Message From Moscow

Moscow is full of jazz this week. Moscow, Idaho, that is, host of the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. They’re not fooling about the international part. This afternoon the little Nuart Theater on Main Street was full of music from this town’s namesake. A quartet of Russians mostly in their early twenties included bassist Darya Chernakova; Nikolay Sidoernko, piano; Roman Sokolov, tenor saxophone; and Aleksandr Ivanov, drums. The concert was part of the Moscow-to-Moscow exchange program that for years has been one of the most stimulating features of the Hampton Festival.
The musicians of the Open World Russian Jazz Stars have years of intensive classical training but are at the point where–as their translator put it–they are “tending toward jazz.” They did more than tend toward it today. They played fully-realized performances of Sonny Rollins’s “Strode Road” and Miles Davis’s “Solar” with a pronounced post-bop vocabulary and fine swing. I arrived too late to hear their entire hour, but those pieces were first rate. Chernakova, a pianist from the age of three, switched to bass two years ago. How she developed so much technique on the instrument in so short a time may remain a Russian secret.
One of today’s twenty-five workshops for students was called “Hands On! Vocal Fun Shop.” It was populated by twenty or so thirteen-year-olds. What made it fun was Madeline Eastman, who in slightly more than an hour had the kids keeping proper time, counting, syncopating, scatting, yodeling and laughing. No one had more fun that Eastman, as she brought out the shy boys and girls while reigning in the wise guys, showoffs and hyperactives. After one young man had sung well, then strutted around like a touchdown king in the end zone, she cautioned him, “Hey, no boasting. Be cool.” He became cool…for a minute or two. The workshop kids learned something about singing. More important, they learned about cooperation, listening and mutual support in the act of creating music together..
In the remaining time I’ll be at the Hampton Festival, I’ll report on as many of the small and large events as I can take in. The large ones start tonight with a concert called “New Orleans Is In The House.” The all-star rhythm section backing many of the performers for the next few days is Bill Charlap, piano; Peter Washington, bass; Jeff Hamilton, drums; and Graham Dechter, guitar.