“Jazz music and more”

VINNYTSIA — Den’ has carried features attracting the reader’s attention to regional television companies, including their numerous problems and programs that appear to be exploits, considering the obsolete equipment and meager budget. These programs look even more daring when produced and broadcast by government-run channels.

Let the Kyiv channels snub the regional companies, saying they lack quality shows, yet their products are born of local enthusiasm, serving as a kind of strategic reserve for Ukrainian television, in terms of topics, formats, and faces, which may eventually form its “gold reserves.” Vinnytsia’s government-run VDT-6 Channel has been broadcasting precisely this kind of program, entitled Ne lyshe pro dzhaz (Jazz Music and More). In fact, you can find this title in the Knyha rekordiv Ukrainy (Book of Records of Ukraine).

Even the Central Ukrainian Television Channel, which is supposed to be the most progressive one, doesn’t have a regular jazz music program. In Vinnytsia, this program has been broadcast for almost nine years. Its author and host, Volodymyr Hrytsyk, feels sure that not a single tape has been repeated in its weekly 30-minute release. Nor does this program have a stable format, which is only natural, considering that jazz music is unpredictable by definition.

Ukraine’s only jazz music film crew has been invited to take part in all domestic jazz festivals, as well as such festivals abroad. Vinnytsia’s TV jazz program features musicians from Lithuania, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, Russia, and Moldova.

This must have its effect on the program’s budget?

“If someone learned what our budget is, they would say it’s unrealistic,” says Volodymyr Hrytsyk ironically, “because 80 percent of the program is our enthusiasm, while the rest is money we receive from people who love jazz music or from our friends. For example, a lady, my former classmate, helped us visit a [jazz] festival recently. More often than not, however, we make such trips at our own expense.”

Why jazz, of all other kinds of music?

“Jazz music knows no boundaries, as we know. Every musician here has his own way, even when playing the same composition. Jazz music is the most versatile one and best adjusted to our way of life. Among the jazz musicians are conservatory graduates with academic experience. These people simply want to let their hair down after performing a strictly defined repertoire. Jazz is the only way they can relax and enjoy themselves.”

In fact, Vinnytsia’s jazz program has conservatory roots; the authors of the idea are musicians with a classical education, from the regional philharmonic society. The Jazz Music and More idea was conceived together with the first jazz festival in Vinnytsia. Initially, it was a special project dedicated to the event, but eventually it grew in scope and became a weekly television program. Meanwhile, the jazz festivals in Vinnytsia became yearly and international events.

Jazz music and more. Would you specify?

“This is a cultural project. We also talk about the theater, good books, classical music, and even the ballet,” explains Hrytsyk. “Remarkably, the Jazz Music and More program is entered in the Book of Records of Ukraine, and Vinnytsia’s jazz festival is the only event broadcast live in the framework of our program. We had our program entered in the Book of Records of Ukraine as a cultural program that had the best audience ratings.”

Strange as it may seem, the emcee of the program turned out to be a musician who had never made his name. Volodymyr Hrytsyk was shown the door in his third year of study as a bayan player. He was told he lacked the sense of rhythm. Eventually, he found his place in the sun in jazz. The Jazz Music and More project was nominated for the main Central Television’s Teletriumph TV Prize after its first year on the air as the best music program on a regional channel.

“I’m not a musician and that was why they assigned me the author’s role; they thought only an ordinary individual can tell other ordinary people in a simple way about jazz as a sophisticated, nonstandard kind of music. I speak about jazz addressing office executives, employees, higher school graduates, and the man in the street, using simple words rather than the parlance,” says Hrytsyk

How did you manage to keep your cultural project running for so long on television?

“It’s been nine years, quite a long time for a television program, but this doesn’t mean the finale. Our program will last as long as people will attend jazz festivals and philharmonic concerts and read books.”