Melodiya has released plenty of Eddie Rosner’s recordings. A number of releases from the series “Anthology of Soviet Jazz” were dedicated to the trumpeter and his big band. And yet, there something that makes a new program on these two discs unique. Unlike those counterfeit enterprises that seem to be endlessly shuffling the tracks that Melodiya restored in the past,
these two discs feature some of Eddie Rosner’s recordings that have been never heard before.
Firstly, it is a complete soundtrack of Rosner’s performance in the movie Waltz Concert of 1940 with a lengthy jazz fantasia based on Strauss’s themes featuring wonderful vocal talents of the band’s singer Veronika Ignatovich.
Secondly, the recordings that Rosner made in the House of Sound Recording are unique. Rosner first entered the building originally named House of Gramophone Records in June of 1944 to record a few pieces by Albert Garris especially for the Armia Narodowa. Those records decorated with the image of the Polish national flag were never released here and were sold only for the citizens of the Rzeczpospolita. Two of the songs recorded during those sessions have survived by a miracle and are released the first time.
Thirdly, this program is a reflection of a not less peculiar fate of Rosner’s compositions that had been fixed on wax “pancakes.”
The records connoisseurs will take a notice of a very peculiar thing about the recordings from this program: somewhat unusual pieces hide beneath the well-known titles and familiar numbers.
The recordings made by Rosner after his seven-year imprisonment and complete rehabilitation are also unique. He brought
back his big band together adding new singers and musicians and performed in Leningrad in 1954. He made recordings at the studios of the Radio Committee for radio broadcasts, and some of them were released on records by the factory Krasnoye Selo.
The known compositions gained new interpretations and new performers.
This program Encounter Song is a living evidence of Eddie Rosner’s contribution to the history of Soviet jazz. And not only
Soviet.
