at the Workshop club: Russian Free Folk Quartet (A. Kruglov, T. Dorofeev, Evgeniy and Anastasia Masloboev), Ensemble of Moscow composers Andrei Solovyov, Goat`s Notes.

23:00 Meeting with Leo Feigin and screening of films: the first part of the film “Divine Madness” about Sergei Kuryokhin, dedicated to “Pop Mechanics”, the film “Balkan Suite” about Anatoly Vapirov, the film “Father of the Russian New Avant-Garde” about Vyacheslav Ganelin.

15:00 In the “Bazhenov Hall” of the Tsaritsyno estate there will be a meeting with Leo Feigin and a film screening of films: “A Journey through “Yankee Doodle” about the duet of Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky and Vladimir Volkov, “Voices of New Music” about Valentina Ponomareva and Sainkho Namchylak, jazz group “ Arkhangelsk". The trio of Andrei Razin “Second Approximation”, Evgeny and Anastasia Masloboev (Irkutsk), will perform, guests of the duet are Alexey Kruglov, Renat Gataulin.

20:00 Performance by the “Art Ensemble” of Tim Dorofeev and Alexey Kruglov.

17:00 At the House of Culture store there will be a meeting with Leo Feygin, a screening of fragments of the entire series of films “New Music from Russia” and a full screening of the film “Divine Madness” about Sergei Kuryokhin. Afterwards there is a final jam of all festival participants and invited guests. Free admission.

“New music from Russia” – a meme and legend of the post-Soviet past – has found material embodiment. A collection of films by Leo Feigin, dedicated to free music originating from the USSR, was published for the first time on physical media. The publishing house carried out a complete restoration and remastering of image and sound. These ten films were created in the early 90s and shown on British television. They were made by the ex-Soviet journalist Feigin, who left for England. He gradually turned into a culture manager and producer - now, for example, the Leo Records Festival In Russia is held annually. The films presented are one of the pinnacles of his activity as a publisher.
The peaks of the set are the smile of Sergei Kuryokhin, the extravaganza of sounds of Vyacheslav Ganelin, amazing music and an excellent video of the duet Anatoly Vapirov/Sergey Kuryokhin, the extravaganza of genres of Valentina Ponomareva, the mockingly ironic performance of the jazz group “Arkhangelsk” - with the reading of Soviet newspapers, turning into acapella free- improvisation, playing flutist Natasha Pshenichnikova with gas burners and playing the piano with her feet. Among the heroes of the films are also ZGA, Alexey Tegin, “Orchestrion”, Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky & Vladimir Volkov, Petras Vishniauskas, Sainkho Namchylak, Aziza Mustafa-zade and Mikhail Alperin. Such masters as Vladimir Chekasin, Sergei Letov, Arkady Shilkloper, Oleg Garkusha, Leonid Fedorov, Nadezhda Babkina appear in the episodes. Four and a half hours of music accustoms you and tunes you into yourself - we need to talk about each of the films, let's try to highlight something. For example, in “Divine Madness: Sergey Kuryokhin & Pop-Mechanics” there are combined shots and bright speeches of the leader, in which banalities are dashingly twisted into a knot with enchanting “carts” that convey the inner fire of the era.
Feigin’s commentary is dubbed for the first time, with the current Feigin duplicating himself then. If you want to listen to the original, more emotional and effective, the new edition has subtitles. Indignant at Soviet lack of freedom, Feigin describes the qualities of domestic musicians with such terms as “excellent technique” and “theatricality,” “spirituality” and “dramatic development of musical themes,” and adds “plenty of irony, parody and humor.” Most of these musicians were published by him both in England and in the USSR. “It was very dangerous, but no one was hurt...” Feigin himself sets out the complex contradictions between emigrant thought and Soviet life. He defines the protest of musicians as a “protest of a special kind” - not social or political, but aesthetic, a protest against banality. You can't object here.
This music has no equal in its combination of psychedelicity and virtuosity, musical intelligence and imagination. If the Soviet Union was twenty years behind the times and did not allow contemporary jazz to reach the audience, then our civilization is already forty years behind, although the paths are open. Let's say the Leo Records Festival In Russia gathers halls all over the country - from Irkutsk to Arkhangelsk, so you shouldn't give up hope. The films look painfully relevant, this music has not become a common place among us.

Recorded by Tatiana LARINA, Russia

Those radio listeners who sleep on the night from Monday to Tuesday risk missing the most interesting part. At this time, on the waves of the radio station “Russian News Service” (RSN 107.0) in the program “Milk Brothers”, hosted by producer and musician Igor Sandler, the most interesting interlocutors come to him for the night light.

Leo Feigin is a legendary figure. From Russia, in transit through Israel, he arrived in London. For several generations of jazz lovers, Leo is Alexey Leonidov, author and presenter of the “Jazz” program on the BBC Russian Service, founder of the Leo Records label. The tiny company he created in 1979 with a staff of one person did more to promote Soviet jazz in the West than the entire huge Melodiya with its thousands of employees and gigantic budget.

Story one.

How to get to the West

In the USSR, Feigin was a master of sports in high jump. In London, he became an employee of the BBC Russian Service - and the main promoter of Soviet new music in the West.

Fragments of an interview on RSN

Igor Sandler: - Leo, tell us how you got to the West?

Leo Feigin: - It was hard to let go. They invited me for an interview and addressed me by name and patronymic, which sounded ominous. I then taught English at the Herzen Institute (Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute named after A.I. Herzen. - Ed.). They picked me up from the last lecture. I entered the audience. And suddenly - two hands on my shoulders. “Come with us.” They put me in a car and brought me to the Big House. At the same time, I was not some outstanding refusenik. I simply shared the fate of those who knew how to speak English, read English books, and communicate with foreigners. They brought me there and said: “If you stop everything, then it will be fine, if not, then the next conversation will be in a completely different place and in a different climate.” This meant Siberia. They added: “If you want to leave, there will be no obstacles.”

I.S.: - How is it that there will be no obstacles? This happened in 1972!

L.F.: - I always wanted to leave. But it was then that I needed to stay for a few more months: the Soviet Encyclopedia publishing house was preparing my English-Russian dictionary of sports terms for publication. But it all ended in tears. The dictionary was never published.

The second story. How to become a BBC employee

Fragments of an interview on RSN

I.S.: - In 1976, Leo invited Seva Novgorodtsev to the BBC Russian Service. And after that, we, Soviet citizens, began to listen to Rock crops, Crop rotations, etc. In a word, Leo became the musical parent of Seva Novgorodtsev. We are filled with a feeling of pride, because our compatriot has proven to the West: we are also not guys who are crazy. Tell us how you ended up in England and how you ended up at the BBC, and even as a presenter of music programs.

L.F.: - It's not that simple. To get into the BBC Russian Service, I had to take a test. And this became the most difficult task of my life. The test is brutal: you are put in a separate room, given dictionaries and a full BBC news bulletin, about 15 pages. All this needs to be translated into Russian within a certain time. The next test is a voice test, when you need to read something out loud. And the last test is writing a review or some other material. I took the test in Israel, I didn’t even have money to buy a bottle of water. It was very hot, they put me in a room in the British Embassy in Israel, and I wrote. When I finished, an embassy employee looked into the room and suddenly ran away. A few minutes later she returned to me with a huge glass of water. I was in a faint state. Nevertheless, I managed to pass the test and was hired.

Story three. Transformation of L.S. Feigin to Alexey Leonidov

On January 1, 1974, the program “On Jazz and New Music” was broadcast on BBC radio, the author and presenter of which was Alexey Leonidov. Why jazz, why new music? This is what Leo Feigin said about this in the “Milk Brothers” program.

L.F.: - I always listened to jazz, I collected records back in Leningrad. When I came to the BBC, there was only one 15-minute music program in which Barry Holland (who later became head of the BBC Russian Service) taught people how to dance samba or rumba. Once there was a 15-minute hole in the air. And the day before I was at a concert by the Weather Report group (American jazz fusion group - Ed.) and bought their record there. I brought it to work to listen to it on good equipment, and suddenly - a hole! I volunteered to fill it out and was allowed to do so. The host of the broadcast was a wonderful person, Yasha Berger, a poet. Two minutes before the start of the program, he asks me: “Lenya, how should I introduce you?” And then I turned green. My brother, a conscientious objector, and his wife remained in Russia; I was afraid of harming them. Then he asked me again: “What is your name?” - “Leonid” - “And in the world?” - "Alexei". He says: “Okay, then you will be Alexey Leonidov.” So he announced into the microphone.

Story four. Going to a psychiatrist

Fragments of an interview on RSN

I.S.: - This year Leo Records turns 35 years old. This is a significant date. How it all began?

L.F.: - It started like this. Apparently the BBC didn't push me to the limit. There was energy left that needed to be directed somewhere. For the first 3-5 years, I was intoxicated by the feeling of freedom from the fact that I managed to leave the Soviet Union and escape from the KGB. At the same time, over the years I have learned absolutely everything about musical life in England. It must be said that each BBC employee was required to work a certain number of night shifts. The time difference with Moscow is 3 hours, so at half past five at night I had to go down to the studio and, despite my sleepy state, say in a cheerful voice: “Good morning, dear radio listeners!” In Moscow at that moment it was already half past seven in the morning. When I had a night shift ahead of me, after the end of the evening broadcast - at 9 o'clock - I quickly had dinner and walked to Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club (Ronnie Scott's club). Came towards the end of the first performance. The main thing began in the second section. Over the course of 4-5 years I saw everyone there. On one of my first visits, Ella Fitzgerald performed there. We sat at a table, and she sang and moved around the hall. When she, continuing to sing, leaned her elbows on my table, I thought I would lose consciousness.

My night shifts resulted in a jazz education for me. On ordinary days, I went to concerts to listen to music that was called new or avant-garde. There I met various musicians who later became great.

And the recordings started like this. One morning I woke up and told my wife that I was going to start a label and was going to New York to record Amina Claudine Myers (American jazz singer - Ed.). She thought I was crazy. And she turned to a psychiatrist with a message that something was wrong with her husband. This was the emigrant’s philosophy: we’ve been here for almost a week. And how is it possible to open a recording company when we still don’t know anything about this society and we don’t have money! And she and I were engaged in translations in our free time. I wrote an interlinear version, and she formatted it in the form of a scientific engineering text. And I hid 500 pounds from her, which at that time was decent money. I went to New York with them. All the vicissitudes of the creation of Leo Records are reflected in my book “All that jazz”, published by the Amphora publishing house in St. Petersburg.

I.S.: - Leo, how do you assess what is happening in music now?

L.F.: - It seems to me that an incredible story is happening: the CD is dying, but despite this, musicians cannot live without a CD. Because it's a passport. If you are a musician, but you don’t have a CD, then what kind of musician are you? Therefore, now Western musicians, especially beginners, at all costs need to record a CD at some reputable company. If a reputable company releases a disc, then it sends 250 copies to festival organizers, critics, and radio stations. This, of course, costs a lot of money. I receive an avalanche of posts and offers. There are more and more musicians who are willing to pay. They are helped by their artistic councils in Switzerland, Holland, and France. Unfortunately, in Russia there is no such organization that would help young musicians. Although a powerful new generation has now appeared in Russia...

Instead of an epilogue

“I’ll tell you where our company’s logo came from,” shared Leo Feigin. — There was no logo on the first four records. And then Keshavan Maslak (American jazz multi-instrumentalist, avant-garde artist, poet and restaurateur. - Ed.) said that it’s impossible without a logo. His wife was a designer and they asked me to create a logo. And they did it! And then a phrase appeared that has existed for 35 years: “Music for an inquisitive mind and a passionate heart!”

Recorded by Tatiana LARINA, Russia