The Victor Feldman All Stars - Play the world's first album of Soviet Jazz Themes
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When the Benny Goodman band was in Russia during the spring of 1962 a number of Goodman's musicians found, to their surprise, that jazz already existed inside the USSR. Further, that Russia had already produced her own jazz composers who were aware of the latest developments on the far side of the Iron Curtain. Back in America, Vic Feldman, who played vibes with Goodman on that tour, set about recording an album of compositions and arrangements by Andre Towmosian, a Muscovite trumpeter, composer Givi Gachechiladze, and alto saxophonist Gennadi "Charlie" Golstain. The LP was supervised by that connoisseur of the bizarre and the incongruous, Leonard Feather. Let me say at once that without the "World's first album of Soviet jazz themes" tag I doubt if the themes and arrangements would arouse much interest. I suppose the amazing thing is that Russian jazz musicians exist at all. Much of the music heard here is redolent of early Cannonball Adderley, Norman Simmons and the 'commercial soul' movement, which, I hope, has now receded into jazz history. The interest centres around the soloists rather than the written parts, and Feldman assembled two excellent sextets for this LP. On the first side Vie plays vibes in a group completed by Nat Adderley, Harold Land, Joe Zawinul, Bob Whitlock and Frank Butler, while on the other tracks Feldman doubles vibes and piano to support Carmell Jones, Land, Butler, Whitlock and guitarist Herb Ellis. Butler is an enormous asset to both sessions, while Jones and Ellis ensure that Side 2 of the LP is superior in quality to Side. Personnel
Victor Feldman - piano, vibes (all tracks), plus
Side A
Nat Adderley - cornet
Side B
Carmell Jones - trumpet
Tracklist
Side A
Side B Playtime: 32:22 Label - AVA |