Spiritual Jazz 18: Behind the Iron Curtain PART 2: Double Vinyl LP
JMANLP149Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Jazzman
Release Date: 6th June
The latest entry in Jazzman's fabled 'Spiritual Jazz' series may be one of their most enlightening yet as they pull back the Iron Curtain and present the esoteric, modal and progressive jazz scenes in the Soviet Union from 1963-1982. What you'll find is that music, like water, always finds a way and that no politics or threats of violence can silence the most creative, talented and gifted musicians.
Gatefold 2LP with pictures, liner notes & download code
Sounds Beyond Barriers
One of the most politically charged terms of the 20th century, the Iron Curtain was a metaphor for political and cultural division. In a post-war telegram Winston Churchill referred to the fault line that ran through Europe between East and West as "an Iron Curtain is drawn down upon their front. We do not know what is going on behind".
In this two-part album, as far as jazz is concerned, we will showcase, describe and celebrate exactly what was 'going on behind'. We see that music is the power supreme, with the ability to transcend all barriers, be they physical, political or metaphorical.
Our liner notes illustrate the complex and contradictory history of Soviet jazz, and the tracks we've chosen cover the key period of the early 1960s to the 1980s. It was during these dark years of the Cold War that the Soviet Union and its satellite states produced a number of outstanding artists playing in a variety of styles. The impact of modernism, from hard bop and Latin to modal and cool jazz, had found its way through cracks in the curtain. The deeply-felt ancestral strains of traditional European folk music were combined with the exciting new and progressive sounds of the West, and a radical, intoxicating brew was created that no amount of guns, tanks or polonium tea could overcome.
We chronicle the triumph of jazz at a time of extreme geopolitical conflict. What went on behind the Iron Curtain in these countries was once mysterious and unknown to the West, but the perseverance of their artists provided sound and light amid the secretive, dark days of the communist-capitalist standoff. There was no end of life-affirming spiritual jazz behind the Iron Curtain.
"Whether it's by improvisation in the African-American jazz tradition, or by a village kobza player standing on top of a damn hill - he feels connected to the stars."
1 Leningrad Jazz Ensemble - Aria
2 Sh Jazz Quintet - Delilah
3 Josef Blaha Trio - Inter Mezzo Forte
4 Csaba Deseo Ensemble - Beyond The Csitári Mountains
5 Manfred Ludwig-Sexteʃ - Skandinavia
6 Anatoly Vapirov - Mystery
7 Zbigniew Namyslowski - Piatawka
8 Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet - Synopsis (Expression I)
9 Tomsits Quartet - Dhrupad
10 Nicolai Gromin Quartet - Corrida
11 Valery Kolesnikov, Vyacheslav Novikov, Vladimir Molotkov & Alexander Chrisɵdis - Rainbow
12 Tone Jansa - Goa
13 S+hq - My Girl (And Other Things)
14 Pege Jazz Workshop - Hungarian Folk Song