LA MINOR

 

Dirty folk, criminal urban chanson, gangster swing, Odessa beats

Country: St.Petersburg,Russia

Label: Eastblok Music (Germany)

There is something like the La Minor sound: warm and authentic with live acoustic instruments; no overdubs or mini disc fibbing. This band you recognise instantly and they create their own atmosphere. They are real. And they have charm.

Founded in St. Petersburg in 2000, La Minor has been on tour in Europe several times and has played in many small clubs and bars as well as in bigger halls and on festivals since. They have since gathered a devoted fan base.

La Minor’s music invites you to a glass of wine as well as to dance. The Bayan (the Russian button accordion) pushes, the saxophone flatters and singer Slava Shalygin tells his lyrical gangster stories: backyard songs about bad boys, love, passion, alcohol and prison.

La Minor comes from St. Petersburg, but do have a partiality for Odessa. Indeed the alleys and bars of these two cities are a bit similar with their European charm. La Minor plays so-called street chanson, Russian folk, jazz and klezmer (Odessa style). They resurrect part of the atmosphere of the Odessa of the 20’s to 40’s. Their songs sound like musical detective stories about little rascals and tragic loves -- joyful and melancholic at the same time. Thieves and police men, whores and undercover agents crowd the urban underworld of La Minor songs. The gentle-tender maternal nature of the Russian language makes the tough stories touching and timeless.

In a country, where every fifth man has been to prison once, jail and camp songs are part of the folklore. In White Acacia a mother waits for her son, who is in a prison camp. The classic Murka is about a gang of crooks, whose beautiful proud gang princess Murka snitched the boys for fur and diamonds and paid for that with her life. A big subject for La Minor are unhappy and passionate love and, of course, jealousy. The Girl in the cotton dress had already lept onto the cult CD Russendisko by writer and DJ Wladimir Kaminer. In this hit – here on Oboroty again in a new crispy version – the mum of the beloved one prefers a decent son-in-law and not a drummer in a jazz band.

Oboroty can have several meanings in Russian: La Minor’s singer and lyricist Slava Shalygin had in mind the volume of alcohol, the speed of records (33/45/78) as well as the rotation of the circle of life, which turns continuously.

Slava’s hero is the Soviet underground singer Arkadi Severny. His style, not quite appropriately named Russian chanson, stems from the Soviet subculture of the 70’s. You could only officially get this music after the implosion of the Soviet Union. Before, this was the privilege of the few happy owners of mysterious samizdat tapes and cassettes which were copied in the underground. La Minor now develops Severny’s ideas further into their own repertoire with sophisticated arrangements and deadpan delivery. Russki Chanson has become an annoying genre in Russia and pounds out of every taxi there these days. Refusing to wear golden chains and add corniness to their music, La Minor are the black and thus likeable sheep of the Russian prison and camp chanson. Therefore the band performs rather in rock clubs and doesn’t get aired on Radio Chanson in Moscow. They call their music ‘underground chanson with a human face’. Deliberately, La Minor chooses for their interpretations mostly no standards, but rather not so well-known pearls of folk poetry. These old gangster and jail songs – so-called Blatnyak – had also been present in Soviet times. Officially banned, these songs were the real folklore, as sung by the people at private parties or played on guitar in the parks. Especially in Odessa, the colourful port city and melting pot for many nationalities, with its long Jewish tradition, these songs were sung in pubs as well as amongst intellectuals and artists. The proud tragedies and wild adventures of the sailors and thefts, combined with the infamous Odessa humour, are the material La Minor carves their world from: a world of dodgy port bars where smug gangster Casanovas dance tango with their ladies and drink wine and play cards with their pals.

Folk music rarely ever sounded so tight and cool. You might call it Dirty Folk. This makes La Minor popular not only with a rock and indie audience, but also amongst the folk fans and intellectuals. And when the musicians of La Minor, dressed in vests and flat caps, enter the stage of your club, you know that tonight it’s time to dance and indulge. Those little criminal chansons get you with a lot of soul and feeling, but also with a wink – sometimes pleasantly jazzy, sometimes with speedy polka. La Minor means high spirits and melancholy at the same time.

Video

LINKS

http://www.myspace.com/laminor

High resolution photos

PRESS

If Gogol Bordello had stayed unplugged in the Ukraine, playing folk music rather than discovering punk rock and emigrating to New York, they might today sound rather like La Minor. The St. Petersburg-based group, who first came to light on the Russendisko compilation a few years ago, mine a rich songbook that draws upon the pre-war Odessa criminal demi-monde of gangsters, pimps, whores, no-good gamblers and dodgy bars. Cleverly inventive arrangements for sax, acoustic guitars, upright bass, mandolin and bayan (Russian button accordion) breathe mercurial new life into traditional folkloric lyrics that deal with such classy subjects as drinking, fighting and getting locked up, delivered by singer Viacheslav Shalygin in a wonderfully deadpan baritone, with suitably vernacular English translations of several of the songs helpfully provided in the liner notes. The result is a splendidly impudent example of the style now widely and rather annoyingly known as ‘Russki chanson’ as La Minor’s lurching tangos, tottering polkas and inebriated waltzes are given feral twists of klezmer, swing Django Reinhardt-style and street-corner jazz. The band are not Roma, as far as I know, but, like all the best Gypsy music, La Minor manage to sound like they’re completely pissed without missing a note. Sometime’s they’re maudlin drunk, as in ’Koybelnaya’ (Lullaby) and sometimes they just want to have a wild old knees-up, as they do on ‘Tihiy Vecher’ (Quiet Evening), and on a great new version of the track we first heard on Russendisko, ‘Devushka v Platie iz Sitsa’ (The Girl In The Cotton Dress). Brilliantly disreputable stuff. ****
Songlines, Issue 62 2009, Nigel Williamson

St. Petersburg’s La Minor term their music “street chanson.” More than a concise abbreviation of their melange of Eastern European, Balkan and French influences typical of the Odessa region, it aligns them against the traditional Russki chanson and firmly with the underground. Slava Shalygin’s voice is somewhere between a guttural chansonnier and Vegas showman, accompanied by the filigree of saxophone and bayan (the Russian button accordion), anchored by guitar and swinging drums. The band are supremely tight, especially during the blistering tempos of “White Acacia.” If anything, the execution is too clean — the wonderfully ragged edges that give klezmer and Balkan brass band music their energy have been polished to a gleaming shine. Shalygin’s lyrics deal with subject matter ranging from love and passion to alcohol and imprisonment, all of which could benefit from a whirling dervish sentiment in the music. There seems to be a resurgence of all things manouche these days, and La Minor are a welcome addition to the crew. (Eastblok)
By David Ryshpan. Exclaim! Magazine, Canada.

Nice record this; apparently a collection of underground gangster, prison and camp songs. And (apparently again) the band La Minor are the refuseniks who play these old songs in the most “unacceptable” way possible. Fine by me, as this LP certainly gets the foot tapping.
Apparently this LP contains polkas or slow waltzes and tangos. But you wouldn’t know as the band doesn’t stick to strict interpretations of any musical convention. Sometimes there’s a jazzy klezmer, a lullaby or gypsy swing; sometimes there’s folk punk, or sometimes a mutated, speeded up ska. La Minor use sax, Bayan, guitars & double bass to create a warm, fluent and incredibly mercurial backdrop to these rebel songs. The bands musical wanderings are informed further by singer Slava Shalygin’s incredibly warm voice. The fact that (not understanding Russian beyond “da” & “nyet”) I have no idea what he’s babbling on about matters not a jot; the lad has considerable presence.
When the songs aren’t about drinking, they’re about getting locked up, or about fighting over girls. Class. Highlights are Tihy Vecher (Quiet Evening) which is a breathless whirl, completely belying its title. And White Acacia after a deceptively gentle beginning is a breakneck stomp that gets Too Much Too Young on your ass at one point. Check out the up-tempo question and answer of The Girl in the White Cotton Dress and the brilliantly maudlin Lullaby, which is like a pissed-up choir rehearsal.
Great stuff.
Words: Richard Foster, Incendiary Magazine

Gangster-Swing aus St. Petersburg – mal ganz was Neues. Kenner nennen es auch Russki Chanson. La Minor bestehen aus Knopf-Akkordeon, Saxophon, Stehbass, Gitarre und Schlagzeug und bewegen sich zwischen Underground-Drinking-Party, Odessa-Hafenbar, Dirty Folk und Zirkus-Lobby. Sympathische Lieder zum Mitschunkeln und Mitgrolen, je nach Bedarf. Sanger Viacheslav Shalygin hat das Organ, das jeder Stimmung gerecht wird und seine Musik-Kumpels holen ihn in jedem Gemutszustand ab, egal ob im Tango-Schritt, mit einem bi?chen Klezmer im Koffer, als Schlaf- oder als sportliches Sauflied im Ska-Rhythmus. Was fruher zur sozialistischen Subkultur gehorte, ist heute Stoff fur Tanzparties a la Russendisko im Kaffee Burger Style. La Minor passen da prima hin, haben sie doch die alten Zeiten mehr oder weniger unversehrt ins Heute hinuber gerettet und geben sich betont leidenschaftlich. Naturlich auch mit dabei das „Madchen im Baumwollkleid”, das mittlerweile zum Standard-Repertoire einer jeden Russenparty gehort. Eine Platte, die von vorne bis hinten Spa? macht und die auf keiner ernst zu nehmenden Fete fehlen darf.
http://www.sound-and-image.de/

“… La Minor, whose blend of cool, jazzy urban folk has been a huge hit in the city since the band first appeared in November 2000”.
The St. Petersburg Times. Friday, May 31, 2002

CD review “Death of a Jeweller”, 2006
La Minor is a Russian band which was founded in 2000. It brings Russian street ballads with influences from the folk and Klezmer influences. The group plays music from the Soviet era and especially the music of gangsters. They like to sing about swindlers, prostitutes, thieves etc. La Minor brings music from the Russian Underworld in a fresh and open minded way. The bayan (Russian accordion) plays a big role in the music and sounds really well. I love the way this instrument gives extra power to the saxophone in the song Death of a jeweller. In Forgive and Farewell Odessa mama, they play some traditional Odessa klezmer that sounds really ancient and brings back the atmosphere of an old Odessa nightclub. La Minor has created a nice cd with music that is Russian in any way. It is professionally played and this Death of a jeweller has a good overall sound.
Eelco Schilder http://www.folkworld.de/

With Russian chanson more popular than ever, a band from St. Petersburg gets back to its gritty gangster roots.
By Sergey Chernov

Teeming with thieves and policemen, prostitutes and undercover agents, La Minor’s Soviet-era street songs about the urban underworld strike an all-too-familiar chord with local art-house fans. But as the St. Petersburg band has learned on its frequent trips abroad, foreign audiences bring their own life experiences to the music.
“We are normally promoted as ‘Soviet folk’ or ‘ska gangsta folk’ in Europe,” said La Minor lead singer Slava Shalygin, who recently returned from a monthlong tour of Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. More than once during the tour, he said, La Minor’s members were mistaken for Romanians performing gypsy music.
In reality, La Minor draws its material from old-time gangster songs, or blatnyak, the title of the band’s first album from late 2001. One art director of St. Petersburg’s Griboyedov bunker club, Anton Belyankin, dubbed the band’s Klezmer-influenced style “Odessa beat,” a reference to the rich criminal traditions of the Black Sea city.
But La Minor is known for its careful choice of material, and for ignoring the standards in place of obscure gems of folk poetry.
Shalygin, 32, was first exposed to gangster music as a child, and started out as a singer in 1994 with the short-lived rock band Navigators, which split up after performing four concerts at St. Petersburg’s pioneering but now-defunct punk club TaMtAm. In the wake of the breakup, he drifted between several colleges and the odd job before forming La Minor in 2000.
A self-taught vocalist, Shalygin was joined by St. Petersburg Conservatory graduate Alexander Yezhov on the bayan, or button accordion, and drummer Pyotr Ketlinsky, who had previously played with the local garage-rock band Kacheli. More recent additions include Alexander Volkov on upright bass and Igor Boitsov on saxophone.
Right from the outset, Shalygin set out to emulate urban folk guru Arkady Zvezdin, more commonly known as Arkady Severny, who died in St. Petersburg in 1980. It was Severny’s gangster songs that Shalygin first heard in his parents’ collection of clandestinely circulated recordings as a child.
“I’ve listened to a lot of Arkady Severny and wanted to create something with the same sound,” he recalled. “To perform all the street hits he used to sing.”
Severny’s genre, now euphemistically known as Russian chanson, surfaced from the music underground after the Soviet Union’s collapse, and has since become ubiquitous in popularized renditions on radio stations, at cafes and in taxicabs. But La Minor returns to the music’s roots, with the sophisticated arrangements and deadpan delivery that originally marked the gangster sound.
The Moscow Times February 4 -- 10, 2005

Festivals: Bladesezomerfeesten Festival (Bladel Netherlands 2005), Eureka festival (Zwolle the Netherlands 2005), Strassenfest (Nurnberg, Germany 2005), Zebra festival (Gemert the Netherelands 2004), Odyssee Festival ( Hagen, Mulheim ander Ruhr, Bochum – Germany 2004), L’ouie qui danse (Mons, Belgium 2004), Alternative St. Petersburg (Hamburg Germany 2003), Fusion (Germany 2004), 1st of May International Culture Festival (Essen Germany), Wilwarin (Kiel Germany 2006), Overload (Enschede, Netherlands 2006), Wazemmes l’Accordéon (France 2006), KlezMore festival (Vienna Austrai 2007), Terra festival (The Netherlands 2007), Eurofolkfestival (Ingelheim Germany 2007), Festival der Regionen (Austria 2007), Mundial (The Netherlands 2008), Dunya on Tour (Rotterdam The Netherlands 2008), Fusion (Germany 2009), Breminale (Germany 2009), Druga Godba (Slovenia 2010), Schlossgrabenfest (Germany2010), Automobile Festival of Mulhouse (France 2010), Pohoda festival (Slovakia 2010), Festival Aux heures d’été Nantes (France 2010).

LA MINOR also performed at Cannes Film festival in France in 2007 at the premier party of the film “Import-Export” (director Ulrich Seidl, Austria).