PROJECT “ALISSID JAZZ”. Fundamentals.

“Alissid Jazz” is read with a stress on “A”.



City At present almost all MAIN project members live in Moscow.


What makes the project interesting The main characteristic feature of the “Alissid Jazz” music is its imaginative and highly emotional charge of each composition.
The most interesting events in the previous years
2001
• Improvizational-musical performance at festival "Improsila-1" ("Red" club, St. Petersburg)
• Participation in the "Live and Electrical" festival (club "Piatnitsa", Moscow)
• Contract with Falcata-Galia Recordings (USA, California) for release of two CDs: “Zen” and “Dragon, Griffin and Turtleman”;

2002
• In 2002 the “Zen” album music was used in the film describing the ancient Slavic village Arkaim – “The Land of Marmots”.

2003
• Participation in the festival “the World as secret” in Artists Culture Center (CDKh);
• Concerts in Great Novgorod, Belgorod, Voronezh, Smolensk, etc.;
• 3 joint concerts of Aliss with a Byelorussian intuition and improvisation band, “Knyaz Myshkin”, in the MAI Cultural Center, the “MUHA” and “DOM” clubs;
At the “DOM” club while the concert was going on the album “Lebedzrakdashuka” was recorded; this album is now being actively distributed by the American company www.woodrecords.com;
• Participation in the “Sziget 2003” festival in Hungary – one of the largest open-air shows in Europe (jointly with singer Elena Belyaeva (“Ethnica”))
The festival also hosted “Earth Wind & Fire”, Spyro Gyra, Shaggy, Moloko, Asian Dub Foundation, Trottel, Morcheeba, De Phazz, Clawfinger, Apocalyptica, etc.;
• Concert performances in Hungary and Romania;
• “EthnoLife” festival in Moscow suburbs;
• Joint concerts with the Scandinavian gothic legend, KARI RUESLATTEN (Norway), in Moscow.

2002-2004
• “Alissid Jazz” is actively playing in many Moscow clubs – “16 tons”, “JVL art club”, “Art-Garbige”, “B-2”, “Bunker”, etc.
• At present Aliss is also working with music director Vyacheslav Buzkov and actor Villor Kuznezov on the chart for the play “Gulliver”…


ON ALISSID JAZZ PROJECT

The music of this project is a most demonstrative example of advanced intellectual live improvisatory acid-jazz-live with ethnic (Russian, Mongolian-Siberian, Indian and Arabic) elements. The music is remarkable for its elegance and ingenious harmony, imagery and high emotional content.
This is fusion of ethnic background with intellectual approach to harmonization, together with spontaneous and often aggressive improvizations based on modern ideas and rhythm (IDM, drum’n’base, break beat, jungle). The “Alissid Jazz” style may be defined as “new fusion” that relates to the terms “new improvization music”, “new jazz”, which have recently come to be frequently used in the modern music.

Each live concert of “Alissid Jazz” differs from all others due to changes in the project composition and drastic changes in arrangements; but the music playing principle stays the same – it is a live and spontaneous improvization filled with emotions and deep sense ….

The project founder – Aliss - the author of idea, arrangements and songs for the entire project.
Aliss (Alexander Alekhin) was born in the Urals (Chelyabinsk) and lived in Belgorod and St. Petersburg. At present his main residence location is Moscow. In the 90s he founded an improvisational jazz movement in Belgorod where he was president of a legendary art-club. Multi-instrumentalist. He started with bass guitar, keys and clarinet. Now he prefers to play various types of flutes (bema, recorders, bansuri), didgeridoo, bari- and soprano- saxophones, sings overtone and subtone. Sometimes (not often) he may perform as an eccentric singer. Besides, he is well familiar with all contemporary technological fads utilizing computer equipment, and is successfully using this knowledge in his arrangements. Aliss is the author of over 100 compositions of which the most popular are: "Druids’ swing" (1989), “Condrashkin’ Blues” (1989), “Hunter” (1994), and some acid jazz compositions (“The Bat”, “Acid River/Yauza”, “Lion’s Rhythm”, “Factory”, etc. (2002-2004)).


NEW ALBUM OF THE PROJECT “ALISSID JAZZ” - “ANIMAL FASHION” (2005)


The album comprised several hits familiar to the “Alissid Jazz” concert visitors in 2002-2004, which have never been recorded before. For instance “The Bat” (“Thisa Bata” version) or “Acid River”. All these things are presented in a suddenly unusual arrangement.
The album also included the “Condrashkin’ Blues” theme, undeservingly forgotten by Aliss at some point and then brought back with the use of contemporary technologies.
The album is also based on such fresh compositions as “Snakes”, which Aliss calls “one of the best creations of the recent time”. The main line of this play is an Indian raga (Part I) growing in Part II into a peculiar hindoo drum’n’base thanks to 15/8 drum beat and the bass guitar imitating the sounds of the Indian percussion instrument – “tabla”. Other new compositions also represent peculiar fusions of contemporary rhythm and various ethnic tunes…

Aliss, the project leader and founder:

“…I think I am a researcher in music – from destroying the diatonic and jazz harmonization habitual to a European listener”. I build my own laws but I try not to overcomplexify the music perception. Where my research ends is in discovery of states and conditions – spiritual, emotional and physical – of the player, as well as of the listener.

I am also concerned with symbolization of each play: for example, the theme of the “Factory of Toys” is the rustle around us and our toys – cars, children, cats and dogs…
“Thisa Bata” is not about the bats as such but about the people who do not sleep at nights. The strange name of this play (play version) emerged from the foreign (oriental) phonetic modification of the English “The Bat”. This is also to express the fusion of both the play and music styles.
“Mouse’s Life” – a life of a mouse sometimes (for some – constantly) led by many of us, including me.

…I am just a mirror that reflects everything it sees and feels…”




Alissid Jazz –it is first and foremost Aliss - the founder, composer, arranger and author of idea for the entire project. Aliss (Alexander Alekhin) was born in the Urals (Chelyabinsk) and lived in Belgorod, St. Petersburg and Moscow for many years. At present his main residence location is Moscow. In the 90s he founded an improvisational jazz movement in Belgorod where he created a legendary art-club. Multi-instrumentalist. Now he prefers to play various types of flutes (bema, recorders, bansuri), didgeridoo, bari- and soprano- saxophones, sings overtone and subtone. Besides, he is well familiar with all contemporary technological fads requiring utilization of computer equipment. Aliss is the author of over 100 compositions the most popular of which are: “Druids’ swing” (1989), “Condrashkin’ Blues” (1989), “Hunter” (1994), and some acid jazz compositions (“The Bat”, “Acid River/Yauza”, “Lion’s Rhythm”, etc. (2002-2004)).





Short biography of Aliss and the history of the project “Alissid Jazz”

Aliss was born in Chelyabinsk (in the Southern Urals) in 1968.
When he was 2, he was being brought up by his grandmother and grandfather, harmonist and singer from the Urals.
At 7 he moved to Belgorod where he spent some years at a music school learning to play the button accordion. At 15 he created his first musical project “Hard-Hor “Astra”” (two drummers, four guitar players, two bass guitarists, one keyboardist and several singers).

In 1986 Aliss entered the Belgorod academy of music (clarinet, bassoon). When studying Aliss arranged several bands with his fellow-students and congenial friends. The last project of that period was a rock and blues band called “The Blues Brothers’ Compression Trust & The Tipsy Gerl’s Body”.

From 1989 Aliss has been hitchhiking among hippies, with his guitar. He lived with the Krishnai and thus developed his outlook, when fishing in the Kama river in the Urals, felt the wilderness of nature, he was an artist’s apprentice in the eastern Kazakhstan to feel the unity of arts…

At the same time Aliss, together with Gennady Nemshilov, as well as percussionist and artist Arthur Volkhovsky creates a jazz and close-to-jazz-oriented band. Later the band was supplemented by a keyboardist, a drummer and a soundman. The then repertory included the famous “Druids’ swing”, the composition the band still plays, the “Condrashkin’ Blues” that is included into the “Animal Fashion” CD (2005) and various other classic jazz plays. The sound was far from jazz classic and closer to acid-jazz. Many listeners said that they had not heard nothing like that both in sound and in harmonic approach and compared this music to film soundtracks. The records were distributed on CDs among fans. Unfortunately, none of the records of that period was preserved.

In 1991 Aliss got the idea of creating the “Art-Clud” as the club for the underground arts men. The club became a cult in Belgorod and brought up a generation of advanced youth. The “Art-Club” supported various arts and exercised educational and concert-arranging functions.

At the end of 1992 Aliss moved to St. Petersburg where he participated in an intuitive improvisation project with Eric Ovelyan (now passed on) who played with trumpeter Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky, accordionist Lina Petrova, contrabass player Vladimir Volkov.… He also makes some vanguard records with Alexander Yuagutkin (guitar) and Arthur Volkhovsky (percussion) along with playing in St. Pete’s clubs with the “Tropic Raka” band.

In St. Petersburg datsan Aliss undergoes a Buddhist initiation by Chokya Nima Rimpoche, a great Tibetan teacher and mentor of B.B. Grebenschikov. He participates in the retreats of the great Buddhist teacher, Ole Nidal; learns phototropic breathing from European and American masters; studies Sufism; takes an active part in promotion of the New-Age music and culture. All these activities were later reflected in the “Alissid Jazz” music and had a great influence on the playing style of Aliss.

In 1996 Aliss and a trumpet player Igor “Donald” Pobegailo creates a new experimental and research percussion project (bongos, ethnic drums). They also started experimenting on mastering the technique of guttural and overtone singing.
Later the project was supplemented by guitar player and composer Dmitry “McCartney” Konstantinov.
This band played and recorded the famous vanguard concert-performance “The Concert for One Man”, better known as “Dragon, Griffin and Turtleman”.
The concerts of this band became a milestone in the Belgorod music life. In spring 2002 the album was released in the author’s edition and in summer 2001 – a contract was signed for release under the Californian label with “Falcata Galia Recordings” (USA, CA).

At the same time the band of “Aliss Jazz Band” was organized to play traditional jazz plays and ballads. Meanwhile the band also played concerts of authentic improvisational music with other musicians of great variety in styles. It was in about that period when the project was officially called as “Alissid Jazz”.

In 1999 Aliss moved to Moscow where he is now living until now.
In summer 2000 he records an overnight “live” album “Zen” in Belgorod.
The musicians met there for just one day and after recording was complete went to different cities. In autumn the album “Zen” was released in the author’s edition and appeared at the “Gorbushka” center in October. In summer 2001 a contract was signed for the album release under the Californian label with “Falcata Galia Recordings” (USA, CA).
In 2002 the music from “Zen” was used in the film describing the ancient Slavic village Arkaim – “The Land of Marmots”.
In winter 2000 - spring 2001 Aliss was engaged in serious studies of computer music technologies and in 2001 finishes the album “yo-dance” – a fusion of ethno-ambient and acid jazz. In 2004 the album was released by the company “Agency Gold Pro”.

In 2001 “Alissid Jazz” participated in the improvizational-musical festival “Improsila-1” (“Red” club, St. Petersburg) and in the “Live and Electrical” festival conducted in the Moscow club “Piatnitsa”, recorded the “Dreamtimes” album “live”.

In 2002 Aliss met guitar player Alex Volynsky, bass guitarist Tim Ismaylov and percussionist Dmitry Darian. That acquaintance led to the present sound of “Alissid Jazz”, which is based on the use of contemporary rhythm borrowed from the DJ music (drum’n’base, jungle, hip-hop) with modern-jazz harmonization and ethno-tonal (sometimes contradicting) harmony, vanguard melodics. The style was called “live ethno acid avant jazz” and “nu fusion”. The two musicians make several experimental records many of which are accessible as mp3 at www.alissidjazz.com (records: April 2002), as well as at other Russian and foreign mp3 resources.

In 2002 – 2004 “Alissid Jazz” with Aliss (sax, flute) – Dmitry Darian (drums) – Victoria Darian (keyboards) – Dmitry “McCartney” Konstantinov (guitar) – Nikolay Tsyrkunoff (bass, sometimes substituted by Alexander “Klop” Kolopatin or Andrey Efimenko) – is actively playing in Moscow clubs such as “16 tons”, “JVL art club”, “Art-Garbige”, “B-2”, “Bunker”, etc. The band participates in the festival “the World as secret” in the Artists Culture Center (CDKh), concerts in cities of Great Novgorod, Belgorod, Voronezh, Smolensk, etc…

At the same time Aliss takes part in other bands and projects:
• Plays several concerts in the “Muha” club and in DK MAI center with a Byelorussian intuition and improvization band, “Knyaz Myshkin”;
• Plays and records with “Knyaz Myshkin” in the “DOM” club the “Lebedzrakdashuka” album which is now being actively distributed by the foreign company www.woodrecords.com;
• Is working with music director Vyacheslav Buzkov and actor Villor Kuznezov on the chart for the play “Gulliver”…

In 2003, together with singer Elena Belyaeva (“Ethnica”), “Alissid Jazz” goes on a tour to Hungary and Romania (Bucharest), as well as participates in the All-Russia anti-drug action “Train to the Future”, the “EthnoLife” festival and in the “Sziget 2003” festival in Hungary – one of the largest open-airs in Europe. At the end of 2003 he plays joint concerts with the Scandinavian gothic legend, KARI RUESLATTEN (Norway).

In 2004 “Alissid Jazz” records the album “Animal Fashion”, the contract for release of which is signed with “Agency Gold Pro”.

At present, the music of this project is a demonstrative example of advanced intellectual live improvisatory acid-jazz-vanguard with ethnic elements. The music is remarkable for its elegance and ingenious harmony, imagery and high emotional content.
Each live concert of “Alissid Jazz” differs from all others due to the changes in the project composition and drastic changes in arrangements; but the music playing principle stays the same – a live and spontaneous improvization filled with emotions and deep sense ….