Jazz – the international language

25 August, 2008, 13:40

Jazz bands from all over the world have gathered in Moscow to perform perfect jazz. Members of the ‘Jazz in Motion’ project, Jann Parker, the Oleg Butman Quartet and others have jazzed up the audience with their music at Durov art-club.

“Jazz in Motion” is a series of musical events which every week gathers the best jazz bands and singers from Russia and abroad. The musicians present not only classical jazz but introduce modern jazz. The main idea of the project is to show its progress through ages and generations, from old-school to new forms.

Jann Parker comes from Harlem. She decided to become a jazz singer when she was four. At the age of 12 Parker was already the leader of the band her father had created for her.

“Music was always around. When kids hear they absorb, and that's really what happened. I absorbed so much music,” says the American vocalist.

Far away from Harlem, in Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg) Butman was also raised with jazz. Following his father, he started playing drums when he was eight.

In the 1990s Butman went to the U.S. to learn real jazz from American musicians.

He met Jann about seven years ago in a New York jazz club and knew at once he had to work with this vocalist.

“She just flows together with the music. I fell in love with her voice as soon as I heard it. She is puts her strongest feelings into every song”, says Butman.

Coming from the cradle of jazz, Jann Parker is staying true to her roots. She mostly performs classical jazz hits and makes her audience fall in love with them again and again.

Jazz lovers say when you get to enjoy the taste of jazz, you become addicted to it, no matter where you come from. Jazz is the language that makes the American singer and Russian musicians understand each other perfectly.

Durov art-club holds the next concert featuring “Funky soul” and Nikolay Arutyunov on August 28.