Music. 50 years in jazz: "Artsah"

In the 1950s the youth took a great interest in jazz - amateur orchestras propagated, jazz was heard on dance pavilions, in parks, on stage. In 1954 one of these jazz-groups - of the Safarov brothers (Gennadiy - trumpet, Vladimir - piano, Vyacheslav - percussion instruments) gave its first concert in the House of Culture in Tashkent. Subsequently the brothers performed in the orchestras of the Transport Institute, Aircraft factory, "Zarafshan" variety theatre and other quite remarkable places. In 1968 the Safarov brothers were one of the organizers and participants of the first Tashkent Jazz Festival where they performed in a jazz arrangement "Bahor" ("Spring") - the theme of the Uzbek composer Muhamadjon Mirzaev, and "Gulistan" - the theme of Vladimir Safavrov. The idea of assimilation of Uzbek music with rhythmically harmonic characteristics of jazz was realized. In five decades the bands where the brothers played conducted hundreds of performances. Jazz music which was played by them was heard in many cities of former Soviet Union as well as Guinea, Syria, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq, Greece, Italy, Germany and other countries. This year the brothers are celebrating the 50-year anniversary of being in jazz. We decided to have a talk with Vladimir and Vyacheslav Safarov.

- Vladimir, tell us how did you become acquainted with jazz?
- My grandmother had a lot of gramophone records. I listened to everything until I noticed one which hod an unusual name - "San-Louis" and, most importantly, a peculiar sound of music. I put it 50 times a doy until my grandmother told me to "change the record". Then I started looking for other records where the same orchestra played. It was Eddie Rozner's jazz-band. Then 1 found "Caravan" anditwenton.

- Where did your first performances take place?
- When our entire family moved to Tashkent in 1952, we created an amateur band in school #9. In this band, my elder brother Gennadiy played the accordion and I played piano. There were also two guitars and a drum in the band. However we felt the lack of a vocal instrument and bought a trumpet. In a few days we started to play. We found new friends-jazz lovers like us. To be honest, initially we did not have any skills except great desire.

- Your first serious performances...
- In 1 968 we became participants of the first Tashkent jazz festival where for the first time we presented a composition, played by "Scat" -a voice improvisation. Then our paths diverged a little. My elder brother Gennadiy left to Barnaul for work, where he created a big-band and I went to Guinea where I created a jazz quartet. Then I also worked in Syria. However ourfamilies joined into a jazz-band "Safari". During these years I was elected to be a member of the Tashkent jazz-club, the president of which was Sergey Gilev who is known to many fans of jazz. There were also concerts in Fergana, Krasnodar and other cities of the former Soviet Union.

- A question for Vyacheslav: what is interesting about the performance of the band during the last few years?
- We started performing on various jazz-parties. There were mixed performances, for example, in 2002 and 2003 the jazz band "Artsah" successfully performed in the programs of USA department "Jazz-ambassador" together with the groups of USA.

In May of 2004, our jazz-band performed on the international festival in Chirnkentcity. Many veterans of jazz music play in "Artsah". These are; Pavel Kantsibko (contrabass), Mikhail Vartanov (violin) butthereisalsothe youth: Rustem Gaziev {saxophone), Yuriy Keyzer (trumpet).

At present time, the elder brother Gennadiy's family lives in Germany where their band "Art-Safari" enjoys wide popularity. The band tours in different countries of Europe, playing popular music of various countries as well as jazz compositions, the soloist on saxophone and trumpet of which is Gennadiy and accompanists are Ashot, Grant and Victoria.

In 50 years the bands, in which the brothers Gennadiy, Vladimir and Vyacheslav Safarovs played, performed on a few thousands of concerts, popularizing jazz music in many cou ntries of the world. (article to be continued in next issue)