Tidligere studenter av Misha – Helge Lien, Eyolf Dale, Arthur Kai Piene og Andreas Ulvo, Evelina Petrova og Moscow Art trio feirer jubilanten på på selve bursdagen. Misha deltar også selv – både i duo med Evelina Petrova og naturligvis med Moscow Art trio.
Mikhail Alperin was born in the Ukraine in 1956 and grew up in a rural area of Bessarabia, the eastern part of Moldavia. Until 1976 he studied classical piano at music schools and academies in the Ukraine and Moldavia. Since 1977 he has worked as a free-lance arranger, composer and practicing musician. In 1980, along with Simon Shirman, Alperin founded the first Moldavian jazz quartet by developing his idea of linking jazz and folk.
Like most of the world’s musicians, Alperin was obliged to earn his living with dance and party music. For the young musician, however, this music embodied things old and past. The future and freedom were to be found in music influenced by the West, music like rock and jazz. It was not until he had played in Moscow jazz circles for several years that he discovered the musical sounds of his native country for his own work. In Moscow he found other musicians also interested in integrating the musical traditions of their countries into jazz as an element of equal value, and in drawing from the rich tradition of the music of the peoples of the immense Soviet Union.
Foto: Kjell Habbestad
