Blue Horse
What power must music have to make authority tremble? And this is jazz!
The project of jazz pianist Oleksii Saranchin is dedicated to the period of the 1960s, the era of the birth of Ukrainian jazz music.
Project title «Blue Horse» is a tribute to the iconic story, which took place in Kharkiv in the late 50s of the last century. Not coincidentally, that this story happened in the student capital of Ukraine. Amidst the Khrushchev Thaw and population of the Western culture, a group of young people rallied into an informal union. Those were called stilyagi.
The meeting near the monument of Taras Shevchenko elected the «hetman of stilyags» of Ukraine. Evgeny Grebenyuk became the leader. At the next meeting near the Mirror Stream, they were about 800 people who carried the «hetman» past the KGB windows. Impressed by Mrozek’s short story «I Want to Be a Horse», Grebenyuk wrote an essay «I want to be a blue horse» They decided to call the new organization the «Blue Horse», alluding to Pegasus, who strives for pure blue sky. The inspired author writes and publishes articles about rock and roll, jazz, abstract art, his attitude towards Western civilization and its values…
Famous Ukrainian jazzmen became participants of the project:
Oleksii Saranchin is the frontman of the «Blue Horse» project, a well-known Ukrainian jazz pianist and composer. A member of the legendary Ukrainian jazz group «Skhid-Side», a Professor of piano at the Department of Jazz Music of the R.Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy Of Music, pianist of a huge number of jazz projects implemented in Ukraine: from «TNMK» and «Okean Elzy» to Denis Perrier, Michael Dease, Ofer Assaf and others.
Dmitry «Bobin» Alexandrov is a well-known Ukrainian jazz saxophonist, co-founder of the group «Skhid-Side», saxophone player of the many jazz projects in Ukraine and abroad.
Anton Zhukov is a famous Ukrainian contrabass player. He graduated from the R.Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy Of Music as an academic and jazz double bass player. Anton worked at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine (NFU Symphony Orchestra, Kyiv Chamber Orchestra). He worked as a Professor of contrabass at the R.Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy Of Music from 2007 to 2020 (Department of Jazz Music). Now works in the orchestra of the National Opera of Ukraine. Participant of the many musical projects both in Ukraine and abroad. Among them are: “Nostri Temporis ensemble”, “Kremerata baltica”, “Blue Horse” and others
Alik Fantauev is a legendary jazz drummer who was educated at the Israeli branch of the legendary American Berklee College of Music – Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. Back in 1995, he has participated in the international conference of the best young musicians under the leadership of Dave Liebman. He has collaborated with a huge number of musicians from Boris Grebenshchikov and Zemfira to Mark Soskin and Eric Marienthal.