• Издание «Jazz Wise»

Duncan Heining

 

I am in awe of this young musician’s talent and as struck by his vision as I am intrigued by the steps he takes in realising it.  It’s no surprise that Udanov was the drummer with the legendary Jazz Group Arkhangelsk.  This music harks back to the samizdat qualities of that characterised that era in Soviet jazz.  It is, by turns, seriously playful, grimly humorous and dramatically comic.  There are two key moments that define this record – Kruglov’s use of a trombone mouthpiece on his tenor on Extracts and his playing of several saxophones at once on Seal Of Time.  Jazz Group Arkhangelsk’s saxophonist would sometimes play with his head inside a bucket - a Goon-ish, Massed Alberts humour that confounded and mystified.  And there is definitely something peculiarly Russian about these five tracks – something that finds humour and hope in the darkest places and then finds a way of expressing it that is both personal and universal.  Just listen to the magnificent closing piece, Ascension. This is profoundly philosophical music. This young man might just be a genius.