'Jazz is my whole life!'
Georgy Garanyan
In 2024 it will be 90 years since the birth of the outstanding jazz musician, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, the 'man-orchestra' — Georgy Aramovich Garanyan. To mark the anniversary, the S. S. Prokofiev Museum will open the exhibition 'Legends of Russian Jazz. Georgy Garanyan'.
Under the direction of Georgy Garanyan, the musical accompaniment for more than two hundred films was recorded. Among them: 'The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!', 'The Adventures of Buratino', 'The Twelve Chairs', 'Romance About Lovers', 'The Lost Expedition', 'A Friend Among Strangers, A Stranger Among Friends' and other films beloved by audiences. His saxophone solo is heard in Leonid Gaidai's 'The Diamond Arm' and Karen Shakhnazarov's 'We Are from Jazz'. In the cult films 'Recipe of Her Youth', 'My Autumn Blues', 'Evening Labyrinth', 'Unexpectedly', and 'The Caliph-Stork' Garanyan appeared as a composer.
The exhibition traces the musician's development — from his first encounter with jazz to a lifestyle 'in the jazz style'; from creating and leading small jazz ensembles to heading the State Symphony Orchestra of Cinematography under the Council of Ministers of the USSR; from his first arrangements to his own musical compositions.
At the exhibition you can see Garanyan's stage costume, an unusual collection of ties and bow ties; his briefcase, headphones, glasses, and one of the musician's favorite books — 'Stories and Novellas' by Mikhail Zoshchenko — from the family archive; a unique collection of gramophone records, including a record with the autographs of members of the ensemble 'Melodiya' on the cover; the musician's awards, rare photographs, posters, and musical manuscripts of Georgy Garanyan's instrumental and vocal works; the dress and accessories of Lyudmila Gurchenko from the television film-performance 'Lyudmila Gurchenko's Benefice'; and a photographic portrait of Vladimir Vysotsky created specifically for the cover of a record recorded by the ensemble 'Melodiya'. In each of the exhibition's four sections an alto saxophone played by Garanyan is displayed from the collections of the Russian National Museum of Music. For the first time at the exhibition, a tom-tom drum and a synthesizer that belonged to Georgy Garanyan are being exhibited.
For details and to purchase tickets, visit the Russian National Museum of Music website: https://music-museum.ru/events/exhibition/legendyi-rossijskogo-dzhaza.-georgij-garanyan.html
