Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The history of jazz in Ukraine can be traced fairly precisely according to academic, literature teacher and jazz journalist Alexander Yudin. Writing in The History Of European Jazz: The Music, Musicians And Audience in Context (Equinox Publishing, 2018), Yudin credits Yuliy Meitus with leading the country's first jazz band. Meitus' band, which consisted of vibraphone, violin, drums and percussion, reportedly gave the first jazz concert in Ukraine on December 29, 1925. The concert took place in Kharkiv, "with the band playing popular European songs and also original compositions."

No doubt the Ukrainian jazz of a century ago sounded quite a bit different to the Ukrainian jazz of today. Not that it is really possible to speak of a Ukrainian jazz sound, so diverse is the music emanating from this vast country of 33 million inhabitants. Ukrainian folk music does provide one source of inspiration for many Ukrainian jazz musicians—and perhaps increasingly so since the Russian invasion of 2014 and the escalation into all-out war that began in 2022—but American jazz from bebop to hard-bop, and from free-jazz to big-band swing, European classical, electronica, free-improvisation and rock also inspire today's jazz musicians in Ukraine.

As the title of this article suggests, this is not intended as a deep dive into the history of Ukrainian jazz (the chapter on Ukraine in aforementioned book is an excellent starting point) but rather a rough guide to some of Ukraine's most outstanding contemporary jazz musicians and ensembles. Most of the musicians featured were born after Ukraine achieved independence in 1991 upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In addition to highlighting key Ukrainian jazz figures, both those living in Ukraine and those based abroad, this multiple-part series on Ukrainian jazz will also draw attention to the country's jazz clubs and jazz festivals, the music's promoters and its champions. A separate article will examine the effects of Putin's war on Ukraine's jazz ecosystem, with an emphasis on the positive, that is to say, the inspiring activism, creativity and solidarity that the Ukrainian jazz community has responded with, in the face of a brutal, existential war.

Dennis Adu

Talk about a change in climate!