The bridge from Dixieland to orchestra

Get ready to plunge into the twenties of past century and witness the birth of jazz in Chicago and New York, and learn something interesting about schools of piano improvisation.

“Jazz Age”, or “Roaring Twenties”, is a decade betweet the First World War and Great Depression in the USA, i.e. from 1919 to 2019. American author F. Scott Fitzgerald is widely credited with coining the term, first using it in his 1922 short story collection titled “Tales of the Jazz Age”. This period saw blooming of jazz and quasi-jazz orchestras of pre-Swing epoch. The decade is usually referred to as “the golden age of jazz”. Basic school of traditional jazz piano – from stride to boogie-woogie – were taking shape in that decade. Luis Armstrong and Duke Ellington orchestra rose to stardom. And finally this new American music taped into Old World, including Soviet Union.

The lecture is accompanied by videos and live music of Moscow Ragtime Band.

Narrator Mikhail Mitropolsky is the most famous and oldest Russian jazz critic, and a member of the international The Jazz Journalists Association (JJA). Mitropolsky has been studying jazz and beyond for nerly 50 years now! He is a radio presenter, writer, and lecturer.

Moscow Ragtime Band, based in 1996, tries to recreate the famous «hot» sound of New Orleans. Moscow swing aficionados enjoy dancing to the music of the band.