Roman Kunsman
Roman Kunsman ( Russian Роман Шаевич Кунсман ; born December 7, 1941 in Kuibyshev ; † November 6, 2002 in Beit Gamliel , Israel ) was a Russian-Israeli alto saxophonist, flutist and composer of modern jazz . He later played Klezmer music as Rafael Kunsman .
youth
His mother fled Poland to the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Second World War and married there. After the birth of their son Roman, the marriage ended in divorce and the mother and son moved to Leningrad , where she remarried. His musical talent was already evident as a teenager, he played the piano, violin, saxophone, flute, sang and composed. He had the alto saxophone sent to him by an uncle from New York in 1957 and within a year he achieved technical mastery in hard bop . At the end of the 1950s he played in Josif Weinstein's orchestra .
Working in the Soviet Union
Kunsman was a well-known jazz musician in Russia in the 1960s. In 1967 his composition Ray of Darkness (or Beam of Darkness ) was performed by the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra at the Moscow Jazz Festival. At times he played in Anatoli Kroll's Tula band . After his departure in 1970, his name was officially deleted from jazz history in the Soviet Union , and it was only in the 1990s that he was mentioned again in the public media.
After Frederick Starr he was one of the leading saxophonists of modern jazz from Leningrad (with Gennadi Golstein); but his skills were not fully appreciated as he often changed bands and played with secondary musicians. In addition to hard bop, he was also influenced by contemporary jazz trends of the 1960s, from Eric Dolphy , Sonny Rollins , George Russell and later John Coltrane .
Working in Israel
At the end of 1970 he emigrated to Israel with his mother, stepfather and two children from his first marriage. In Jerusalem he met the drummer Aaron Kaminsky (Areleh Kaminsky) in a jazz club , who also introduced him to Yehoram Gaon , and with him he founded the jazz band Platina , which is popular in Israel, in 1971 with the guitarist Itzhak Klepter, with Kunsman and Kaminsky formed the core of the band with other musicians who changed later. Originally they were the backing band of the singer Arik Einstein and played jazz rock with him . In 1974 they appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival (through the agency of the manager of BB King , whose opening act they were in Israel) and they released a total of two albums (Live at Barbarim, Freedom). Kunsman was the musical director and composed for the band. The band was often on Israeli television, featured in Voice of America , for example , and accompanied singers such as Hava Alberstein , Tiki Dayan , Esther Ofarim , Edna Goren and Memphis Slim . In Israel they could not live from appearances alone and also did studio work (often without naming their names), for example in advertising. They broke up before the 1976 third album The Girl With the Flaxen Hair could be released, which only appeared in 2002 on the occasion of a tribute concert for Kunsman after his death. One reason for the dissolution was the travel restrictions in Israel and the security requirements for performances by Israeli musicians abroad after the Olympic attacks in Munich in 1972 and after, which made tours very difficult at the time.
In the 1970s he was converted to religious Orthodox Judaism by the previously rather sarcastic intellectual (whose first destination was by no means Israel - his mother's family lived here), including during stays in New York in 1976 with Hasidim teachers. In the 1980s he turned to klezmer , played at weddings and other Jewish celebrations, which was considered a decline in the jazz environment of the former Soviet Union and was only practiced by amateur musicians, and Kunsman also initially had problems with what he believed to be a relatively simple Jewish one To dedicate to folk music. In contrast to his time in jazz, he could hope for good employment in Israel. Later he played as a flautist in the band Sulam von Moussa Berlin . With her he also took z. B. on a live CD in 1992.
His album Heavy Skies, recorded in New York in 1979 (producers Hank O'Neil and George Avakian ) was only released posthumously in 2003. In it he mixes his post-bop and modal jazz of the 1960s with fusion influences ( Weather Report , later Miles Davis ) and Eastern European, especially Yiddish folk music.
He remarried in 1973 in Israel. Most recently he lived alone in Beit Gamliel and is buried in Jerusalem.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Aviva Lori: The day the music died ( Haaretz , November 20, 2002, English, accessed July 28, 2013)
- ^ S. Frederick Starr Red and Hot , Hannibal 1990, p. 210
- ↑ Starr Red and Hot , p. 210
- ↑ Platina on Esther Ofarim website
- ↑ Formerly in the band Churchill that accompanied Arik Einstein
- ↑ Klezmershack on the album
- ↑ Klezmershack to Sulam
- ↑ Heavy Sky at cduniverse
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kunsman, Roman |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Кунсман, Роман Шаевич (Russian); Kunsman, Roman Schajewitsch (Russian, full name); Kunsman, Rafael |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Russian-Israeli musician of jazz and klezmer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 7, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kuibyshev |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 6, 2002 |
| Place of death | Beit Gamliel , Israel |