Reply With QuoteOriginally Written by the disco kid
Wow, now THAT'S a discovery !!
Vince
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I ran across this LP and had to have it, as one of my all-time favorite producers is featured on it. That's Boris Midney in the front.
Happiness (Russian Jazz Quartet: 1965)
Midney defected from Russia with Igor Berukshtis in late 1964, and put together this quartet with drummer Grady Tate and pianist Roger Kellaway. At this point Midney played alto sax and clarinet.
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Wow, now THAT'S a discovery !!
Vince
*** Forum Leader / Moderator ***
Never seen it, thanks for posting that 1 here! However it doesn't surprise me that Boris' career started like that. You can hear his trained musical craftmanship in all his work.
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I agree, and I know it's been said before in similar words here in these forums, but it bears repeating..."Boris Midney is a musical genius...pushing the envelope and creating musical soundscapes with his productions."
Underground Hit [Level 5]
you have very sharp eyes, kid!
No Longer Charting
My gracious! This is like an Archaeologist finding a precious, priceless gem that no one on earth has never found. What a find! And yes Boris Midney is one of the disco geniuses in my opinion (others in my opinion are Cerrone, Costandinos, Soccio, Bellotte, Theodore (Mike), Moroder, Adams (Patrick), and many others I can't remember right now). Again, thanks for sharing your gem of a find with us!
Garry
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I copied the liner notes from the HAPPINESS LP, some interesting background on Boris Midney and his musical origins.
Jazz holds such strong appeal for young musicians throughout the world, that seemingly nothing - including government suppression - can stay the hands of those determined to play the music.
This deep love of an American art form was never more graphically illustrated than on August 15th, 1964, when two Russian musicians, touring Japan with a Soviet vaudeville troupe, rushed into the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and asked for asylum. They told the flabbergasted Embassy personal that they wanted to come to the Unites States to play jazz because they were not allowed to as they wanted in the USSR.
The price they were willing to pay to fulfill their dream was steep: loss of citizenship, loved ones, and friends, as well as public denunciation in the Soviet press, and undergoing the complicated procedure necessary before they could come to the United States.
The men who paid that price are Boris Midney and Igor Berukshtis, now co-leaders of the Russian Jazz Quartet.
Midney and Berukshtis first met five years ago while they were students at the Moscow Conservatory. Their shared interest in jazz forged a deep friendship. In Moscow, altoist-clarinetist Midney had a quartet that included bassist Berukshtis, and one Russian jazz critic, Yuri Viharieff, wrote in DOWN BEAT that the group was a combination of the Dave Brubeck and Ornette Coleman quartets. When they were offered a tour with the vaudeville troupe, the two accepted, and when the chance came to make the break in Tokyo, they took it. It was the first step in making their dream come true - to play jazz in the United States.
They were flown from Tokyo to Frankfurtam-Main, Germany, where they underwent a two month "debriefing" by the U.S. Government. Finally on October 22nd, Boris and Igor arrived at New York's Kennedy International Airport.
Another part of the dream was reality
The reality of being in this country was reinforced the first 36 hours they were in New Yorkwhen they et such Jazz luminaries as Zoot Sims, Ornette Coleman, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Al Cohn, Gerry Mulligan, Paul Bley, Atilla Zoller, Paul Desmond, and Gary McFarland, among several others. I was a fortunate witness to these meetings, because I was accompanying Boris and Igor their first day and a half here in order to gather material for a DOWN BEAT article I was doing about them. Though the two understood little English at the time, their delight and wonder upon meeting the American musicians was reflected in their faces; there was no need for language to convey feelings. And the warm way the U.S. jazzmen greeted them was testament to the friendliness of the jazz world.
Something of this friendliness undoubtedly had been conveyed to Boris and Igor through Willis Conover's broadcasts on Voice of America, the government's radio arm that reaches into all corners of the world. Conover's MUSIC, USA is the Voice's most popular show, and half of Conover's two-hour program is devoted to jazz. Conover's importance to the internationalism of jazz cannot be underestimated: the music he plays serves as an education for hundreds, maybe thousands, of foreign musicians. Midney and Berukshtis aid Conover was their best teacher; when the two were introduced to him it was if they had met a god.
They evidently learned their jazz lessons well, judging by the work on this album. Midney, besides being an accomplished instrumentalist, is a composer of self evident promise. Berukshtis is a strong member of the rhythm section and possessor of a fine, round bass tone.
While I was with them n New York they told me why they so desperately to come here. In Russia, they said, the jazz musicians never new from one day to the next if they would be allowed to play or not; sometimes the government approved their activities but more often did not.
Then they discussed why jazz had such a strong hold on them.
"Jazz" Midney said "is the music of our day. It represents the dynamism of our day - science, culture, and the arts are developing new forms." And it these new forms he went on that he and Igor were most interested in.
"I the U.S.S.R." Berukshtis added, "they divide jazz in two: light or easy, and heavy or difficult. We're interested in the difficult" Later he said that jazz gives more opportunity for individualism "in the widest sense of the word."
But the bassist was not quite satisfied with this as the main reason jazz held attraction for him. Finally, he threw up his hands smiled, and said, "I love jazz...what can I do?"
In the time I spent with them, Boris and Igor impressed me as sincere, gentle musicians, whose zeal, if nothing else, would carry them through.
Within a couple of weeks of their arrival, Boris and Igor formed the group heard on this album. Roger Kellaway, as bright a composer as he is a pianist, was the first to join, and he in turn recommended Grady Tate, a highly flexible drummer and one of the most in-demand percussionists in New York. television and night-club appearances followed. And now, the crowning accomplishment, this album.
liner notes by: Don DeMichael
as a side note: Boris Midney wrote 4 out of the 6 compositions on the album.
Last edited by the disco kid; November 4th, 2008 at 07:04 AM.
No Longer Charting
One thing about disco; it had many roots, not just R&B and soul. There was a formula back in the day that stated: Rock+Jazz+Soul=Disco; and that was basically true (but they left out R&B). So many Disco Producers and Artists had their roots in many different musical genres before disco came on the scene, which explains the many faces that disco had (i.e. rock disco, soul disco, jazzy disco, classical disco, R&B laced disco, and some disco that had a little of all these genres in it); so it's no surprise that an Artist like Midney had Jazz roots.
Garry
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I agree, it's very evident in his free-form arrangements, when he turned his talents to producing disco.
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