Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Melody – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
The album "Orlan Ensemble" was released on vinyl by Firma Melodiya. This record was first released in 1990. "Orlan Ensemble" became the debut and most famous recording of the Ufa group under the direction of Oleg Kireev.
The history of Orlan spans various periods in the country's history. After restrictions on jazz musicians in the mid-20th century, cautious permission for performances and festivals followed. According to jazz historian Alexei Batashev, bands were practically forced to work with folk melodies and weave them into their compositions. Once controls loosened, many ensembles abandoned this practice, and jazz, fused with folk motifs, moved from the central cities to the east. Where, for example, the Orlan ensemble emerged in Ufa.
Its founder, Oleg Kireev, felt no pressure and freely experimented: "Jazz is a close relative of folklore, and so we're interested in folk traditions, what's alive around us, although we certainly don't reject classical jazz." Kireev discovered his primary instrument, the saxophone, almost by accident: in the pre-Perestroika years, there was high competition for all majors at the music school except saxophone. Kireev formed his first band in 1984, and Orlan, which made him famous in the USSR and beyond, followed in 1986.
The idea to settle on jazz fusion, steeped in national melodies, came naturally. "At holidays, there was a tradition that no longer exists: relatives […] would start singing—Bashkir, Tatar, Russian songs, all mixed together. Folk music surrounded us everywhere," the musician later said.
"Bashkir Legends," born from a concert program of the same name, not only sounds unusual—it features, for example, a mix of throat singing and saxophone—but also has a unique history. "Legends" toured festivals, and in Dnepropetrovsk, the ensemble met Alexey Batashev, a jazz historian and popularizer. He invited the musicians to Moscow, where they recorded the entire album in just two days at Melodiya Studios. Kireyev called the process "a mini-performance, an immersion into the history of Bashkiria through jazz-rock," and believed that on the recording they "somehow miraculously managed to recreate the atmosphere of the concerts." This recording became their only studio effort. Almost 35 years later, Melodiya is releasing "Bashkir Legends" on vinyl.
The record was pressed in 2026. The matrices were made from original analog tapes. The sound engineer for the remastering and restoration was Maxim Pilipov. The liner notes were written by Denis Boyarinov.
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