Anatoly Kroll about his festival and the student orchestra "Academic Band"

Teacher, composer, pianist Anatoly Kroll told Grigory Durnovo about the festival and about the student orchestra “Academic Band” he leads.

Your festival is a hit with the public. Can you say that you imagine your listener, know what he is interested in?

The festival programs were very diverse, but there was not a single concert that was greeted by the public with some kind of mistrust, misunderstanding, or underestimation. The main thing is that this festival has its own intonation, unlike ordinary concerts. The festival should be a celebration of jazz. I think we have a responsibility to play jazz for the people. This does not mean that we shy away from some new directions. For example, I have a section called “UNORDINARY Jazz”: within its framework, we made a program with horn player Arkady Shilkloper, who represents a completely non-stereotypical direction in jazz, and we are planning to create a program with saxophonist Alexei Kruglov. For me there are no forbidden or unnecessary trends in jazz. Not everything finds an immediate emotional response, like Dixieland, for example, something requires the inclusion of some other organs of perception. Basically, it depends on the intelligence of the listener. But we must treat any person who comes to our concert with respect.

What challenges does the festival face?

Unfortunately, we don’t have such a large list of bands that we could present at the festival. In fact, it is very difficult to constantly support this festival with new names, because after all, its very name relies on names and groups of a very high level. In this case, I must take into account the fact that the statement about “Russian stars” must be supported by the quality of what we do. There are also problems regarding the organizational side and information support. Today, the conditions for advertising have changed a lot. There are very few publications that consider it possible to advertise jazz events. The Department of Culture allocates some modest funds, but in general the state participates very little in supporting jazz. Essentially, jazz is a hobby for the enthusiast. However, even with government support, one cannot live without enthusiasm in jazz.

Feast for four orchestras

What are you working on now with the Academic Band orchestra?

The Academic Band orchestra is a group created within the framework of an educational institution, the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. But in this orchestra they teach what, unfortunately, many of our Russian jazz groups, including orchestras, are not yet very good at: the ability to correctly handle the style of playing in a big band. The care with which we create completely different programs suggests that today, without false modesty, this orchestra can be called one of the best orchestras of Russian jazz. This is not just my assessment. There was not a single performance in the history of this jazz orchestra that did not end with an ovation. This speaks of both the energy intensity of the music itself and the attitude of the musicians: I didn’t see a single bored face on stage. These guys are eager to fight - and at the same time their emotions do not replace quality. I try to keep everything - both emotions and quality - on the same level. At least the way this orchestra plays music of any genre, be it old jazz, modern jazz, Latin American jazz, fusion - everything is done at the highest possible point of quality, including, most importantly, with the reliability of performance. After all, in jazz, all directions have different reproduction technologies; you can’t all play with the same sound, with the same vibration.

You mentioned modern jazz. How often and how willingly do you turn to new directions when working with the orchestra?

For now, in our repertoire material we use the world’s accumulations of the best that has been created in jazz music. As for new directions, they, unfortunately, do not yet have the character of the author’s implementation. Among musicians, the task of learning to play is even more pressing, although I have long been drawing the attention of everyone involved in jazz education that it is time to orient our musicians towards creating music, and not just performing world masterpieces of jazz.

"We have a responsibility to play jazz for the people"