Best Jazz Album in the Sparrow Language

[Gordon B]

Without a doubt. It's as unlike Kuryokhin's great solo piano album "Some Combinations of Fingers and Passion," as "Birth of the Cool" is from "Tutu."

Sometimes I love it and other times I hate it but it's compelling in a strange way. Here's a blurb from the psychedelic -music website.

A big seller here, simply due to the fact that a certain BBC radio station started playing tracks from this unique and unusual CD on a contemporary music programme, and their listeners have been coming to us in droves for their copies ever since! The composer is a multi-instrumentalist – something like a Russian version of Mike Oldfield, but his music is much wider based, genre-wise, and can be pretty unusual at times to say the least. Ranging from being almost classically operatic to jazzy and experimental in places, it can sound a little strange or even mildly discordant at times, but there’s a charm existing within its musical layers that many seem to find totally engaging. The album runs for almost forty-seven minutes and each of its 6 respective movements are reasonably melodic with a delicate, almost fragile feel to them at times. Hi-register female vocals feature alongside, electric guitars, keyboards, cellos, flutes, saxophones, trumpets, percussion and a host of other orchestral instruments, and together they have a curiously addictive effect on the brain. People will react to its character in different ways; in other words, you’ll either love it or hate it. Many will want to repeat the experience many times over, while others might well want to throw it in the bin after their first listen, but one thing is for sure – no one can argue with the fact that the music on this album is totally unique and unlike anything you will have ever encountered on a CD before.

[Dr Dave]

Sparrow...Sparrow...am I supposed to know what Sparrow is?

[bluenoter]

Damned if I could find the Sparrow language on Google except for one reference to the album. I'd always thought of the sparrow language as, like, "cheep, cheep, cheep," and I was about to ask Tanager for a translation.

Edit: I think it's safe to say that the album is in plain old Russian and that it indeed evokes the little birdies. "The Sparrow language" must be a bad or overly fanciful translation from Russian. See the artwork here. That site also has soundclips, but I couldn't get them to connect.

[Gordon B]

It doesn't sound Russian. For example, here are the lyrics to "Winter."

A one ui inbi uo
Yui isi unono
Ui uoo sii
Tsi io saso e iui

O uo uo uo uoo
ou o-o uo-oou o
Oo uo u ou uuo
Uo o ou ou uo
O-o
Au a-a-a-, aa-au-a
a, a-a-a
a,a,o,a,u,a,a,a,a,

Vocals by Olga Kondina

The first part of "Spring" starts as follows.
Lavo zime doge
Rizo lovi sedi
Lufa Mari kokry
Grle zhu, grle
Zi, de, vi

I have a feeling that Kuryokhin invented the language; it may be all a spoof.

The last track is called "Sparrow Fields Forever" and four of the other five tracks collectively represent "The Four Seasons."

[coltrane]

This is the truth! This Mockingbird chirps outside my window every morning at 5:15 in the am.





and a Mother Crow flies to my office window about six times a day so she could eat some Fritos from Frito-lay.






do these two birds count?

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Just what I need, Gordon -- a site that lists about a dozen albums by Kuryokhin I never knew were in print! This is like a fanfare announcing my final descent into insolvency!

Actually I'm salivating. "Some Combinations of Fingers and Passion" is one of my desert island discs. The music is breathtaking, and I can't think of another pianist alive or dead capable of playing it. Sergey's early death was a great tragedy for music.

But tell me: The only other Kuryokhin I own is "The Ways of Freedom," and yet I know Kuryokhin did a lot of performance art, rock, animal acts, etc. in addition to his jazz (or jazz/classical fusion) pieces. Do you know what the others listed on the British site sound like?

I am so taken with "Some Combinations ..." that I'll probably buy all of them anyway, but I am curious.

[Gordon B]

Steve, I just ordered "The Ways of Freedom." It will only be my third SK disc.

[Dr Dave]

The mockingbird is the John Coltrane of bird-dom.