solo jazz album
Vadim Neselovskyi: Homage to Odessa and encourager
He does not look to the future without hope: Vadim Neselovskyi. Photo: Yaroslavna Chernova/the promoter/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The beautiful Odessa faces a terrible fate in the Ukraine war. With a solo album, the great jazz pianist and composer Vadim Neselovskyi now pays tribute to the past and present of his native city.
If there is an appropriate album for the Ukraine drama at the moment, it might be this one.
No short-winded, bold complaint about the devastating war, also no simple indictment of Russia – but music without words, which (to a certain extent representative) celebrates one of the most traditional cities of the battered Eastern European country. The renowned jazz pianist and composer Vadim Neselovskyi (44) erected a touching monument to his native city of Odessa.
“Odesa: A Musical Walk Through A Legendary City” brings to life the history of the city on the Black Sea, which was under massive Russian pressure during the Ukraine war. Particularly impressive: the piano entry in the piece “Odesa 1941” about the Second World War and the Holocaust, reverberating like cannon thunder. But the album also looks to a hopefully brighter, more peaceful future with the closing track «The Renaissance Of Odessa».
belief and hope
Neselovskyi says in the notes to the album: «As I write this – on March 6, 2022 – the future is uncertain because bombs and rockets are falling on houses, hospitals, schools, kindergartens and churches. But I have faith and hope. We will rebuild every building, every street, every village and every church – everything that has been destroyed.” The melancholic final sequence is “dedicated to all the heroes who gave their lives to protect our freedom and independence” – the end is open.
While fighting had been going on in eastern Ukraine for a long time and signs of a possible Russian attack were increasing last year, Neselovskyi recorded the 13 pieces in Bremen (2020) and Cologne (2021). He did this “to remind people of the country’s beauty and cultural heritage,” according to his label.
The musician, who teaches at Boston’s Berklee College, celebrates the Homage to his country of origin and its posh port city.
Musical prodigy
Born in 1977, Neselovskyi was considered a musical prodigy shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As the youngest student at that time, he was admitted to the Odessa Conservatory, where he began with classical music and then became enthusiastic about jazz. In 1995 the musician came to Germany as a Jewish contingent refugee, where he began studying at the Folkwang University in Essen and earned his bachelor’s degree at the Detmold University of Music.
In the USA, he later earned a master’s degree from the important “Thelonious Monk Institute” in New Orleans. Neselovskyi worked as a composer and pianist with his mentor, the legendary jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton (79), as well as with French horn and alphorn master Arkady Shilkloper, John Zorn and Fred Hersch.
The commitment of this Ukrainian-born artist for his embattled homeland has reached a zenith with the “Odesa” album, but has actually lasted much longer. At the height of the Crimean conflict in 2014, the now US-based pianist led a trio at the Lviv Jazz Festival in Lviv, and in 2015 Neselovskyi performed at the Berklee’s Concert for Ukraine.
A few years later, his new agent suggested that he tell the story of the city of Odessa, as there was no one better for it. Neselovskyi was inspired by Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. The solo piano implementation of the “Odesa” idea now sounds just as stirring as this piano cycle from 1874, a Russian prime example of “program music”.