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No such shame on Fingers and Passion; it is a sustained
meditation on jazz, not just the harmonics of jazz but the swing and the
feel of jazz. Of course, he couldn’t entirely throw off the heritage of
virtuosic Russian artistry, beautiful and baroque; I would say Kuryokhin
never got quite as earthy as his famous contemporaries, the Ganelin Trio.
But “A Combination of Power and Passion” is one of the few occasions I
know of when he really dug deep into post-war American jazz,
particularly Dave Brubeck’s music—the song’s subtitle, after all, is “Blue
Rondo a la Russ”. The West Coast master’s rhythmic innovations must
have left their imprint on Kuryokhin, who had little to no respect for
standard jazz time signatures. If on previous recordings the Russian
pianist let his hands compartmentalize the keyboard, agitating each
other, creating a fractured-hysteric aesthetic, here they work together
with interlocking melodies and rhythmic counterpoint. All the effort of
moving between styles is so gradual and mellifluous, the listener is
generally unable to pinpoint the decisive moment of transformation. By
varying the pace and delivery of Brubeck’s central theme, gaining
momentum with a sportsman’s fervor or slowing down in a staccato
articulation, he allows room for new aspects to emerge, aspects which
derail the music and force it to ceaselessly evolve. As soon as one has
grasped the theme of a cluster of repetitions, already the music seems
elsewhere. The most sublime improvisations operate in this manner, like