OLEG LUNDSTREM

Oleg Lundstrem Russian Jazz Orchestra

Artist Biography by Jason Ankeny

The father of Russian jazz, Oleg Lundstrem helmed the nation's first big band, keeping the group afloat for more than seven decades despite the fierce opposition of Soviet leaders. Born April 2, 1916, in Chita, Siberia, Lundstrem spent much of his adolescence in China, where his father worked on the Great Chinese Railroad before accepting a professorship at the Harbin Polytechnic Institute. Lundstrem studied music as a child, focusing on violin while attending college. In 1934, he first discovered the music of American jazz greats Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, and soon after formed the Oleg Lundstrem Jazz Orchestra with eight fellow Russian expatriates, adopting the tenor saxophone as his weapon of choice. After building a loyal following in Harbin, the Lundstrem band in 1935 relocated to Shanghai, following a stint at the Yangtze Hotel with a long tenure at the popular ballroom the Majestic. In addition to a repertoire featuring American jazz standards, in time Lundstrem began adapting traditional Russian songs to fit big-band arrangements, with Dunaevesky's "A Song About the Captain," Blanter's "Katyusha," and Vertinsky's "Strange Cities" all proving crowd favorites.

In 1940 the Lundstrem Jazz Orchestra inaugurated an extended run at the Paramount, then Shanghai's most prestigious venue; by this time the roster included 14 musicians, with Lundstrem -- dubbed "the King of Jazz in the Far East" by the local press -- serving as conductor. During World War II the lineup swelled to 19, with acclaimed residencies at the Lyceum and the Carlton, and when the war ended in 1945, Lundstrem penned his first original song, the Rachmaninoff-inspired "Interlude," to commemorate the end of battle. Two years later the orchestra abandoned Shanghai to return to the Soviet Union, settling in the Kazan area and becoming an official jazz collective of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. However, in 1948 the Central Committee of the Communist Party outlawed jazz altogether, forcing Lundstrem and many of his bandmates to work in state-approved ballet, opera, and cinema orchestras. Tatar State Philharmonic artistic director A.S. Klyucharev pulled strings and called in favors to land the Lundstrem band enough concert performances to keep the roster from splintering completely, with Lundstrem arranging vocal and instrumental versions of popular Soviet songs to keep the authorities at bay.

During the early '50s Lundstrem studied composition at the Kazan State Conservatory, staying on after graduation to teach theoretical disciplines and lead the student symphony orchestra. In 1955, he conducted a series of radio performances and recording sessions comprised of jazz-inspired arrangements of songs written by Tatar's leading composers, in the process earning the attention of Moscow concert organizers. Finally, on October 1, 1956, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Socialist Federative Socialist Republic officially approved the creation of the All-Russian State Concert Orchestra, directed by Lundstrem and featuring most of the same musicians as his Shanghai big band. Over the next five decades, the orchestra maintained a grueling tour schedule that covered over 300 Soviet cities and dozens more outside the U.S.S.R., including jazz festivals in Warsaw, Prague, Washington, D.C., and Santa Barbara, CA. Lundstrem's orchestra also recorded a number of studio LPs, often in conjunction with arranger and composer Vitaliy Dologviy. Lundstrem relinquished his leadership role only upon his death in Moscow on October 14, 2005. By that time, the orchestra was already in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest working jazz group.