Russians kick things up a notch

Russian jazz has never had a high profile on the international music scene. But there’s a lot going on beneath the radar. And on Thursday night at La Ve Lee in Studio City, a rare appearance by three respected Russian musicians displayed high skill levels, as well as an original approach to the improvisational art.

The musicians -- trumpeter Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky, pianist Andrei Kondakov and bassist Vladimir Volkov -- were in town for the second annual L.A. Festival of Russian Culture. Each is an important figure in Russian jazz. Volkov and Gaivoronsky work frequently throughout Europe. Kondakov has recorded with guitarist Paul Bollenback and has performed with Randy Brecker and Eddie Gomez, among others.

Together they offered a collection of original material that often verged into free jazz/avant-garde jazz areas. In most of the more wide-open improvisations, however, the soloing was framed by composed surroundings -- often via ostinato bass lines -- that provided listener-friendly connection to the music. This use of a classical device was one of numerous aspects reflecting an approach fundamentally different from that of blues-driven American jazz.

One of the most intriguing numbers, translated as “Music Box,” featured Gaivoronsky and Volkov. Frequent companions in duo settings, they stormed through an episodic flow of sounds and melodies. Volkov played like a man possessed, whipping off bowed passages, tossing his long, frizzy hair from side to side, his sound and presence in sharp contrast to the pointed Miles Davis-reminiscent lines of the more stoic Gaivoronsky.

The most fascinating piece in the set was an extraordinary arrangement of “Take the ‘A’ Train.” Replete with atmospheric train sounds from Kondakov, suggesting but never quite completing the full extent of Billy Strayhorn’s melody, it was an “A” train on the Moscow subway rather than the more familiar Uptown Manhattan express.

Like the other music in this compelling performance, it revealed the extent to which Russian players, like artists in other parts of the world, are finding ways to enliven jazz from the wellsprings of their own creative cultures.