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Anna Volkova and Nadezhda Novosadovich, live in Moscow
As we mentioned last autumn, Anna Volkova is a Moscow-based singer whose career has developed on both sides of the stage. She is well-known in the capital as a performer and manager, specifically for Guru Groove Foundation. Her vocal abilities have now been captured on disc in the form of a debut CD, "Shepotom" ("With a Whisper"). Helping her in these endeavors has been her partner Nadezhda Novosadovich, who appears both as lyricist and studio hand, being a singer-songwriter in her own right.
The connections of these two women with Moscow showbiz stretch far, both professionally and historically. Not only have they collaborated with the likes of lounge diva Laima Vaikule and chanson star Liubov' Uspenskaia; Volkova and Novosadovich also work hard to retain the dignified, elegant aesthetic of decades past. When describing their debut recordings, the couple draw upon a register that could be applied to the torch- or lounge songs of Soviet chic (in the best possible sense). In a word, "classic songwriting" becomes the target, based on the lofty standards of a prior generation.
A disarmingly sincere, confiding tone
And so we read: "These are melodic compositions, full of a heightened lyricism. They're performed in a disarmingly sincere, confiding tone that aims for the universally adored status of... 'music for your heart and soul.'" This text is also colored by terms such as "absolute lyricism" or claims "you'll hear these tracks once - but never forget them." In short, there's much in celebration of the time-honored - if not timeless - ways that graceful melody might counter the din of primetime media.
When the new ballads were presented to the Moscow public a few days ago, one observer wrote: "If Anna Volkova did not exist, someone would have to invent her. And, were it not for Nadezhda Novosadovich, there might not be anyone at all." Immediately we sense a need for understated jazz classics - especially when they're penned with the help of a long-time partner. These are the sentimental and stylistic emphases that hope to negate both public forgetfulness and private, cynical infidelity. Tradition and trust give novelty a run for its money.
Even the way in which the CD's presentation was discussed in Moscow was very suggestive of old-school journalism, in other words it recalled the dignified - though sometimes vague - Russian press of the past. The following lines could have been taken from an enthused Moscow entertainment magazine of the 1950s or 1960s. Unhurried, graceful narratives engage and evoke some big themes!
Each step and each movement is carefully considered; every element is in its place
"Volkova doesn't just sing - she shows the content of her songs. Each step and each movement is carefully considered; every element is in its place. This isn't just a concert; it's also a one-woman show - a small, yet well-built play. The songs are dedicated to love, to life, to the memory of the singer's late brother... There's a declamatory tone here, with amazing degree of self-revelation." Nowhere in these observations are there markers of time or any specific location. No matter the risk of mawkishness, various tales of love, life, and memory are foregrounded. Which suggests they're often ignored outside of the theater...
Alina Rostotskaya (Moscow)
Were we looking for kindred spirits, our attention might fall upon another wonderful Moscow singer, Alina Rostotskaya. She performs not only as a widely recognized solo artiste, but also with the ensemble Jazzmobile. Once again the importance of history comes to the fore, whatever the musicians' willingness to experiment with swing, bossa nova, or modern funk. "Original compositions interweave with jazz standards that are arranged in fresh, elegant ways." This is much more than lip-service paid to a classic jazz catalog: it is, as with Anna Volkova, a desire to find unwavering values within (or instead of) a forgetful culture. Rostotskaya, in fact, looks all the way back to ancient Greek stoicism(!) in order to find a proper worldview.
More specifically, she quotes the thought of Epictetus on the subject of duty - and its avoidance of loud, showy, or flattering praise. "Even as the Sun doth not wait for prayers and incantations to rise, but shines forth and is welcomed by all: so thou also wait not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to do thy duty; nay, do good of thine own accord, and thou wilt be loved like the Sun."
Wait not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to do thy duty (Epictetus)
Work on stage, according to this wise notion, becomes a commitment to values older than profitable fame. The related comments made by - and about - Volkova would suggest that this "duty" is to full self-expression - which is denied by daily routine. What, however, might the connection be between onstage drama and duty, between fiction and fact?
In answering that question, it needs to be said that these Greek pearls of wisdom are accompanied by another quote - from Victor Hugo - which Rostotskaya often uses in promotional materials. It recalls the emotional bond of a beautiful artiste with her song, such that she comes to embody its extreme, yet appealing maximalism. Hugo writes of the singer: "Sometimes she seemed mad; on other occasions she looked like a queen." In times of (prior) social awfulness or (current) tedium, these dramatic spectacles complete the narrative arc of desire.
There is a very well-entrenched tradition in Russian sung performance of what's called "theatricalization." Songs are acted out, quite literally: Volkova's stagecraft shows that heritage is still alive. Put differently, the most important and striking departures from ideological constraint on the Russian stage have often involved both costume and "excessive" physical movement. Tedious normality is dismissed with vibrancy and vigor. Hopes and dreams are seen to their logical, yet rare conclusion.
The commitment of our chosen singers to these (very!) old standards - in various senses - allows them to speak of "improvisation" in multiple ways. Spontaneity itself becomes a dramatic spectacle, telling the kind of free-wheeling tales we'd love to be true... all the way to the closing credits and some flowers.
Tanya Shcherbina, aka Ms. Sounday (Moscow)
One could find something similar even in the work of young artistes whose education is grounded in jazz, say, but who've moved off towards R&B or soul. Take, by way of illustration, Tanya Shcherbina, shown below and who performs under the stage-name of Ms. Sounday. She writes her own lyrics and, if we ignore the singer's brief biography, then even on a lyrical plane we find the same emphases upon "staged" lyricism. Dramatic scenarios, in both poetic and thespian guise, are a way of finally realizing universally recognized fantasies.
In Shcherbina's track "A Flutter of Eyelashes" (Shelestom Resnits) the briefest of noiseless bonds - imagined as fact - outdoes the expressiveness of "hundreds of [verbose] pages." It's important to note this emphasis, both here and with Volkova's CD, upon the potential meaning of quietness. Rustling and/or whispering sounds are the most emotionally potent - being those drowned out by social hubbub.
The second track we've chosen - "Between Dreams" (Mezhdu Snov) - contains the chorus: "Exhale, inhale./ Between dreams and the windows of autumn/ We couldn't speak/ Those vital words." Nowhere in these songs of acts that are postponed or performed is there any mention of time or place, just as we saw earlier. The tiny, "whispered" social challenges of life remain the same, especially in lands that have scant respect for privacy.
The most powerful songs - claim these women - are quiet (in delivery) and fundamentally conservative (in form), because that's how they speak of endurance in a chronically unpredictable and intrusive world.
Tanya Shcherbina
As a closing example, we might suggest another young singer - Alina Os - from Zelenograd on the outskirts of Moscow. She also likes to seek wisdom in some very old books. She endorses Aristotle's contention that our spiritual well-being is contingent upon a patient, modest ability to hear life's "rhythm and melody." These are the elusive sounds that are hidden or muffled by typical experience - being too hushed or "regal" for modernity's pragmatic clamor, as Rostotskaya had it.
A guitar, the sea, love, solitude, sheet music...
Os is currently building up a following through various social networks, as she moves from a jazz grounding into R&B, hip-hop, and rap. En route, she takes lasting inspiration from the quietest places... and a very long list of nouns. On her page at Vkontakte, she offers the following catalog of what's nearest and dearest to her, both emotionally and creatively: "Tea with lemon, the nighttime, people, music, a dimmed light, spontaneity, bananas, a movie, my mother, photos, tequila, friends, the sun, a guitar, the sea, love, solitude, sheet music, the color yellow, a choir, a butterfly net, and a cozy atmosphere."
These are the building blocks of comfort and desire, assembled in a soundless, conservative, yet rarely witnessed location. The verbal picture that Alina Os paints here is full of things said "in a whisper" - which occasionally benefit from a little public amplification, lest they be forgotten altogether.
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