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502 Bad Gateway
Dmitri Ukhov |
 Music writer Dmitri Ukhov was born in Moscow, Russia, on
July 15, 1946. Due to his strong interest in jazz, he started to perform in a Dixieland
band of the English School N.4 in 1959 (piano, percussion and a friend's cello... they did
not have a chance to obtain a double bass), but dropped out, due to his switching to an
evening 10-grade school. There was an attempt undertaken to combine studies in two
universities at once - in the structural linguistic department of the Philology Department
of Moscow State University and one of the musical institutions (several were attempted -
including some located in the Baltic republics, but was only able to reach up to the third
course of the evening division of the historical theoretical department of the Gnessin
Music Education Institute). He worked in the musical presses "Muzyka" and
"Sovetsky kompozitor", the Muzfond, in the Gnessin Musical Pedagogical Institute
- primarily in the field of folk music. Finally was able to obtain his doctoral degree,
completing in 1980 a dissertation "The Poetics of Contemporary Popular Song of the
USA and England" in the Department of Foreign Literature in Moscow State University.Since 1977 did not work anywhere full-time (with the exception of one year - 1998 - in the culture section of the "Kommersant-daily" newspaper), was not a member of any organization or party, did not hold any state or electoral job positions. With the exception of a short period of the existence of the Moscow musical club "Pechora," where, complying to a request of jazz musician colleagues, agreed to direct "folkloristic" activities ("jazz" and "big-beat" were allowed by the authorities only under the condition of creation of departments of "folk" and "classical" music). Consequently - did not earn any marks of distinction from any of the governmental structures. Only just an award from the audio-journal "Overview" in the era of Perestroika, a few mentions in annual publications of the I.I.R.A. (The International Independent Radio Association) and the "Boheme jazz" prize in 1999. The first publications in the role of a music critic were newspaper miscellanea in Latvian and Estonian press in the mid-60's. In 1970, due to a recommendation and under the supervision of Arkady Petrov, started to present radio programs for the "Youth" radio station and to have publications on the pages of the audio-journal "Club and Amateur Artistic Activities". Gradually the radio became the main source of making a living; since 1989 on the All-Union radio there appeared the program "Contrasts - from Folklore to Avant-garde," which in 1997 switched to the state owned "Radio Russia". In the mid-90's there also existed "the Jazz Alarm Clock" ("Mayak" - Lighthouse) radio station, later also on Radio-1 station, as well as three hours of jazz on the "Orpheus" classical radio station) and for six months there were two hours of live broadcasts on the avant-techno-station "Sub-stance" (comprising of the musical material of this program a CD was able to come out of the 4'33'' Ensemble with the title "Falls", published by the "Long Arms" company). Presently the following radio programs are presented on the air - the Jazz Alarm-Clock (on Saturdays at 9:05 AM on Radio-1); "Going Past Three Seas" - twice a month (on Wednesdays - 10:35 PM, Radio Russia), All the Music of the World/Contrasts - from Folklore to Avant-garde; All the Music of the World/Counterpoint - twice a month (on Sundays 9:10 PM Radio Russia). The time of the broadcast on the air in other time zones might not correspond with the Moscow time. Throughout all the 1980's, he was a member of the Artistic Council of the "Melodiya" company - a representative of the music records collectors (as an expert of the licensing policy with a concealing voice). In the era of perestroika he was standing up for the creation of the series of "Electronic music" and "The Masters of Blues," and also took part in several alternative-jazz and world music projects ("Asphalt," "Roof," L. Subramaniam in Moscow, etc.) In 1989, due to an accidental turn of events he took part in the organization of a Festival of Soviet Jazz avant-garde in Zurich. In 1994 he was a visiting professor at Berkeley College, however that was in the Music technology department. Since 1993 he is the producer of the annual new music festival "Alternativa", since that time making the participation of jazz musicians a mandatory part of the festival, which resulted in the jazz part of this Festival being the only regulary annual new jazz event in the capital (among its participants are John Wolf Brennan, the Motus-Quartet, Mike Ellis, Daniel Goode, Diettmar Bonnen, in addition to collaborative projects with the "Long Arms" entreprise). He took part in practically all of our jazz conferences (Novosibirsk, Leningrad/St.Petersburg, Tallinn, Moscow). Published several books of translations of professional musicological literature (from English and Polish) and a numerous amount of articles on music theory (in the samizdat "Square" journal published in the 70's, in the publications of the Institute of Art Studies and Moscow Conservatory, in the compilations "Notation in Jazz" and "Towards the 1000th Anniversary of Guido D'Arezzo). The co-author (together with Valentina J. Konen) of "The Third Layer," Moscow, Muzyka publications, 1994. Publications in foreign periodicals come out occasionally - most often on the theory and practice of new music. He is the jazz observer of the "Salon AV" journal and the Rossiyskaya Muzykal'naya Gazeta" (Russian Musical Newspaper). Since 1983 through 1993 (with a few interruptions) he taught a course on "the History of he Styles of Popular and Jazz Performance Practice" on the music department of the State Pedagogical Institute / Pedagogical Academy, and since 1995 he teaches a course called "Half a Century of Contemporary Music" in the School of Contemporary Art in the Russian State Humanities University. With the emergence of accessible musical electronic equipment, resumed composing (or, to be more precise, developing scenarios for improvisers) - the first work for solo instrument (Alexander Pishchikov on the tenor saxophone) and magnetic tape was recorded back in 1968 in the days of the events in Czechoslovakia. He compiled by means of musical compilations several theatrical productions and a televised project based on the texts of Dmitri Prigov "Oral Cantata". Collaborated in a joint project with a group of parallel cinema "Selektion" (Germany), which was shown as part of the cycle of "Capital city" - "Silent Film/Live Music". In 1996 at the First Forum of the International Society for Experimental Music, there appeared a joint group of European improvisers (featuring soloists: Carlos Zingaro and Werner Kodytek and members Ghost-In-The-Machine, Raimond Strid, Zygmunt Krauze, Raoul Bjorkenheim and others, conductor Tim Hodgkinson) recorded the composition "In Tempore Belli". The remix of Morton Subbottnick's composition "SilverApples of the Moon" with a new title of "Golden Apples of the Sun" for two improvising soloists, a poet reciting his poetry and a computer generated sounds. The composition has deserved two performances in 1998 and 1999. e-mail: dmituhov@mtu-net.ru |