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Yakiv Tsvietinskyi

Jazz trumpeter Yakiv Tsvietinskyi is one of the modern voices of the Ukrainian jazz scene. Deeply rooted in classical and modernist music as a composer, Yakiv creates jazz pieces with developed complex textures while maintaining the freedom and spontaneity of the improvisational nature of jazz. His trumpet style combines the influences of Chet Baker’s lyricism, Clark Terry’s feel of motion, Tomasz Stanko’s sound and Kenny Wheeler’s unpredictability.

Born in 1990s and being a classically trained trumpet player in industrial Dnipro, Ukraine, there was no way to learn jazz other than self-education. With years of searching for information and slowly building the jazz community in the city, Yakiv paved his own way to a unique jazz sound. After graduating from Dnipro Academy of Music in 2016, he received the Fulbright grant for education at Western Michigan University, where he received a two year master’s degree in jazz performance. Mentored by acclaimed musicians Scott Cowan, Andrew Rathbun and Keith Hall, Yakiv expanded his knowledge in improvisation, traditional jazz theory and advanced approaches to composition.

In 2017 Yakiv Tsvietinskyi was one of 23 young musicians selected to participate in Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead – a prestigious jazz residency program held annually at John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He was also a recipient of Yamaha Gulf FZE Trumpet Scholarship in 2015 and winner of DownBeat Student Music Awards in 2017 and 2018. Yakiv has performed internationally with acclaimed artists, such as Theo Bleckmann, Randy Brecker, Vernon Hill and Jamie Cullum, and appeared at numerous jazz festivals including the EFG London Jazz Festival, Gilmore Keyboard Festival, and the Leopolis Jazz Fest (former Alfa Jazz Fest).

Currently Yakiv Tsvietinskyi is based in Dnipro, Ukraine, where he performs nationwide. He also teaches at the at M.Glinka Academy of Music where he is also rebuilding the jazz education program.

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7
Album Review

Alfredo Balcacer: 9 Paredes

Read "9 Paredes" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


If there's anything that can bind the artistic community in 2020, it's an understanding of isolation's impact. For guitarist Alfredo Balcacer, who was quarantining in his home city of Santo Domingo when COVID-19 closed everybody in, a sense of disorder and frustration, leavened by solace and acceptance, quickly became the norm. But rather than sit by and feel helpless, he filtered those feelings into his music.“9 Parades" (or “9 Walls") speaks to Balcacer's experiences spending months cooped up ...

6
Album Review

Dark Side Trio: Industrial Song

Read "Industrial Song" reviewed by Chris May


The sophomore album from Kiev-based tenor saxophonist Danylo Vinarikov's Dark Side Trio is a tuneful, burnished affair which belies the rather forbidding name of the band, the seriosity of the album title and the dark satanic mills evoked by the sleeve art. The name of the band is also paradoxical, for the Dark Side Trio heard here is augmented by three other young lions of the Ukrainian jazz scene. Jazz from countries formerly part or satellites of ...

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Africa

Neuklang Records
2023

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Waves

Neuklang Records
2023

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Industrial Song

Self Produced
2020

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9 Paredes

Self Produced
2020

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Minimalist

Seventh Lane Records
2019

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Africa

From: Africa
By Yakiv Tsvietinskyi

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