UKRAINE-JAZZ/FESTIVAL Herbie Hancock and George Benson bring jazz craze to Ukraine's Lviv

Record ID: 148344

  • Title: UKRAINE-JAZZ/FESTIVAL Herbie Hancock and George Benson bring jazz craze to Ukraine's Lviv
  • Date: 30th June 2015
  • Summary: LVIV, UKRAINE (RECENT) (REUTERS) PEOPLE GATHERING OUTSIDE ALFA JAZZ FEST VENUE CROWDS OF SPECTATORS
  • Embargoed: 15th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7JS0FET6RY8AXLHV249QH5BUA
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Called Alfa Jazz Festival, the gathering held in western Ukrainian city of Lviv at the peak of summer is the largest open-air jazz festival in Ukraine, and probably the most important in the eastern Europe too.
    The jazz festival set up and funded by one of Russia's richest men, Moscow-based but Lviv-born billionaire Mikhail Fridman has been running every year since 2011.
    As a child, Fridman studied at the Lviv music school and occasionally played piano at a Moscow jazz bar.
    Fridman's wealth has helped lure some of the world's top jazz musicians to Lviv as he wanted to make a gift to his native city.
    Fridman believes that Lviv with its long musical and cultural tradition is a perfect place for jazz.
    "It is not just a festival for us. We certainly think that we believe what we are doing is a sign that in our beloved home city of Lviv - in such an ancient and forever young city - music will always be playing in the streets. And writers, scientists, poets, philosophers, diplomats and others will always live here. And they will live in a free, democratic, peaceful, prosperous country - Ukraine," Fridman said on stage, interrupted by massive applause.
    However, last year the festival was partially canceled because of the war between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Some of Lviv residents boycotted the festival due to the Russian roots of its founder.
    With relations between Moscow and Kiev being even more strained now, it has not stopped the landmark Lviv event this year.
    The city's mayor, Andriy Sadovyy, said the festival has become the main point of cultural and economic revival of Ukraine which is very important during the time of war.
    "I think that our enemies would desperately want to see pictures from Ukraine as we see them very often - sad, with problems and so on. But today the whole world will see open Ukraine where the best musicians in the world came to support Ukraine here," Sadovyy told a news conference.
    Just like a year ago, some Lviv residents took it to the streets near one of the festival stages to express their protest against Fridman and his Alfa Group holding company. Around 15 activists wearing Russian traditional dresses held posters reading 'Alfa Jazz Fest. Feast during war' and 'Alfa Bank is a fly in the ointment' near an Alfa bank branch.
    But for the majority of spectators jazz music seemed to bring down all the barriers.
    "It is a celebration of music. And I like jazz. I like that it will be a celebration of music and everyone will get positive emotions from it. Furthermore, my mission in this life is to create positive emotions. I think that in this case there are positive emotions for everyone. I cannot see politics here," said an owner of a Lviv restaurant, Andriy Khudo.
    The festival was packed with jazz stars and famous musicians from the U.S., Cuba, Japan, UK, Germany, Austria, Poland, France, Sweden. Among the festival's biggest stars were jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and George Benson who defined contemporary jazz and won numerous music awards.
    Hancock, who also won an Alfa Jazz Fest Award for his significant contribution to the development of jazz, said music unites people.
    "Jazz is egalitarian. Everyone is free and equal on the stage. Because musicians respect each other. And in a sense we depend on each other. And we trust each other," Hancock said.
    Featuring five days of live jazz (from June 25 till June 29), the festival spread over three city stages. Organisers said tickets were sold out in just several hours.
    Over four years of its history, Alfa Jazz Fest attracted around 400 jazz musicians and more than 40,000 jazz fans.
    Part of money raised during the festival will go to charity, namely to buy medical equipment for the rehabilitation department at the municipal hospital and to build a children's playground in central Lviv.
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