A man of jazz

Volodymyr Solianyk, an improviser and composer, lives in constant interaction with jazz: he performs on stage, composes music, and teaches students. He is called a jazz guru and virtuoso musician. The artistic biography of one of the most celebrated pianists of modern Ukrainian jazz lists participation in leading festivals, solo concerts, and tours across nearly all European countries. He has recorded more than a dozen CDs and has been lecturing in the Gliere Music Institute in Kyiv for 24 years now.

He has performed on stage together with such legendary jazzmen as Chick Corea, Don Pullen, Ralph Patt, Johnny Vee, and others. He has established the unique Kyiv Art Ensemble, a living collective that each time features a new lineup made up by the best Ukrainian and foreign jazz musicians. Solianyk was among the founders of the international forum Jazz Koktebel, and last year he created and successfully conducted the new festival Live in Blue Bay, also in Koktebel (incidentally, while the festival was held, Volodymyr was given the title of the Merited Artist of Ukraine).

The Day visited a lesson in improvisation given by the master to second-year students. The teacher performed a fantastically beautiful improvisation, and then one of his students sat at the piano. Solianyk said, “Play with caring fingers.”

Solianyk is far from being indifferent himself. He cares about the destiny of Kyiv’s architectural monuments; it disturbs him that the capital of Ukraine does not have a jazz club; he cares about the music you and I listen to. Our conversation started with Koktebel as a jazz center of Ukraine.

HOW CAN ONE DISTINGUISH BETWEEN GOOD MUSIC AND IMITATION?

“Concerts take place throughout the whole summer period in Koktebel; there is a jazz club here. From May to October groups from different countries keep coming here, and they make a sort of continuos jazz movement,” Solianyk said, “When seven years ago Dmytro Kiseliov and I conducted the first Jazz-Koktebel Festival, it was a success, and the word spread. But later I felt that it was not the proper format. It lost the jazz spirit, and I left in order to establish a new festival and revive real jazz the way I understand it.”

The last festival featured bright performers, such as Oleksii Kozlov with his ensemble New Arsenal, guitarist Enver Izmailov and his daughter Lenie, Georgian singer Nino Katamadze, Heorhii Nemyrovsky, and Sergei Manukian. What performances do you remember the most?

“Alexey Arkhipovsky came from Moscow; he plays balalaika and is an extremely interesting, sentimental, and attractive man. He plays all kinds of music, Russian folk music, jazz, and this music is very deep. Also Marek Balata from Poland performed there; he is one of the best jazz vocalists in Europe. He has a singular range and sings in a charming and touching way. The festival also featured the wonderful Crimean Militia Orchestra, led by the unique conductor Hennadii Retynsky. The orchestra keeps taking the top places in all competitions. They are all friends and have powerful energy; they play jazz in a wonderful and emotional way, because jazz cannot be played in a formal manner.”

In your opinion, what is the situation with jazz in Kyiv?

“In Kyiv, the situation with jazz is not bad, compared with other Ukrainian cities. There are frequent concerts, and the city has two festivals, Yednist (Unity) and Jazz in Kiev. Renowned musicians come, so there is some kind of movement. But in Europe even small towns have jazz clubs, often two or three of them, and they all have very good level. They feature wonderful musicians: this is prestigious and is appreciated on a par with philharmonic societies and the theatre.

“In Soviet times, Kyiv used to have the cafe Mria, where jazz musicians would gather. Now it has several restaurants where jazz music is performed, but those are expensive ones, and jazz is used as a sort of background there. I think that our capital needs a jazz club. There was one, when Volodymyr Symonenko and Ivan Karabyts were still alive. By the way, Symonenko even opened a jazz department in the Gliere Music School with an ingenious name – the Department of Variety Music Art.

“I was friends with Symonenko, and he was an extremely subtle and intelligent person. Symonenko was great music critic: he published the book Melodii dzhaza (Jazz Melodies), the first one of its kind in Ukraine and the USSR. He headed the music forum within the Composers Union, and initiated the first jazz festival Holosiivo. The festival Kyiv Music Fest used to include jazz concerts, but not anymore. And of course, Oleksii Kohan and Leonid Holdshtein have done a great deal to promote jazz music with their programs on radio and television.

“We have very little good music today. What we hear on TV is a nightmare. They say, ‘People need this.’ What kind of people? I am trying to fight this. If it was done in a way of mockery, okay then, but people judge our culture from this music. Once a Canadian blues musician, Johnny Vee, who is a Grammy Award winner, came to visit me. After watching TV he asked, ‘Is this your music?’ And I felt ashamed, although I have nothing to do with it.”

You are a teacher at the Gliere Institute. What do you teach?

“I teach the piano and have a class of jazz ensemble. I am proud of my students: I have toured Germany, Poland, America, and the Baltic States with them. Many of them work professionally abroad. When foreigners come to Ukraine, our students perform together with them. I want my students to learn to distinguish between good music and imitations. It is very important not to listen to bad music, as it is very harmful, has a negative effect, and tends to absorb. Those who listen to it become unable to accept the normal music.”

What does your International Producing Center do?

“We organize festivals and concerts of our and foreign musicians, tour across Ukrainian cities, and help young musicians and students.”

JAZZ STANDARDS

Is it true that you created a jazz orchestra when you were 15?

“Yes, I got keen on jazz at the age of 10, when we moved from Uman to Kyiv. At the time, the radio station Yunist kept rotating jazz music, mostly Soviet one, for example, Garanian and Frumkin. I admired it. I was learning to play the violin, and had a desire to learn to play the piano, and my parents bought an instrument for me. I started to pick out tunes and created a jazz orchestra in my school. There were five of us, and we played jazz standards, while the girls sang (our school no. 182 took the first place among all Kyiv schools). As a 10th-grader, I was accepted into a professional ensemble.”

Who taught you music?

“I consider Viktor Ikonnyk to be my main teacher. He was an immensely talented composer and conductor. And he gave me a lot; I was his student in the Pedagogical Institute at the music department. I am a conductor according to my first diploma.”

What kind of music do you compose?

“I compose only jazz music. I cooperate with Molody Theater and perform my music in the play The Fourth Sister staged by Stanislav Moiseiev. This is a black comedy by the Polish playwright Janusz Glovacki, who lives in the U.S. The play is set in Moscow, although the author has never been there. I also compose music for popular science films. And the ballet Jonathan Livingston Seagull was staged in America to my music. At the moment, I am writing songs, and I want to make a musical.”

Have you recently performed in Belarus?

“Minsk hosted the project based on Knut Hamsun’s works, which was dedicated to his 150th birth anniversary. The music was composed by the renowned Norwegian jazz musician and composer Jan Gunnar Hoff, who performed there with his jazz trio, and the text was recited by an actress from St. Petersburg. The Norwegian government allotted money for the translation of Hamsun’s works into Russian, and these were successfully performed in Norway, then in Russia and Belarus, and now they are going to tour Germany. Perhaps, we will make a similar project in Kyiv; we only need to translate his works into Ukrainian. Their art and element are extraordinary. I went to listen and joined them in the second act.

“Last year I went to Norway with Enver Izmailov; we were the first Ukrainian jazz musicians to perform there, and the audience accepted us well. The European center of jazz used to be located in Poland, but now it is moving to Scandinavia, where they play and teach jazz a lot. The governments allot big money to promote their music, and the musicians are paid for their performances.”

People responded with delight to your open-air concert in Kyiv.

“That was a charity concert called ‘Requiem for old Kyiv’ and designed to oppose the illegal construction work, and they asked me to play. It was drizzling outside, I was playing in the open air, and people were standing with candles in their hands. This was touching. Such events should be arranged more frequently. I am against the thoughtless construction works being carried out in Kyiv, and it is awful when they take down, for example, the house where Bulgakov was born.”

THE ETHICS OF JAZZ

The history of your first CD is linked with the name of Sergey Kuriokhin, a man of rare talent, who unfortunately died very early. Could you tell about him?

“In 1987, Russian and American musicians recorded in America the CD entitled ‘Music Makes the Snow Melt.’ That was my first CD, and it is very dear to me as we made it together with Kuriokhin. We met in St. Petersburg and used to give joint performances. He was a strange man, and he made such things on stage that nobody ever did. It was an improvisation with some hundred people taking part, and there were no identical concerts. He was a man whom I did not fully understand – a puzzling personality with incredible energy. Kuriokhin was a genius of a musician, but his attitude to his music and performances was somewhat ironical.”

What does it mean to be a man of jazz?

“Man of jazz? Jazz is a lifestyle rather than music. Someone said that jazzmen are a narrow category of lucky people. My teachers taught me that the first question I should ask myself is, ‘Why have I come on stage?’ A jazz musician should be free and able to play himself, show himself, and avoid being constrained to some limits.

“They also taught me to play in such a way as to make people think ‘What a wonderful piece of music!’ rather than ‘What a skillful musician he is!’ When you improvise, you are unaware of how this process happen and how music is born. It frequently happens so that you go on stage not knowing what you will be playing and play for several hours. The English saxophonist George Haslam came once – we went on stage, not knowing the program, and were able to improvise for two hours. This is a top class performance; it is wonderful when you can afford it, achieve this level, and not be afraid.”

Is it true that people who play and sing jazz have overwhelming inner freedom?

“Yes, this is the purpose you pursue when going on stage. Another objective is to establish rapport with the audience. Live concerts are never repeated, and this is the greatest value, magic, and mystery of jazz. Attending a successful concert, you know that you will never listen to it again. One should feel the mood of the audience and play the music that will enchant it. The mood changes every day, and you play this mood on stage, but you should not specially prepare for this – nothing will come out of it after all.

“I have met many different people, who listened to me, liked the music, and started to love jazz. There are many styles in jazz, and the soul should respond to it.”