Anatoly Vapirov

Anatoly Vapirov. Photo sourced from Discogs

Anatoly Vapirov (b. 24 November 1947, Berdyansk, Ukraine) is a Soviet and Bulgarian saxophonist and clarinettist, active in a wide range of genres, from bebop to free jazz and avant-garde music.

Biography

Anatoly Vapirov was interested in music from childhood, beginning his clarinet studies in Berdyansk, where he was born. He was active in local orchestras and jazz groups in his youth before moving to the Kiev music school, and then to the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied the clarinet under Pavel Sukhanov and later became a professor of saxophone, pursuing parallel careers as an academic, classical saxophonist (with the Leningrad State Symphony Orchestra and the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre) and, increasingly, as a virtuoso jazz performer.

Initially working with the jazz rock Music-Hall Orchestra and Oleg Kutsenko's big band in the late 60s, Vapirov rapidly broadened his repertoire to include all styles of jazz, from big band swing to the borders of free-form and contemporary composition. Vapirov was one of the first favorites of the St. Petersburg jazz club "Kvadrat", headed by Yefim Barban, the first theorist of new free music in the USSR. Although he existed in a completely legal position, Vapirov often had to go to Novosibirsk to record. In the 70s Vapirov organized his first group, releasing his first album, "Anatoly Vapirov's Leningrad Jazz Ensemble" in 1975.

By the early 80s he had established himself as the leading saxophonist in the USSR, winning critics’ polls in the Russian jazz magazine Kvadrat (Chorus) and releasing Misteriya for jazz soloist and symphony orchestra, on the state-owned label Melodiya. Although he did not lead a regular group, he worked frequently with Sergey Kuryokhin (piano), Alexander Alexandrov (bassoon), Vladimir Volkov (bass) and Valentina Ponomareva (vocals).

In August 1982 Vapirov’s career was abruptly halted by a two-year prison term for ‘private enterprise’, but he was released before serving his full sentence, possibly because his records had started to appear in the West, on the London-based Leo Records.

In 1986 he moved to Bulgaria, where he had strong family ties (through his father and wife). He settled in Varna, and was actively involved in the jazz scene there, even organizing a jazz festival in 1992 which is still active today (the Varna Summer International Jazz Festival).

A prolific and versatile musician, Vapirov’s recordings include improvised duos with Kuryokhin (Document) and pieces for a big band (Conspiracy), for tenor saxophone plus chamber orchestra (Macbeth) and a chamber jazz trio composition (De Profundis).

References

Anatoly Vapirov

From Unearthing The Music

Biography

References