Russian Cabaret Hits

Jack · March 2007

I wish I had something to add to all this; I'm really enjoying it! There's such a breadth of knowledge on the forum, it's really amazing. Scot (or anyone), can you tell me the title of the Boulou album you mention, and if it's still in print?

best,
Jack.

scot · March 2007

That recording by Boulou was called "Reve a la Russe". I don't think it was ever on a CD - long out of print.

I've been playing Russian music with Russians lately - to my surprise, I've discovered that there are 30 - 40,000 Russian speaking people in Charlotte. A local French restaurant recently had a big "cabaret russe" with a prix fixe dinner, big show with singing, playing and dancing, followed by a russian discotheque(!). This was a unique experience as you might imagine - all the wealthy Russians in Charlotte came (it was expensive) and it went on and on, we played our fingers off. A glimpse into a society normally closed off to rednecks like me...

There are many tunes in the Russian gypsy repertoire that would fit easily into the "jazz manouche" world. It's kind of neat that there is a little bit of interest in this in the gypsy jazz world - Vadim and I are working on arranging some of Django's tunes in the Russian style. Everything goes around and around.

Another thing that I've found is that like most music played by Gypsies - and european music in general - russian guitar music isn't improvised. They'll play outrageous and insane variations on a theme but it's all carefully worked out. Which is perfectly OK, of course. The amazing thing about all of it is how they're able to play these unbelievable and intricate things exactly the same way every time. I mean, I can't play the chords to "Minor Swing" the same way two times in a row.

If there is still a download site operating, maybe i can find a way to digitize my collection of Russian guitar music and John can make it available. If anyone wants to help out with this, let me know. I don't know how to do all of it.

Best
Scot

Ken Bloom · March 2007

To me, this type of thing is very much like the Early Baroque approach to music. You have a majority of folks that work out careful arrangements and play them the same way every time. Then there will be those for whom this is too confining and will branch out. Back in the 80's I played balalaika with a newly arrived bayan player, Genady Gutkin who was a fantastic player. He had been throught the folk music conservatories, much like Vadim had and could do just about anything he could conceive of.
While I tended to keep my balalaika variations pretty much the same, the accompaniment "developed" over time, everytime. Each time we played whether it was for rehearsal or performance, Genady's accompaniement developed further. I have seen the same with great bouzouki players and clarinet players doing Rembetica. There is much more emphasis on improvisation in this genre but has a lot of the same underpinnings and those bouzouki players use the same right hand technique that has become so well-known to us all.

wayne nakamura · March 2007

I agree with Jack! This is a great thread! Keep it coming!

I was exiting the subway Thurs. morning during rush hour. Everyone walking briskly with their head down. Went through the turnstyle and this violinist was playing a classical piece. I threw $2 in his case and when he thanked me I requested Deux Guitarres. He didn't flinch. Big smile and ta da...

Toronto's system for busking in the subway is juried. You have to be carded so the quality of the musicians can be pretty high. And very multicultural.

Love this thread.

wayne nakamura

MichaelHorowitz · March 2007

Scot...do you know if there was any kind of Russian scene in the south of France? Tchan Tchou and Bousquet both played all the token Russian stuff, but my guess is that those tunes had been subsumed into French popular music. So they probably weren't entertaining strictly Russian audiences. However, they both spent time in Paris, right? So maybe they put in some time in the Russian cabarets there.

MichaelHorowitz · March 2007

One other question...I noticed that Bousquet only plays the D minor/F Maj sections of Czardas de Monti. But most players also do a section in D major. I'm not sure if the original had the section in the parallel major, but it seems like most people play it. But many charts, and Bouquet's recording, don't have it. Just the D minor and F sections. Does anyone one know which is more "traditional" or faithful to the original?

clausci · March 2007

Michael Horowitz wrote:

One other question...I noticed that Bousquet only plays the D minor/F Maj sections of Czardas de Monti. But most players also do a section in D major. I'm not sure if the original had the section in the parallel major, but it seems like most people play it. But many charts, and Bouquet's recording, don't have it. Just the D minor and F sections. Does anyone one know which is more "traditional" or faithful to the original?

I know that Monti born as a classical composer, and Csardas is a piece written in hungarian style,there are also other pieces like "The Wistle"(often called WIstle hORA )and "Hora in B minor" , that the people play as they are popular,i ve seen that only Gilles Apap wrote Monti as the Composer of the themes,so probably he created others.
anyway the original "csardas di monti" start in Dm the second Chorus in F
then the slow part in D two times with the Hrmonics and then after a Chorus in Dm/F it finish in D doing the same of the start but major.

anyway the hungarian plays it in the right way in terms of section ,of course they do in their style with a lot of effects in melody.

scot · March 2007

Re Bousquet and Tchan-Tchou, I don't know how much time they ever spent in Paris. In any case, by the time these men came of age, after WWII, the era of the "cabarets russes" as real Russian places was already over. They had moved on to where they were by and large tourist spots for the wealthy and jaded and some of the repertoire had already been carried over to popular music. Even on "Manouche-Partie" (1960) there are two Russian pieces - "Two Guitars" and "Kalinka". And looking at the list of titles on the CD that Sockeye references here, many of the tunes on that disc have been done by modern gypsy jazz players - "Les temps de Muguet", "Fentres de Moscou", "L'Aloutte" etc.

"Czardas di Monti" is almost always played with th DMaj finale - it's on all the charts I have. I'm surprised that the terrific versions of "russian" pieces on the "Gypsy Guitars" CD have not been mentioned here. Serge Camps version of "Czardas" there is really awesome - like everything on that disc.

clausci · March 2007

on Gypsy Guiotrs by DeBarre? are them russian?
At this point i have a question: how many of the Hungarian Music (csardas ,hora etc.) comes from Russian themes or songs?
I see that onk a movie called "Lautari" (russian movie) wich is ambiented in Bessarabia the russian id plays exactly the slow part of "Route des Acacias"(played by Matelo, Angelo Debarre and 2000 of gypsy hungarian violinists). And the question comes to me cause the form "czarda" is a mix of songs (often 2 or 3), maybe also russian? but the form "czarda" is not russian i think...