«Ukraine is not just a breadbasket!»
Writing, like most creative processes, is the result of a long journey. The one that leads to this article today, started six years ago.
For ten years now, the web has been for me a place of sharing and exchange, it is through this vector that in June 2013, I received a message: «Hi JC, welcome my CD». The correspondent «Myroslav» has offered me to send it dedicated. I do not answer, this email which seems to me to be advertising.
Last summer, during the Hudson quartet concert, composed of Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield, John Medeski and Scott Colley at the Marseille Jazz des Cinq Continents in the Silvain Theater, I received a new message from Myroslav, informing me of the release of two new albums In Piano and Elegant Dualism. He plans to come and present them in France and hopes that we will be able to work together.
I explain to him that I write on the music and interested in his artistic universe, he immediately sends me seven albums.
To my question «Do you speak french ?» he answers «No sorry russian ?, ukrain?» it is perhaps important to point out that these two languages are very foreign to me!
But if this type of handicap stopped the projects, homo sapiens would still be renting caves and dressed in animal skins. We quickly agree, I will write my article in French and English and, he will translate it into Russian and Ukrainian.
You might think it’s over, well NO! it’s just starting!
Even if since the creation of Marseille Jazz des Cinq Continents, I have been faithful festival-goer, I did not have the opportunity to see musicians of his country there. The pianist confirms that in France, we do not know the Ukrainian artists and yet according to him, the perspectives are multiple and interesting.
If this article can help to make the Ukrainian scene known to the public in France, Myroslav Levytsky and I will have succeeded in our bet.
Our musician was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, a country 1.1 times larger than France, divided into twenty-four oblasts (regions) with a coastline with the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
My high school memories remind me that Ukraine is Europe’s breadbasket, thanks to a soil, the famous «Chernozom», black and very fertile land.
My memory also tells me that its history is dense, with names that made me dream, such as Vladimir the Great, but also Yaroslav the Wise who had Saint Sophia Cathedral built in Kiev, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It is in this city that Myroslav Levytsky recorded in 2017 his album In Piano, an opus of seventeen tracks, all with a touch of sensibility. He confides to me that he has worked with various composers, producers and sound engineers from various countries (Poland, United States, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil). The album was released in 2017 on the label Advice music (Italy).
This CD proves that the pianist expresses his music in various styles, the last track «The Heart That Loves (Alan Flexa Remix)» is current music while the other tracks remain more in a classic romantic style.
The album Elegant Dualism (released in 2014) is a duet with guitarist Rens Newland. In the song «European Peace», the guitar is magnified. The desire for peace is present in the work of the pianist who suffered a lot during the war of the Ukrainian crisis in 2013 and 2014.
This multifaceted man, music teacher, pianist, composer, producer and leader of the Ukrainian jazz-rock group Braty Bluzu has was «inspired by many musicians like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninov, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson, Dave Grusin, Enio Morricone, ABBA, Tchaikovsky, Herbie Hancock, Schubert, Schumann, Garbarek. I love the musicians who right in the heart.»
However, we want to ask him the question «But when does he sleep?» echoing his album The City That Never Sleeps released in 2011, «I sleep a little».
No need to go any further, that’s for sure, Myroslav Levytsky is a great eclectic musician who touches the heart.
But we will have to change the history and geography lessons in our high schools because, «Ukraine is not only a breadbasket!».
Jean-Constantin Colletto. (Traduction) Alexandre Colletto.