Requiem for a jazz great
George Garanian, 1934-2010 On January 11, Russian jazz icon George Garanian – a musician who nourished jazz as part of Soviet culture – suffered a fatal heart attack while on tour with his popular big band. He was 75. A productive career spanning more than half a century has ensured that Garanian, a highly renowned...
A Traveler’s Road to Enlightenment
Hitching rides became a way of life for Jack Kerouac’s Beat Generation. Decades later, Anton Krotov is leading a movement of Russia’s globetrotting “free travelers.” With over 30 years of travel experience and 17 books under his belt, Anton Krotov doesn’t lack in tales from the road. “One of my favorite stories comes from a...
Football’s red armies are growing stronger
On any Premiership match day in pubs and homes around the UK, football fans of all creeds gather to drink, socialise and cheer on their favoured club. The majority of teams have a strictly local following, while others – generally the most successful sides like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea – possess a nationwide...
Brazilian culture at a high temperature in Russia
A close circle of people is singing and chanting under Pushkinsky Most early Sunday evening. In the centre, two at a time duck, dive, feint and sway in hypnotising fashion, while enchanting vocal drones, drums and bow-like berimbaus provide the perfect musical accompaniment. It’s a weekly gathering of Moscow’s capoeira enthusiasts, disciples of the Afro-Brazilian...
Get ready for a feast of Pushkin’s genius
The Russian poet Alexander Pushkin is a man of unparalleled influence on his country’s national literature. Since 2003, his popularity has been reflected by the ever-more ambitious Pushkin in Britain Festival in London, an event aiming to “bring the beat of the Russian heart to the UK”. The seventh annual international festival of Russian poetry...
Earth Patriot
RUSSIA NOW: “I always wanted to be a cosmonaut,” states Fyodor Yurchikhin without hesitation. “When I was a small boy, I jumped from a second floor balcony because I thought I was Gagarin.”
The Blogs: Barriers to national progress
Corruption, bureaucracy and economic development are under discussion in the English-language blogosphere. Businessman Kendrick White’s blog opens by concentrating on Russian bureaucracy and the barriers it can present. In a country of “extraordinary opportunities”, ideas are too often curtailed by problems in the system. White believes that “realisation of any innovative idea requires fundamental trust...
A Jazz Leader for the New Era
Hailed by none other than Bill Clinton as one of the world’s greatest living saxophone players, Igor Butman is an icon of Russian musical life. Born in St Petersburg in 1961, he took up the instrument at 15 with encouragement from his jazz aficionado father, a keen musician who worked by day and gigged by...
