The ShockolaD Kupidon Gig...

Well needless to say, there was a lot going on during the weekend of the June 13-14. First of all had a charity ball that our Rotary Club was organizing on the Saturday, and secondly had to make sure everything would work out for ShockolaD on Sunday as well. When I arrived at Kupidon, and the sound check was complete and the musicians off and about somewhere, Fedir came up to me, looked at all the equipment and said with a skeptical tone in his voice, “They just don't get it why do they need all that stuff!” I told him not to worry, that his place would be packed...Word travels fast in Kyiv, and anyone who had been to the presentation the night before and heard that ShockolaD would be performing a second time they started to tell their friends. Well let's just say that the following is a translation of a review of the gig I did in Ukrainian. I was actually quite surprised that the editors didn't butcher it a great deal, this in fact was the first serious attempt I had made at writing something for publication in Ukrainian. Given the nuances of the language I haven't even bothered including the title here, but those of you who read Ukrainian can read the original here, complete with pics, and more pics on SUMNO.COM.

It wasn't the first time that I had the opportunity to listen to the presentation of the new songs from the new album POKOSY of the favorites of the Fluhery of L'viv Jazz Festival, the L'viv-based group ShockolaD. In the well known cafe Kupidon last Sunday, June 14, the audience was a little different than in L'viv, but my impressions that I had from L'viv, gave me the impulse to invite different friends and acquaintances. It was an admixture of different people, some of them for the first time would listen to something new, something that they didn't know. As it turned out, the acquaintances that I had invited represented different countries and professions – there were people from Kyiv, and Switzerland, the USA, Serbia, and Slovakia there and amongst them: journalists, businessmen, civic activists and musicians. In general the new ShockolaD album includes eleven tracks plus one bonus track. The compositions are based on folk songs – conscientiously transformed, but, maybe it's better to say ShockolaD-ified – with a jazz sound and electronic spices. Besides folk songs, there are poems of Serhiy Zhadan and Victor Neboraka and a bonus track to the works of the poem by Juliusz Slowatsky “Mother to son” - which was done for their Polish fans as I learned from the press materials of the group. The electronic spicing was heard right from the beginning of the concert which opened up with Oy na Ivana. But in my opinion the audience, didn't really understand that they came out to listen to ShockolaD-ified folk songs, that is to say ethno-jazz, until the group played Hutsuliya, an arrangement of the groups saxophone player Volodymyr Urban, where the separate parts of each of the musicians was much more exemplified. After each part the clapping was heard all the way out on Pushkinska street – said one of the Americans who had come out to the show, and had gotten there a little late, and had sat down near me. The mood of the audience changed during the third song, Divchina – where more vocal musing existed in Dana Vynnytska's arrangement of this piece. Some of the audience got caught up in deep thought and took delight with the different rhythm, a different taste, as it were smooth milk chocolate. By the beginning of the fourth song, Nyvka, I noticed one thing, one of the most important of all – all were getting into the rhythm of Ihor Hnydyn and Serhiy Brydun – the drummer and bassist, and the clear sound of the keyboards being played by Anastasia Lytvynyuk and the juxtaposition of the sax and Dana's vocal solos. I saw a friend, Ihor Kucer, an operatic tenor from Bratislava, he waved to me with a smile on his face. Who better could judge vocals, then an experienced vocalist. After the clapping and he beginning of Nese Halya vodu not only did the style change, but also the rhythm which carried me off not to the Carpathians, but somewhere under the palms of some Caribbean island... I faded away into thought and thought a little about my previous discussions with the musicians – I am convinced that it is not in vain that all of the musicians have a musical education, but also different views on the structure of music and different world views on music – this makes their music and our folk songs interesting to us, and in general more accessible to a world audience. When the audience clapped after each of the solos of each of the musicians in the previous songs, Dana engaged them in singing along during Verbova doshochka. It didn't appear that difficult for those in the audience, as there were very few who did not participate, from the youngest child to adult. And there is one other reason why I liked this concert and its performers. As musicians, they are searching for something new from within, something fresh and interesting – but they are also conscientious that there are other people, their listeners who are not only passive, but want to participate... But the song that takes hold of every Ukrainian's soul was the next one. “The world over they consider it theirs – But Leontovych's Shchedryk, is our own,” said Dana. [See Carol of the Bells] When the first notes were sounded still another acquaintance of mine, also a musician and vocalist, Andriy Smaluka from the band NEMO, who at that moment had moved up closer to the musicians turned to me with the happiness of a child in his eyes and said, “That grabbed me by the soul!” As Ihor Hnydyn, who arranges most of the material for the group, told me in an earlier discussion, “Shchedryk – is not my arrangement. It's Volodya's, our saxophone player – the music was lying around for seven years, before we gave it life!” After the performance of Shchedryk each Ukrainian member of the audience, possibly, became a little prouder of their musical heritage! From the faces of all present and their clapping it could be seen – it could be heard! The poems of Serhiy Zhadan which had earlier been heard in Kupidon, this evening were heard in a ShockolaD-ifed version. For example, his poem Slukhay, a movchy [ed. Listen, but be silent]. The quiet rhythm of the shaker and other percussion, Dana's vocal and the completely relaxed sound of the keyboards and the mellow sound of the saxophone. The audience was completely relaxed, in the best mean of that word, but not for long. The clapping, and the start of a funky rhythm with a peppering of saxophone and from the first words and melody the audience recognize – Chyya to dolyna. Here, like throughout the program, each of the musicians had an opportunity to be heard and show their own. Like a living organism – the “chocolates” were moving and breathing, and providing their audience with a breath of fresh air. That breath, for everyone present, opened up something new, something different – for someone it may have been ethno, for someone else – jazz, and now certainly everyone knows that this is ShockolaD! This understanding provided one word which was repeated over and over again: ENCORE. Everyone was yelling and making noise until the musicians returned to the stage. The audience slowly started to disperse, children were trying out their musical abilities on the keyboards, fans were buying the new POKOSY album and getting autographs. I was sitting with a friend from the USA that I had met not too long ago, Giles and his fiancee from Serbia – Isadora – both were happy and were thanking me for inviting them to the show. An old friend and civic activist sat down with us Dmytro Potekhin: “Vasyl, thank you for letting me know about the concert – it was super!” I introduced Dmytro to Giles and Isadora... At first they exchanged their opinions about the concert, and then they went on about something else. But it became apparent to me that everyone liked ShockolaD!

Oddly enough about a week later, Fedir came up to me and said, “It seems like ShockolaD was appreciated by all. Even Sveta liked them, and you know she is Riffmaster's wife!” I guess that's a good sign!

The morning after – the ShockolaD interview

I got up the next morning and I was still staying on Filetova, not to far away from where I had to be in about an hour, and as usual, for that district of L'viv I missed the time period when the hot water was turned on. Well it was after all Friday and I was still in L'viv, which is incidentally one of my favorite chill-out cities, so what did I have to complain about? Nothing at all!

I headed out the door and walked along Filetova toward Lychakivska Street. From their down towards where it joins the beginning of Vynnychenko Street. I walked by the Kabinet. This is a nice little cafe/bar which is also a hotbed of cultural activity at times. With poetry reading, book launches and the like, which often, incidentally are recorded and podcast. I passed the monument to Vyacheslav Chornovil and a few minutes later I walked across Fedoriv Square and past the monument of Fedoriv.

At the agreed upon time of 10:00, I walked through the heavy wooden doors at Dzyga and began to look around for two guys I had met the night before through Markian. One of them I was told was going to make sure I had the equipment in order that I could do an interview for radio with three of the members of ShockolaD that would be able to meet with me that day.

I walked into the first room and looked around. Then I glanced into the second room up the three steps to the right. I didn't notice anyone that looked familiar, so I turned around to walk out and then someone came running up behind me, and I could hear a somewhat familiar voice calling me, “Pane Vasyliu!” I turned around and there stood Yuriy Kucheryaviy, one of the guys I had met the previous evening sitting with Markian Ivashchyshyn after the ShockolaD show.

“Andriy should be here shortly, with everything we need for you to do this interview with ShockolaD,” said Yuriy, and just as he said so in walked Andriy Izdryk, a tall lanky figure with a satchel in one hand and a army surplus style back pack that would be suitable for a two to three day trip away from home. Andriy greeted me and sat down at the table next to me. First he unloaded his satchel, pulling out his laptop, then came the surprise. Out of his back pack he began to pull out a number of things, and as he was doing so in walked Anastasia Lytvynyuk, Dana Vynnytska and Ihor Hnydyn of ShockolaD. We all greeted one another, and Andriy handed Dana one microphone and then another, as I recall they were AKG's, not top of the line but better than anything I've seen anyone pull out of such a back pack before. But what followed was an even bigger surprise!

Andriy moved somethings away from his laptop and next to it he placed an eight-channel mixer. Within a few minutes he was ready to roll. Well not quite, there was still the matter of background music and the ventilation ducts in the back room of Dzyga. Yuriy got up and spoke to the administration about that and soon I was ready to start the interview with ShockolaD! But first we all decided that coffee would be a great start. After all it was only ten in the morning.

Once our coffee arrived and we checked the levels things got underway.

As a favour to my friend and fellow blogger Pawlina whom I recorded this interview for below is a translation and transcript of the interview which transpired, for her listeners.

VP: Dear listeners of Nash Holos in Vancouver, not to long ago I was sitting with a musician friend of mine, Misko Barbara of Mertviy Piven'[Dead Rooster] in Kyiv and he told me about a girl, who's name is Dana. Dana sings with not such a new band from L'viv, but I think they still have a lot to do. And what I heard at a concert at the Jazz Club at Dzyga on Virmenska Street yesterday evening, that's to say Thursday, I liked a great deal. Dana maybe you could briefly tell our listeners how this project started and when it started?

Dana Vynnytska: In 2004 each of us was a student at the Musical Academy. When I say each of us, I'm talking about Ihor Hnydyn our drummer, Anastasia Lytvynyuk, pianist and me Dana Vynnytska. Then we were studying at the Musical Academy and for the first time we went to see the Jazz Bez Festival in L'viv. We were so enthralled by the music that we all started dreaming of how to try to start playing something similar. First Ihor got in touch with Nastya, and then I joined in and then at one time five years ago in 2004 in the month of June we met up and started to play the standard My Funny Valentine.
It looked something like this. We were playing sheet music, we weren't sure how to play, we were uncertain. We tried listening to things, we were searching, we tried to copy things tried to find our own thing, but we started with the standards. At first there were three of us, then we had one contra-bass player join us. Well the story with contra-bass and bass players was classical. The bass line did not hold its own under intellectual and emotional tension and then a new figure appeared, in August our saxophonist joined us with whom we are working with until this day and that is Volodya Urban. And this is how the group ShockolaD was born.
That same year we participated in the Jazz Bez as juniors, and at the festival at one of the jam sessions we heard some very interesting musicians from Poland. I have in mind Joachim Mansel, pianist; Aryk Skolyk drummer and Mikhail Baranski vocal. When conversing with them in a more intimate setting they told us that in Krakow there are international master classes which take place, called the International Summer Jazz Academy. And that summer we went to those master classes and understood a bit more, because up until that point we were contriving our bicycle, but because of such a good experiences and pleasant knowledge that we were able to obtain last year, in as much that the three of us, Ihor, Natya and myself received a stipend from the Polish Ministry of Culture, Gauda de Polonia, we were able to be in Warsaw and cooperate and study under legendary Polish musicians: Czeslaw Bartowski, drummer; Andrzey Godinski, piano and Janusz Szroma for vocals.

VP: This is an interesting story, but I noticed that your drummer works a lot with arrangements and writing of music. It sort of reminded me of something, like á la Phil Collins, as you know Phil Collins is a drummer but also writes music. How did this all come about, I think it would be interesting for our listeners, because it kind of rare, it rarely happens that the drummer takes care of arrangements?

Ihor Hnydyn: Well like Dana said earlier that we started from learn from traditional jazz music, but learning from this music you begin to understand that the more you swallow of that music, then the greater the space for development in traditional music. But in order that, but because there is so much traditional jazz music in the world, and in America they play so much of it, and we are very far from there, and we wanted to something of our own, and I started to try to write for the first time, because earlier I never considered myself seriously as a composer, but it was when I was in Ireland working and the yearning for Ukraine came out in music. It was the first time where I didn't know where to place my soul, and I began to sit behind the piano and in principle began to think about Ukraine, and quite simply Ukrainian motifs appeared which I had heard from the time I was little, in as much that I myself am from a village and everyone in our village sings or plays on an instrument, and I simply wanted that music, simply for those ethno motifs to grow into something that was bigger. And in principle we tried to do something, and our first album called Number One,which we recorded in Poland with Polish musicians, that came out as ethnic music.

VP: One thing that really impressed me last night was the arrangement of Shchedryk by Leontovych [ed. Known as Carol of the Bells] I really liked it.

Ihor Hnydyn: But that was Volodymyr Urban. That's our saxophonist, he wrote that ten years ago, and the music laid there until it found its performer.

VP: It's a good thing that the performer was found.

Ihor Hnydyn: Yes!

VP: Like Dana said the other night at the concert, 'It's ours, everyone borrowed it from us. Over there the Americans borrowed it, the Japanese say it's theirs, but we all know that it is our own!'

Ihor Hnydyn: Chuckles.


VP: Not something foreign. You said you were in Ireland. What would you say – Celtic music and let's say our Hutsul music, there are certain nuances, there is something particular about them both. Did you ever have that feeling?

Ihor Hnydyn: Yes at one time I really had the opportunity to experience the feeling of real Irish music, when I entered a small out-of-the-way town, but there were a lot of tourists there and I was walking by this pub and I entered it and there I heard.... I don't know what to call their – accordion, it was similar to a bayan, and there this guy was playing Irish music with a flute and guitarist. It really was something to survive through, because there was something incredible there, first of all it included their coloring, at one moment, and I heard so much jazz within, and ... and... in principle you really could compare it to our Hutsul kolomeyky or something similar when they start improvising, because improvisation is strength.

VP: Well we could say that jazz really is improvisation, an individual take some small nuances and begins to build something from it. Nastya I heard this a little last night in your role as pianist and you added something on the synthesizer that really reminded me of the beginning of the 1970s when they really started to make use of that technology. Could you please tell us a little about your vision of ShockolaD and jazz?

Annastasiya Lytvynyuk: For me ShockolaD in principle now is the embodiment somehow of all my musical views, musical impressions and there I can express myself as a musician in the first place; and... well what is jazz, well that's very... we could sit and talk about it day and night and we could still do not know if we could to come to a complete explanation. But for me personally, it is music, at the given moment, music with such freedom that you can put in anything you want, in principle, because jazz as understanding, because now time has extreme expanses, it can be the ethnos that we personally put into ShokolaD, and it could be academic music or avantgarde music, we can put in anything possible. Regarding piano jazz or regarding my personal improvisations. Right now I am searching for myself searching for my own personal style, even though it is difficult for a young person to do, but thanks to the fact that I had an opportunity to study in Poland, now I am trying to find some of my own personal things that would become recognizable, and I hope that in a certain time I will be able to accomplish this.

VP: Dana actually we met last Sunday at the 20th anniversary concert of Mertviy Piven, and Misko was not mistaken when he told me about your voice. I heard it last Sunday, and I heard it last night. You as a singer have to give something to your audience, and I can see it in the audience, when each individual plays their role but somehow it all comes together as a general work. There were a few times where I would say, 'Dana just a little bit louder, just a wee bit so I could hear you better!' I have it all written down and maybe we can share ideas. What are your next plans for ShockolaD, lets say in the next little... let's say during the summer, because summer is a period which will always exist?

Dana Vynnytska: Thank you for your warm words, now when we are talking about when I sing very quietly, well its because silence is also very strong music and I want to edify the audience so that they also hear that silence. Well regarding our plans with ShockolaD, we are now working on arrangements and texts of works of Polish and Ukrainian authors. Now in particular, in this album POKOSY there is a bonus track which include the song to the text of the poem by Juliusz Slowatski Maty do syna [ed. Mother to son], and now we are completing the composition Rym [ed. Rome] and this summer we plan on putting out,... on creating compositions to the verse of Juliusz Slowatski and we are trying to add the texts of Ihor Bohdan Antonych. Right now we are on a road where we are searching for different poets that inspire us and we are now trying to find that place were there is a crossover between the word, music and improvisation.

VP: Well I would like to thank you all very much that we all got together this early. I remember earlier on Annastasia said, 'Oh my head isn't working yet, but maybe if we have a bit of coffee, everything will work fine!' Because I think that when our listeners in Vancouver will hear the music, listen to the compositions from this disc they will somehow be enthused! I would like to thank you all for your time and I think we will meet again not only on air but maybe our listeners will be here in L'viv and will be able to walk in some place, or maybe somehow sometime we will take you to Canada so that our listeners could hear you and I wish you all the success, prosperity and creativity.

Dana Vynnytska: Thank you very much, and we are our part would like to tell all your listeners that sooner or later we will visit you; [laughs] and we would like to wish them all the very best and more pleasant experiences from Ukrainian music.

So there you have it folks... I think we all went through about two coffees each that morning during the interview. But given that Andriy had his whole kit out and running, remember there was an eight channel mixer, microphones, laptop there on the table, so Yuriy, as a literary critic decided to also hit ShockolaD with a barrage of questions for one of the many projects that these to guys are working on.

Buy the time we were wrapping everything up we realized it was nearly twelve-thirty... Oh how time flies when you are having a great time.

In any case, I chatted with Ihor some more that day, and Markian Ivashchyshyn gave me to the OK to try to organize a second evening for ShockolaD to present their new CD Pokosy in Kyiv. A few hours later as I was going to meet a fellow Rotarian at his office in L'viv, I made a call to Fedir the head honcho at Kupidon in Kyiv.

“Vasyl, what ever it is you want to do, its fine by me,” said Fedir.

After having coffee at Genna's office and chatting about the possibility of getting some things from their Rotary Clubs in L'viv for our Charity Ball, he offered to drop me off where ever need be. I told him Dzyga, as I still had to finalize a few things for ShockolaD. I walked into the back room, where we had done the interview to find Markian and a few others sitting at a table, amongst them VlodKaufman. They were discussing some project, but they invited me to join them, after they finalized some of their matters, I finalized things with Markian regarding ShockolaD and then we just made small talk. I understood that there was a long standing conflict over work done by VlodKaufman for Fedir at Kupidon, but Markian said that if I can work things out with Fedir for ShockolaD, then it would be great. “Vasyliu, as you know, just how much room is there in Baraban, anyway!” God it was good to be in L'viv!

The first little nibble of ShockolaD

I had been up early that day and in a totally different part of town working on a project taking place out at the Shakespeare Restaurant, owned by another friend of mine, located on Lublinska Street. It had been drizzling on an off all day long, that twenty-eighth day of May. I was a little tired but I had my mind set on getting back into town and heading to meet Markian Ivaschyshyn at Dzyga, and then to head up stairs to the Jazz Club and have a listen to something I had been told was sweet, as sweet as chocolate. After finishing up matters at the Shakespeare, I realized there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell I would make it back downtown using public transit, so I had the restaurant staff order me a cab. As I left the Shakespeare the door man offered to walk me out o the cab with an umbrella. There was a little bit of mist coming down, but nothing that warranted an umbrella. “Forget about the umbrella,” I said, as I gestured with my hand.

Within about twenty minutes I got dropped off by the Dominican Cathedral and made my way towards Dzyga. I found Markian sitting with someone, I didn't recognize her, but he introduced us. “Vasyl, this is Anastasia Lytvynenko, keyboardist from ShockolaD! Nastya, Vasyl Pawlowsky,” said Markian. We politely shook hands as I acknowledged to the waitress that I wanted to drink what I had a few days earlier. A Stare Misto, brewed by the First Private Brewery of L'viv. After a long day I figured I deserved it. Anastasia went off up to the Jazz Club, Markian and I sat under the umbrella at a table on the street and made small talk. Just before eight, Markian said, “Let's go the show is about to start!” I followed him up the same winding stair case, just across from the “Laboratory”, as I recall the bathroom was once called in Dzyga's early years. Markian mumbled something to one of his wait staff who then led me to a table closer to the performance. “Vasyliu, I'll be over in the other room where my office once was, enjoy the show,” said Markian while motioning with his hand towards the other room

The place was quite the buzz, there were few familiar faces but this crowd knew what they were coming out to hear. When the first couple of notes sounded there were a few eager fans in the audience who broke out clapping. I had been seated at a table with an older guy, maybe in his late fifties to early sixties, but looks can be deceiving in this part of the world, who I think I had seen at Dzyga previously. He had small gray goatee, wire frame glasses and a pipe. He nodded at me as if acknowledging that we knew each other, but we both went on to listen to the music. I actually, made some notes during the performance, where they have disappeared to I'm not too sure, but when you write on small slips of paper they are bound to get lost. It's just the nature of the game.

This was the first time I had heard ShockolaD perform, and I was impressed. I could tell by both the smiling faces and the couple of swaying bodies that others in the crowd were also enjoying the show. The interplay of the individual musicians, during each composition, with each of them contributing both to their individual solos and to the pieces as a whole.

From the beginning I recognized nearly all of the songs as being traditional folk melodies, but their arrangements were different. In fact they were something fresh, something that anyone with a taste for music could listen to and find something that they enjoyed in the melodies, the rhythms.

The time just flew by in the close to 90 minute program, but there was one thing that hit home pretty hard. It was somewhere about two-thirds of the way through the program when Dana Vynnytska, whom I had met about five days before at Liviy Bereh opened up the next song with a few statements.

“The entire world thinks that the following song is theirs. From Americans who play this song around the Christmas Holiday season, all the way to the Japanese who have somehow adopted this next song as their own,” expressed Dana. She paused for a moment and continued, “But we all know that Shchedryk, a composition by Leontovych is something that is traditionally ours, and it goes back a long time, long before others started to say it was theirs, and probably even before Leontovych put down the notes. It is ours, it's Ukrainian,” stated Dana, and then another pause. This was followed by round of applause as the first few bars were played of the traditional Christmas Song that is known throughout the world as Carol of the Bells, however, it seems that everyone else thinks that it is theirs. Not so!

Sure it was a little bit out of season, but as a jazz arrangement, it could find its place at any time of the year, in any country of the world. In any little club where people gather to listen to something new and something fresh. Something that is familiar to them, while at the same time being something that opens up a totally new door in their understanding of something that they seem to have known since they were little children listening to the radio in the kitchen on Christmas day, after having opened up all all their presents. Or if it was after a midnight mass, when families also gathered for a Christmas feast. This was a different feast, it was a feast for one's ears.

What followed, was nothing short of some incredibly great music which all present appreciated. But this was music being performed by a hometown group for its fans. I thought to myself, what if they were to perform for an audience of about the same size in Kyiv. I already knew that they would be in Kyiv on June 13 to present their latest album entitled POKOSY. An while this was not being held in a location that I was averse to, it was quite small... I thought to myself, “How to heck are you going to get five musicians in the place and even have an audience.”

Clearly, ShockolaD came back for an encore after their performance, but my thoughts were already focused on what I would be talking with Markian about after the gig, and what questions I would ask them in an interview I would be doing for Ukrainian language and bilingual programming in Canada.

It became obvious after the show that Markian, just didn't want to talk to me after the gig about their performance, but also about introducing me to other people, with other ideas, but nonetheless interesting ones. As we sat in Markian's former office, a couple of members of ShockolaD came to speak to him and who he introduced me to set up a time to meet for an interview the next day. In particular he introduced me to Ihor Hnydyn, the group's drummer and arranger of most of their material. Somehow, we connected, but it became more evident the next day. But in due time I will hit on that topic.

While I have been without a digital recorder since the summer of 2006, when it was stolen in Donetsk, I have always found some way to document things, in a recorded format, whether I beg, borrow or .... In this case Markian had made a particular arrangement with people he knew to make the interview the next day happen.

The conversations that ensued, were interesting to say the least, and there was a sharing of thoughts and ideas about where we should be going with new media. Places that Markian and I had been previously and somehow it had to do with being in totally different countries, where crossing a bridge made all the difference in the world about the society one was in. It took us from states near the Mason-Dixon line all the way up north to the bridge spanning the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Hell, I really meant Hull, but those who have ever lived in Ottawa will understand what I am getting at. Moving from a very conservative community to one that was just a little more liberal.

In any case, it was a great evening, some great conversations and an agreement to meet with ShockolaD for an interview the next morning at 10:00. The time may have been a mistake, but in any case it happened,