Top Songs By Alexander Tsfasman
About Alexander Tsfasman
Artist Biography
Alexander Tsfasman was one of the pioneers of Soviet jazz, founding the country’s first jazz orchestra in Moscow in 1926. Born in Zaporizhya in 1906, the Ukrainian piano virtuoso, arranger, jazz-band conductor and composer originally trained as a classical pianist under Felix Blumenfeld at the Moscow Conservatory. Yet Tsfasman was a fervent admirer of the music of Gershwin, and gave the first Soviet performance of Rhapsody in Blue; he also paid tribute to the American by composing a brilliant Fantasy on “The Man I love”. His best-known work, though, is the effervescent Suite for Piano and Orchestra (1945).
Between 1939 and 1946, Tsfasman was artistic director of the jazz orchestra of the All-Union Radio, and skilfully utilised the jazz medium to serve the Soviet war effort. Following the widespread proscription of many leading Soviet musicians in 1948, Tsfasman’s career took something of a nosedive, but he was rehabilitated soon after Stalin’s death. He died in Moscow in 1971.
Hometown
Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine
Genre
Jazz
Similar to: Alexander Tsfasman
Discover more music and artists similar to Alexander Tsfasman, like The Radio Stage Orchestra, V. Vlassov, Alexei Yakushev