Am I Jazz? marks the 5th anniversary this year. November 11-15 jazz showcase festival Am I Jazz? presents a new generation of Ukrainian jazz representatives to the online professional community and international audience

Ukrainian Institute together with the festival of African-American and improvisational music "Am I Jazz?" prepared a 5-day online showcase programme. Five bright Ukrainian jazz bands from Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro and L'viv will represent the regional diversity of original improvisational music in Ukraine. The showcase programme of the festival will include premieres and compositions from already released albums of musicians.

The programme includes all-star bands of the Kyiv scene: contemporary and mainstream jazz adepts Dennis Adu Quintet, and avant-garde devotees Yuriy Seredin Quartet. We will hear a minimalistic trio based in Odessa Marevo and a progressive Danylo Vinarikov Ensemble from industrial Dnipro City. And L'viv-native IMAGOjazz will be responsible for the jazz rhythms with ethnic melodies intertwined.

Programme:

9 P.M. (Kyiv Time)

Nov 11 – Yuriy Seredin Quartet  
Nov 12 – Marevo
Nov 13 – Danylo Vinarikov Ensemble 
Nov 14 – IMAGOjazz 
Nov 15 – Dennis Adu Quintet

Yuriy Seredin Quartet

Yuriy Seredin – piano, Borys Mohylevskyi – saxophone, Ilya Alabuzhev – bass, Oleg Markov – drums

Yuriy Seredin (b. 1988) – Ukrainian jazz pianist and composer, currently residing in Kyiv. As a kid, Yuriy studied privately with Eugeny Filin, a former teacher of improvisation at Moscow Conservatory.

Later on in 2006-2011, Yuriy studied as a composer at L'viv National Music Academy and in 2014-2015 as a jazz pianist and composer at Berlin Jazz Institute with a famous drummer and composer John Hollenbeck.

In 2018 Yuriy’s debut record Asylum Search was released and won the A-Prize (Independent Ukrainian music award established by the digital media «Radio Aristocrats») as the best jazz record of the year.

Yuriy is active in the Ukrainian jazz scene as well as a film and TV composer. He played and recorded with Ben van Gelder, Seamus Blake, Nasheet Waits, David Norman to name a few.

Marevo

Myroslav Pyatnikov – trumpet, Andrew Pokaz – piano, Daniel Castro – percussion

The band has formed in Odessa in the summer of 2020. All members graduated from Odessa National Music Academy, and during the lockdown used its room to jam in a trio. In improvisation, the base for the tune “Conversation with the void” was born, and it became the starting point for forming a project. 

Members of Marevo have different backgrounds. Andrew Pokaz – is an acclaimed classical composer and pianist, leader of minimalistic jazz collective Pokaz trio. Myroslav Pyatnikov – mostly famous as a jazz trumpeter and a participant of various Balkan ethnic projects. Daniel Castro, who moved to Ukraine from Ecuador, brought his authentic rhythms.   

“Marevo” means “illusion” or “dry mist,” the substance that fills the space. In a time when new reality created lots of holes, the band composed their original matter.

Danylo Vinarikov Ensemble

Danylo Vinarikov – saxophone, Oleksiy Bogolyubov – piano, Konstantin Ivchuk – guitar, Serhii Artemov – bass, Dmytro Lytvynenko – drums

Danylo Vinarikov Ensemble, one of the most active bands of the new generation of the Ukrainian jazz scene. The ensemble represents the industrial part of Ukraine – Dnipro city and dedicates music to their monolithic surroundings. 

The band is led by composer and saxophone player Danylo Vinarikov. He graduated from the Dnipro Academy of music named after M. Glinka and currently teaches there. He’s a member of projects such as Fusion Quartet (Ukraine), LIMOrchestra (Ukraine), Breezy Rodio Quintet (USA), performs with Oleksiy Bogolyubov, Eugene Pugachev, and others. In  2015 he formed Dark Side Trio, which evolved into Danylo Vinarikov Ensemble.   

In 2018 debut album “Old Bookcase” was released (as Dark Side Trio), followed by the recent record “Industrial Song”.  

IMAGOjazz

Inna Pavlyk – keyboard, Yuriy Mykhailovsky – flute, Yuliyana Kovalska – vocal, Elina Arzumanyan – bass, Illia Tereshchenko – drums

IMAGOjazz – is a group of young musicians based in Lviv. They all have different backgrounds: Inna Pavlyk, Yuriy Mykhailovsky, and Yuliyana Kovalska trained in classical music, Elina Arzumanyan, and  Illia Tereshchenko – in jazz. The collective is striving to explore the limits of genres and as a result, found their original sound in the integration.  

The music is composed by Inna Pavlyk, so-composer and arranged by Yuriy Mykhailovsky. The experiments of IMAGOjazz during a short period of time brought lots of attention to the band. In December 2020, the deduct album will be released. 

Dennis Adu Quintet

Dennis Adu – trumpet, Dmytro Aleksandrov – saxophone, Oleksandr Malyshev – piano, Oleksandr Yemets – bass, Pavlo Galitsky – drums

Dennis Adu is a composer, arranger, educator, and one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the Ukraine jazz scene.

He was born in 1987 in Saltpond (Ghana). When he was two, his family moved to Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. He started playing the trumpet when he was seven, and at the age of eight, he was invited to the Alexander Gebel Orchestra. In 2007 Adu won the “Do#Dж Junior” (The Best Trumpet Player), in 2009 in this competition he became the winner in nominations “The Best Musician in Ukraine” and “The Best Arrangement of Jazz Standard.”
Dennis participated in such international festivals and competitions as “Millau en Jazz” (France), “Fel du Sher” (France), “Jazz A Vienne” (Viena), and many others. He played with Frank Lacy, Gregory Porter, Curtis Fuller, Jim Rotondi, Roy and Ofer Assaf, Steve Slagle, Javon Jackson, Larry Willis, Quincy Davis, Dana Hall, Jason Brown, Jimmy Bosch, Mitch Froman, Pete Nater Frankie Vasquez, Wayne Escoffery, Michael Dease, Mambo Legends Orchestra, Seamus Blake, John Hollenbeck, and other.

He leads the Quintet, Sextet, Septet, and Big Band. In 2017 Dennis Adu released his debut album Influences. The new album Sunlight Above the Sky is coming in November this year.

The target audience of the showcase programme is representatives of international jazz festivals, showcases, directors of music institutions, jazz locations, as well as representatives of international media.

The Ukrainian Institute is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Their mission is to strengthen Ukraine’s international standing through the means of cultural diplomacy. They facilitate international connections between people and institutions and create opportunities for Ukraine to interact and cooperate with the world. 

The premieres of the video will take place on November 11-15 at 21:00 (Kyiv time) on the Facebook pages of the Am I Jazz? and the Ukrainian Institute, as well as on the YouTube channel of the festival.