American jazz hits the Kyiv scene

Not so long ago, Oleksiy Kohan at the Dynamo Luxe Club introduced Kyiv jazz devotees to a guest star, Los Angeles trumpeter and flugelhornist Tony Guerrero, author of four solo and a number of joint albums starring prominent musicians. In a word, here was a real topnotch US jazzman described by Mr. Kohan has playing a “full trumpet.” It was Tony’s second visit to the capital (and hopefully not the last), but it was only now that he gave a full-scale concert to accommodate an audience packed to the hilt. And this considering that he had played a jam session at a local blues club only hours before!

“The first time I visited Kyiv just for kicks, without anything definite in my mind,” says Mr. Guerrero. “I have a friend, a pastor, he was visiting to see his colleague in Kyiv, so I decided to keep him company. After we came I started making plans. I met Oleksiy Kohan and decided to stage a jazz concert. The main reason for this visit was a conference at the Christian Life Center. We read lectures during the day and played in the evening. And then I gave a concert at the Dynamo Luxe.”

If he didn’t come this time his name would remain well known to a handful of connoisseurs and professional musicians. It is also a fact that a jazz career, however spectacular at the outset, does not always mean that the performer is really good. Tony Guerrero believes that there are two kinds of success: “Michael Jackson, for example, is a very lucky man. He sells a lot of albums and everyone knows him. That was just a stroke of good luck. Likewise, you can live in Kyiv and then the right man will hear you play, take you to London, have you recorded, and you’ll turn into a star. For me the other kind of success is much more important. Even if I can’t put out another album or no one will hear about me. Being lucky means being happily able to make one’s own music, the kind one loves. And so I think that the best musicians are not those that have made their names but those to whom music has meaning. I cannot tell anybody go and do it this way or that. I say just go and play the music, which is close to your heart. If you are lucky you will make your name performing your favorite music. And even if you are not, keep playing this music.

“One can be an excellent musician copying others and do pretty well. But it is much more important to develop one’s own voice. I don’t think I’m a great trumpeter. But I know that I have my own style and sound. In other words, if you like my style, you like me, and because I can produce the highest note or keep playing at great speed. I just play well and I have my style. This is what makes musicians like Chick Corea or Pat Metheny stand out among all the others.

“Honestly, we are very lucky to have records and make our names because we live near Los Angeles or New York. If I lived somewhere in Texas no one would’ve heard about me. I know of a splendid pianist in Holland, but he lives in a small village and isn’t likely to ever make a name for himself.”

Someone may call his bluff: while urging others to follow their heart, Tony Guerrero plays popular jazz numbers. And this is the only commercially justified type of jazz music. Even in the United States where, in his own words, jazz is being notably underrated. Tony’s music radiates Californian warmth and peaceful friendliness. The warm sound of his flugelhorn reminds one of Chuck Mangione and piercing trumpet, even with a mute, of Miles Davis. His is a skill without any ado.

“That’s the kind of music I grew up with. Yes, it is commercial, but it is simpler. And it is in my heart. I am not one of those who adore the avant- garde. Sure, I appreciate it, but this wasn’t the music I grew up with. I was influenced by the place where I lived, South Los Angeles. A very cheerful neighborhood. The beach, the ocean, and gorgeous landscape. And music sounds very different there compared to New York. My father came from Mexico and I have borrowed a lot from Mexican music. I think that Kyiv musicians are also influenced by their city and the kind of music they heard as kids.

“As a kid, I played rock and roll and was a drummer with various bands (I am still very fond of Led Zeppelin). At school, I played the trumpet and when I heard Chuck Mangione I first heard a trumpet play rock and roll — well, maybe not exactly that but something very close to it. It was then I realized that one could use the trumpet not only for marches or classical pieces.”

In Kyiv, Tony Guerrero played with the Ukrainian group Uniti (for the second time). And the audience was in for surprises. Apart from his own compositions, standard jazz renditions, and Vitaly Savenko’s (also of the Uniti), he played Ihor Zakus’s Prysviata (Dedication), inviting the author and Yuri Shepeta onstage. And Taras Petrynenko’s “We Haven’t Finished Talking.” Even though Haitana’s female vocal performance was not her best, the Ukrainian pop stage had never seen a better version.

“I played [Zakus’s] Prysviata for Brian Bromberg, a star bassist, and he said it was great. A beautiful tune of a bass instrument and as good for the flugelhorn. I wish I could record it. And your other song [“We Haven’t Finished Talking”] is also nice. I see no reason why US stations would not play it.”

Tony radiated exceptionally positive emotions. Well, he could see most of the game as an onlooker. Anyway, the accompaniment measured up. “Uniti sounded great. No worse than the musicians back home. People are getting lazy in California. When I hire musicians for my performance they don’t want to learn my music. They just want to appear in a concert and sight- read. It’s just play and go home. But when I came here they [the Uniti group] took great care studying my music. I was impressed. Yet they must play Ukrainian, not American jazz. Jazz has to be an expression of you the way you really are. If any of your musicians moved to Los Angeles they would be able to play with their US colleagues right then and there.” And added, laughing, “I do hope they won’t, for your audiences’ sake.”