Fusion Orchestra   -  Blog

07.12.07
One of the most bright events of 2007, VII Jazz Bez '2007, which has been held on December 2 through 9 in 4 cities in Ukraine and 2 cities in Poland, is far behind. However our impressions, new acquaintance, lessons and the experience gained have stayed with us.
The festival has united 43 gigs, 116 musicians and the audience of 11000. Participants from the USA, Germany, Denmark, France, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine took part in the event, including such jazz legends as Lee Konitz, Petras Vysniauskas, Robertha Piket, Julian Thomas, Nikolay Trzaska, Karol Shimanovski, Piotr Baron, Jazek Kochan, Klaus Kugel etc.
We played in Lvov (Ukraine), Przemyszl (Poland), Sanok (Poland) and Ternopol (Ukraine). Every city was excellent in its own way, but the common thing was sincere attention and warm audience. Lvov has pleased by its philarmonic hall and the new ethno-jazz club "Lyalka". In Przemyszl and Sanok we were jamming with outstanding musicians from Monorail Quartet (Poland-USA). In Ternopol we have been accorded a hearty welcome by owercrowded hall of the local dramatic theatre. After that we were invited to dinner and jam with the local musicians, which have pleased us by their masterly performance and enthusiasm.
Sympathy of the audience has promoted us to the top 10 performance of the festival.
Some Jazz Bez '2007 photo you can check here >>

01.11.07
Some photos from very unusual Fusion Orchestra's open air gig called "Gurzuf Seasons" are placed here >>

24.10.07
CD "Apocrypha" is available now at the CDBaby with the following original annotation:
"Firmness and masculinity of the rhythm combined with tenderness and sensory sounding of the keys. In this music we can trace some philosophy, some clearness, some balance between any extreme points and exotic features…"

23.10.07
Photo gallery has refreshed by the new photos from Fusion Orchestra's gigs at the following fests:
Jazz-Koktebel 2007
Mamakabo 2007, Koktebel

10.10.07
Several videos from Fusion Orchestra's gig at the «Mamakabo-2007» fest, Koktebel, Crimea, are available on YouTube:
"5/4 Now"
"Jadido"
"Nameless Waltz"

23.08.07
Fusion Orchestra (c) & (p) 2007 CD album "Apocrypha" has released and now is available for purchase.

RuTube has uploaded a video-clip about Fusion Orchestra's gig at the "Mamakabo-2006" jazz fest, Koktebel, Crimea in September, 2006. This video includes several "passages" from band's popular pieces and exclusive interview with Enver Izmailov and Sergey Bogdan (Fusion Orchestra) - sorry, but both interviews are in Russian.

The February 2007 issues of "AvtoZvuk" & "AudioVideo" magazines with a column about Fusion Orchestra have been released and now are available for purchase. These issues also contain the "Hot Chocolate" Audio CD that includes the "Jadido" track from our recent album "Octagon".

OCTAGON
The group’s second album containing only the original material proves to be a consistent work full of interesting ideas. Despite a standard jazz combo format the group achieves a rather unique sound.

Dance
The opening composition displays all the main features of the whole album – odd metres, a fluent but reliable bass (Pavel Voronezhsky), a briefly surfacing and easily going to background guitar (Sergey Bogdan), energetic drums (Denis Melnikov), and a piano (Eugene Popov) taking major melodic and improvisational duties. The song starts without any introduction. The slightly processed classical guitar sounding in a folk manner exposes a short main theme, which is repeated in a rondo-like succession for more than 1.5 minutes. Then a powerful bass comes in and the other instruments follow. At first the theme seems tiresome but in a while it enchants you with its unusual rhythm of 4 + 3 + 3 + 3. After a resolute bridge a lyrical improvisation comes in with the dramatic bridge revealing itself in the middle one more time. Finally a short reprise brings the theme back just when you start missing it.

Unexpected Guest
An extended melancholic and contemplative piano introduction is followed by a light bossa nova with a chain of alternating solos by Bogdan and Popov. However it is not just Latin jazz and the bossa nova can turn either into an ominous episode or a repetitive short 9/4 motif. The pianist increases intensity in his developed solo which softly resolves over the familiar 9/4 figure. The guitar bossa nova gets interrupted once again with menacing piano chords and the return of the introduction rounds up the cycle.

December Rain
December rain typical for Crimea continues the Latin theme but you cannot expect pure styles from the Fusion Orchestra. The rhythms and moods are changing, what seemed to be a smooth jazz rumba in a wink becomes swing (not a real strength of the ensemble though) and then funk. Here we can hear the first guest appearance – vocal of Lolita Poplavskaya. Unfortunately she was not allowed to deviate from the theme longer than a couple of measures so this colour in the limited group’s palette showed just as a stroke. Another interesting moment is inclusion of a real rain sound into the record. And it is not just in the intro or fade out which would be completely trivial if not banal. It is in the middle of the composition and it lasts good 1.5 minutes. All the instruments tactfully release the pressure and the rain and Voronezhsky’s pulsing bass come to the foreground.

Jadido
The fact that these musicians highly respect Chick Corea becomes evident in the “Spanish-speaking” Jadido by Voronezhsky. Its violin version was released on the first band’s CD. Arguably, it is the most popular number from their repertoire. Irresistible drive, captivating full stops… Why is it not played by radio stations? The only thing getting me off rhythm is the too loose drum solo. However the album’s voltage is getting higher.

Black Bagel
The title is inspired by Victor Pelevin’s novel The Clay Machine-Gun (Chapaev i Pustota). Its main recognizable feature is a rhythmically complex and ever escaping bass figure which unpredictably rolls groups of three and four eighths notes. The first theme is anxious and questioning, the second one is a philosophical response. Now and then we can hear an extra quarter and in a moment another quarter is missing. In the middle part the guitar and the piano trade short solos divided by lightning speed basslines. Bogdan’s guitar is far from the common patterns here. In the short break all-knowing Chapaev whistles the second theme standing at the edge of Ural (the Undefinable River of Absolute Love), and then a windmill of sounds captures you again.

Mayan Loom
Another enigmatic title meaning probably not the infamous device the Loom of Maya but rather the symmetric pattern of their calendar tool reflecting the structure of our DNA. But let’s talk about music, and the music just rocks! This is a composition of a serious length (longer than 10 minutes) and serious tension. Light jazz gives up the place to solid rock. Live sounds interweave in a rhythm of a loom, the musical texture is subtly coloured with non-standard programming. Another chromatic solo by Bogdan, then great piano work by Popov followed by – surprise! – his electric guitar solo in a manner far from the common ways. The rhythm section is amazing. Little pearls are sprinkled here and there – burst of double tempo before the end, harmonics sending shivers down my spine, and finally the stopped time of the disappeared civilization. Well, the music is much greater than this description!

Russia
By the album’s end the tension eases although the final songs are full of drama. The initial title of Russia was Country Miles. These are exactly the associations caused by the monotonous repetitive theme backed however with some harmonic movement. But the words Russia, boundless spaces, endless roads live well together and they are underlined by certain Russian thematizm. The melodically developed middle part with gradually doubling tempo is particularly interesting.

Forgotten Feelings
The CD closes with a romantic rhapsody for piano solo. The ending piece manages a rare finale combining downfall of the rhythmic intensity with increasing emotional intensity.

In the conclusion I would like to say something about the album as a whole. The cover design is pale but highly original. The disc released in the CD-Text format but unfortunately the song titles are in Cyrillic and are not displayed right by most players. Personally I would like if the always present propulsive and melodic bass of Pavel Voronezhsky was exposed at least in a single solo. I hope these wee remarks will not diminish all the strengths of this excellent body of work.

Vitaly Zhuravlyov
http://vitalyz.netfirms.com/