U samovara (By the Samovar) Tango/foxtrot muz. J. Kagan [mistake! -- this song was composed by Fanny Gordon in Poland, in 1930] -- Leonid Utesov & his jazz orchestra, SovSong c. 1939-40 (Russia)
NOTE: The true composer of this song is not J.Kagan, as it writes on the label, but Fanny GORDON (née Fajga Jofe) http://youtu.be/pOz2UuTjfHM Born 1914 to a Polish-Jewish family in Yalta, Russia, Fanny Gordon was later Polish cabaret actress and composer of popular hits in pre-war Warsaw of the 1920/30s. In 1917 she fled from the Bolshevik Revolution to Warsaw, Poland, where she settled and started performing on stages of the Warsaw cabarets. She also composed popular melodies, often based on the Russian folklore. In spite of her lack of musical education (she hardly read notes), many of her tunes became great hits in prewar Poland: tangoes "Indie" http://youtu.be/0vt87HCwrmM , "Nietoperze" (Bats) http://youtu.be/1kcXIvRY2VQ , the apache-waltz "Bal na Gnojnej" (Party at Gnoina Lane) http://youtu.be/1f4bcviYSQ0 Russian foxtrott "Siemieczki" (The Sunflower Seeds) http://youtu.be/wiQXF-qCqtY or another great tango of the 1930s "Skrawione serce" (My Bleeding Heart), which was made popular by the queen of the Polish tango, Stanisława Nowicka http://youtu.be/d3mYQWBMaKY . Fanny Gordon was rich and popular, she belonged to the cream of the cream of prewar Warsaw artisatic society. Therefore, completely unintelligible was her radical switch in September 1939, from anti- to fanatically pro-communist approach when the Germans invaded Poland from the West, and Russians -- from the East. Fanny Gordon, who together with her mother, left Warsaw in the begining of the war-operations, found herself several yeas later in Soviet Union in Leningrad, under the changed name Faina Kviatkovska. She completed her musical education in 1950s and until her death in 1991, she composed over 100 songs, which were performed by Soviet orchestras and singers. She never returned to Warsaw, and the role she perhaps performed in the Polish high life in 1930s, remains opaque.
Leonid Utyosov or Utesov (Russian: Леони́д О́сипович Утёсов); né Lazar Weissbein b.1895, Odessa -- d. 1982, Moscow, was a famous Soviet jazz singer and comic actor. IN teenage years in Odessa, he attended the School of Commerce, from which he dropped out and joined the Borodanov Circus troupe as an acrobat. He started his stage career in 1911, changed his artistic name to Leonid Utyosov, and performed as a stand up comedian with the Rosanov troupe. In 1917, he won a singing competition in Homel, Belarus, then performed in Moscow. And in Leningrad, where in the 1920s. He set up one of the first Soviet jazz bands. He began collaboration with the popular composer, Isaak Dunayevsky, which turned out to be a breakthrough for both artists. Utyosov built his band of the finest musicians available in Leningrad, and created a style all his own - a jazz show with stand up comedy, which blended several styles, ranging from Russian folk songs to a variety of international genres. In 1928, Utyosov toured Europe and attended performances of American jazz bands in Paris, which influenced his own style. During the 1930s, Utyosov also appeared in the movies. His popularity was on the top in the 1930s when he co-starred with Lyubov Orlova in the comedy Jolly Fellows. In it, Utyosov performed one of his greatest hits: internationally acclaimed tango "Serdtse" (Heart). During World War II, Utyosov performed on the front lines http://youtu.be/jrJ7huxm3QU and after war he lived in Moscow for the rest of his life, albeit in many of his songs he alluded to his native town of Odessa, where a monument to him was dedicated in 2000.
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