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| Vilnius Jazz festival opens with jazz and symphonic music  The concert in the Vilnius Congress Hall October 6, 7 pm announces opening of the 18th International jazz festival Vilnius Jazz. For eighteen years this jazz forum has been committed to presenting a wide panorama of contemporary jazz – creative and ingenious, alternative and unpredicted. In this period of time the festival became quite a Mecca for jazz innovators, and its stage has presented an impressive gallery of luminaries of jazz world.An unusual aspect of contemporary jazz will be presented at the opening concert – a union of jazz and symphonic music. This trend starts with P.Whiteman’s orchestra and G.Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and today it counts eighth decade. However, Lithuanian attempts in this field have been very meagre so far, with more typical form of it being an initiative of the academic musicians to inlay jazz ensemble or a soloist in an orchestra. Thus, the organisers of the Vilnius Jazz festival have resolved to fill this gap. The opening concert will introduce Dainius Pulauskas’ Suite for jazz group and symphony orchestra in a performance of two renowned collectives, experts of their own art – Dainius Pulauskas jazz group and Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, led by maestro Gintaras Rinkevi?ius. This work is unique in that this time it presents synthesis of jazz and symphonic music inspired by a jazz musician – one of the most celebrated jazz musicians, a masterful pianist and keyboardist, an unequalled leader and a unique composer – Dainius Pulauskas, who carried the work in his mind for quite a while. In seven-movement suite the listeners will experience symbiosis of jazz and symphonism, in which sound palette of the celebrated jazz group will merge with lush tones of the symphony orchestra. In his score the composer addressed not only rich timbral possibilities of a symphony orchestra in general, but dedicated much attention to the orchestra’s strong facets – its percussion section as well as vibraphone and marimba. In this composition, based on a synthesis of academic and free forms, the composer toys with various jazz elements – rhythmic criss-cross between orchestra, jazz group and soloists, and jazz reefs tinted in orchestral colours. Dainius Pulauskas tried his hand at composition and arranging while working in Oktava orchestra (1981), since 1996 he has led and composed for his own ensembles: a quintet which soon grew into a sextet and became one the most outstanding and active Lithuanian jazz groups – an ambassador of Lithuanian jazz. It is D.Pulauskas-composer who can be credited for the ensemble’s success. He has led Dainius Pulauskas Group for more than a decade. The group has earned accolades in a number of prestigious European and Asian jazz festivals. The Finnish jazz critic Risto Haapsamo has called its music “the powerful pulse of modern jazz”. “Pulauskas and his colleagues play the best fusion you could find. Variety of their expression means is staggering. It is a topsy-turvy of madcap swinging and rhythms, and … the purest, unembellished jazz. It is obvious, that the leader of the group pianist Pulauskas and his friends are all excellent arrangers; there is always a place for improvisations in their precisely calculated arrangements. It was long ago that I have heard jazz masters of such a talent”, wrote Swedish critic Bo Levender about Dainius Pulauskas and his group. Members of Dainius Pulauskas Group are jazz musicians of the highest league: trumpeter Valerijus Ramoška, saxophonist Vytautas Labutis, bassist Leonidas Šinkarenko, drummer Linas B?da and percussionist Arkadijus Gotesmanas. The well-known jazz group will be joined by Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra (LSSO) whose founder, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor is Gintaras Rinkevi?ius. During 16 years of its existence, the Orchestra gave more than 900 concerts at home and abroad. Even though the main core of the Orchestra’s repertoire consists of opuses by classical through contemporary composers, the creative collective does not desist trying unusual experiments in the symphonic music sphere such as genre synthesis. Among LSSO’s previous undertakings are Giedrius Kuprevi?ius’ Decaphonia for ten jazz soloists and symphony orchestra; performance with the legendary rock group Electric Light Orchestra, appearance in a program Classical Metamorphoses together with pop and rock singers write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |