V. Tkachenko

Shiko Aranov as a founder of the orchestra jazz traditions in the Republic of Moldova

The main milestones of the famous Moldavian musician Shiko Aranov’s creative biography are presented in the article. He was a founder of Moldavian orchestral jazz, the band leader of the only big band in the Moldavian history which has won a great fame both in the Soviet Union and beyond. Based on the analysis of some surviving audio materials the author reveals the stylistic and genre features of the performing manner conformably to the orchestral collectives created in the 1940–1960s by Shiko Aranov (Moldavian Jazz Orchestra and “Bucuria” Jazz Orchestra), since 1945 piece “George from Dinky Jazz” and ending with songs and orchestral compositions of the early 1960s (including “Kishinev’s Girls”, “I’m not Kidding”, “I’m Saluting You, Kishinev”, “If You Love”). The author emphasizes the multi-level nature of the various-component synthesis within the named orchestral stylistics. In particular: an organic fusion of European academic professional performing art and the Moldavian instrumental folklore and popular music of the middle XXth century at the level of artistic-semiotic fields; intrajazz reciprocations – enrichment of swing epoch stylistics with theatrical elements of archaic jazz; the fusion of Soviet and Romanian popular music traditions with American jazz and Argentinean tango at the level of different musical-cultural synthesis are marked.

Key words

Shiko Aranov, orchestral jazz, Moldavian Jazz Orchestra, big band, «Bucuria» Jazz Orchestra.

• Read full article