Ukrainian Foxtrot

We had the opportunity to attend a lecture "Ukrainian Foxtrot: A century of cakewalks, two-seps, ragtimes, shimmies, foxtrots, charlestons, and more..." This multimedia presentation by Wasyl Sydorenko, composer and musicologist, was an incredibly pleasant surprise. He wove a very interesting story with a multimedia presentation that even included two live dancers who performed selected dance pieces.

As he spun his story, Sydorenko treated the audience to glipses of rare photographs, music scores, recordings, movie clips, and live dance. It was a journey to discover an aspect of Ukrainian culture that has been forgotten "far too long," according to Sydorenko.

Sydorenko's presentation was the latest instalment in a series titled "Circle of Fifths". Last year he introduced his audience to Ukrainian Tango. It was an entirely enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon at St. Vladimir's Institute downtown. We can't wait till the next lecture in this series is announced. A short synopsis of the lecture follows:

Even before the first cakewalk was published in the Russian Empire, Ukrainian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) scandalized old Mme Rimsky-Korsakov by demonstrating the dance at one of her soirees in 1904. Soon military bands were playing cakewalks, two-steps and ragtimes for the dancing pleasure of the elite. 

After WWI, the delights of the elite became the decadent pleasures of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. No matter how much the middle-class was persecuted and jazz music frowned upon in the Soviet Union, foxtrots, shimmies and Charlestons were to be enjoyed. 

From the Baltics to the Balkans there emerged a whole network of composers, lyricists, musicians and singers that created an autochthonous repertoire of East European foxtrots. Many of these creators and performers were Ukrainian. They worked creatively with Jews, Poles, Romanians, Germans, etc. And their music competed with the best repertoire from America and Western Europe. 

In 1926, American jazz musicians like Sam Wooding (1895-1985) and Benny Peyton (c.1890-1965) toured the Soviet Union with their jazz orchestras. Meanwhile, Ukrainian-born musicians like Marek Weber (1888-1964), Dajos Béla (aka Leon Golzmann, 1897-1978) and Efim Schachmeister (1894-1944) with their jazz orchestras became the toast of Berlin.
During the 1930s, the pre-eminent Ukrainian creator and performer was Petro Leshchenko (1898-1954), whose recordings of foxtrots on the Columbia and Bellaccord labels became international hits reaching as far as Athens, London and New York. 

And in Western Ukraine a group of intrepid young jazz musicians made their mark. The group included bandleader Leonid “Yabtso” Yablonsky (1908-1966) and composers Anatol Kos-Anatolsky (1909-1983), Bohdan Wesolowsky (1915-1971), Stepan Huminilovych (1917-1985), Lidia Korolevych (1923-1951), and Irena Chuma. Their female vocalist was none other than the mysterious Irena Yarosevych (aka Renata Bogdanska, 1917-2010), the niece of Ukrainian composer Ostap Nyzhankivsky (1862-1919).