Rifftides reader Svletlana Ilicheva writes from Moscow about a concert earlier this week at the Tzaritzino National Park. Called “Classics And Jazz,†the program included four prominent American saxophonists of the same generation who have banded together as the Axis Saxophone Quartet.
Ms. Ilicheva reports:
The quartet consists of Joshua Redman, Chris Cheek, Mark Turner and Chris Potter. They played their own compositions. Especially I like those by Joshua Redman, they sounded like poems. Instead of sitting comfortably at some distance on the grass I had been standing for an hour and a half in the front row close to the stage and couldn’t tear my eyes away from these amazing musicians. At some moments I was on the verge of tears – they were so good! (Chris Potter’s solos were just superb).
This video from the concert, uploaded by eugenejazz, gives a generous sample of the Axis Saxophone Quartet’s music, with rear screen projection of the band and scenes of Muscovites enjoying the concert.
The Russian website jazz.ru has a report about the concert. The text is in Russian. The two performance videos are in the universal language of music. There is also one brief news conference statement by Redman. To go to the jazz.ru page, click here.
Thanks to Ms. Ilicheva for letting us know about this impressive instance of jazz diplomacy.