Valery Ponomarev
Valery Ponomarev, Valery Ponomarev also (Russian Валерий Михайлович Пономарёв; born January 20, 1943 in Moscow) is a native of Russia, American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player of the hard bop. The first Russian jazz musician, he made himself a name in the United States.
Life and work
Ponomarev studied music in Moscow. Fascinated by Clifford Brown, whose records he discovered on the black market, he switched from drums to trumpet. He played from 1964 to 1969 in jazz clubs and with through -trotting American soloists such as Gerry Mulligan, Charles Lloyd and Keith Jarrett. His hard bop came in Soviet jazz scene but to no good. He moved in 1973 to the U.S., where he worked in clubs, until he undertook Art Blakey. He played from 1974 to 1980 at the Jazz Messengers. With them he toured Europe several times, as well as Japan and Brazil, joined at the Montreux and the North Sea Jazz Festival and was involved in the recording of several albums. In 1981 he founded his own quintet, Universal Language. In 1985, the first album under his own name, Means of Identification, 1991, he took with guest musicians such as Joe Henderson and Kenny Barron Album profiles. In addition, Ponomarev worked at albums by Art Blakey, David White (1993 ), the formation Ugetsu (1998 /99) and Roger Kellaway (1986 ) with and worked with Kenny Washington, Lee Konitz, Joe Morello, Frank Foster, Joe Farrell, Pepper Adams Paquito D' Rivera and.
His main influences of the hard bop trumpeter Clifford Brown are, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. According to the judgment of Leonard Feather, he is one of the most important contributions of the Soviet Union to the American jazz.