Oleg Lundstrem

The father of Russian jazz, Oleg Lundstrem helmed the nation's first big band, keeping the group afloat for more than seven decades despite the fierce opposition of Soviet leaders. Born April 2, 1916, in Chita, Siberia, Lundstrem spent much of his adolescence in China, where his father worked on the Great Chinese Railroad before accepting a professorship at the Harbin Polytechnic Institute. Lundstrem studied music as a child, focusing on violin while attending college. In 1934, he first discovered the music of American jazz greats Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, and soon after formed the Oleg Lundstrem Jazz Orchestra with eight fellow Russian expatriates, adopting the tenor saxophone as his weapon of choice. After building a loyal following in Harbin, the Lundstrem band in 1935 relocated to Shanghai, following a stint at the Yangtze Hotel with a long tenure at the popular ballroom the Majestic. In addition to a repertoire featuring American jazz standards, in time Lundstrem began adapting traditional Russian songs to fit big-band arrangements, with Dunaevesky's "A Song About the Captain," Blanter's "Katyusha," and Vertinsky's "Strange Cities" all proving crowd favorites. In 1940 the Lundstrem Jazz Orchestra inaugurated an extended run at the Paramount, then Shanghai's most prestigious venue; by this time the roster included 14 musicians, with Lundstrem -- dubbed "the King of Jazz in the Far East" by the local press -- serving as conductor. During World War II the lineup swelled to 19, with acclaimed residencies at the Lyceum and the Carlton, and when the war ended in 1945, Lundstrem penned his first original song, the Rachmaninoff-inspired "Interlude," to commemorate the end of battle. Two years later the orchestra abandoned Shanghai to return to the Soviet Union,...