A Song For My Brother... 

Alex Kofman
1949-1999

This cyber tribute to my brother, Alex, is a work in progress, as I try to improve my website making chops, and find better words to express my feelings... 

Initially, the Heading for this page was "A Tribute to my brother...", but then then I replaced the word "Rribute" with the word "Song", as a nod to Horace Silver, whose music is one of the symbols of Alex's "era". Song For My Father is one of Horace Silver's most recognizeable compositions! And, poetically speaking, the word "song" is synonimous with word "tribute", or "ode", except, with the word "song", the Horace Silver implication gives this page more of a Jazz "flavor"...

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  If it wasn't for Alex...

becoming a musician, joining a Military Band in Kiev, Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union, at 14 years old; then going on the road as a 16 years old trombone player with Eddie Rosner, one of the top Soviet Era Big Bands; then crossing over to The Other Side of the Iron Curtain, first to Israel, and then to USA, where he played with the greats of American Jazz, among them: Buddy Rich,  That Jones & Mel Lewis Big Band , Slide Hampton, Lee Konitz, Woody Shaw, Dexter Gordon and many others, whom I was blessed to meet and hear, including the great Duke Ellington, whom I met in Kiev, when I was 11 years old -- 

I would probably never have become a musician, and come to New York!!!

Unfortunately, unlike nowdays, "those were the days" when there were no camcorders, or digital photo cameras..., but I'll try my best to tell you about my brother...

Hope you take time to click on the links etc. for a deeper historic perspective...

Thanks for stopping by....

Arkady, Friday, July 29th, 2005, NYC, USA 

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Jamming with Thad Jones & Mel Lewis Big Band, Moscow, Soviet Union, 1972...

Alex on valve trombone; Pepper Adams, baritone sax...

behind Alex: Valery Ponomarev, trumpet - left; Andrey Tovmasian, trumpet - right;  Pepper Adams on the right

with Jimmy Knepper... See and hear Jimmy, in the context of Be Bop Era of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and other "cats".. Or you can just Google Jimmy... Jimmy helped my brother a lot when he first came to America... Fate can be a "funny" thing -- Alex and Jimmy have actually crossed path 10 years earlier, when Jimmy toured USSR with the King of Swing in 1962!

Dee Dee Bridgewater (front row, 2nd from the Left), Pepper Adams (3rd from the right), Jerry Dodgion (2nd from the right), Alex (front right)... - Moscow, USSR, 1972, Thad Jones & Mel Lewis Big Band tour...

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Meeting Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman!!!...

Moscow, 1971, the GREAT Duke Ellington (5th from the Right), receiving balalaika from the LEGENDARY! ... Leonid Utyosov(to the Left); Alex (5th from the Left), Valery Ponomarev, trumpet (on Alex's Left), Misha Branzburg, drums (on Alex's Right)...

To Arkady, coming of Duke to USSR was HUGE!...

Duke on stage of the Kiev Sports Palace, (August 8/15/1971...?), where his concerts were all Sold Out, with 15(?) thousand people screaming during every show, as if it was Beatles at Shea Stadium in NYC:)! Scalpers were doing great business not only on the tickets, but also on concert programs... The square near that sports arena was mobbed, as if it was a Soccer Championship game!...

Duke taking a solo(?)... And the crowds exploded, every time they heard the intro to "Take the A Trane", or "Caravan"!!! I attended every performance, I think, as did others...

That's how I remember Duke, as I was getting the autograph from him. Alex and his friends were coaching me all day on what to say in order to get his autograph... Finally they voted in a "winning line" --

"My dear grandfather Duke! Please give me your autograph!"

Everything happened fast:

Alex and friends pushed me through the huge crowd, and the human chain of policemen, who were guarding the Stage Door, just as the black limo slowly made it through the crowd. A few body guards escorted an old man wearing a light gray rain coat, with big bags under his eyes...

And so, like a "stealth assassin", I squeezed between the policemen, with a pen ready for Duke to sign a copy of a Czechoslovakian Jazz Magazine that had Duke's photo in it (very similar the one above)...

Through "Shock and Awe", I mumbled my "winning line". Duke smiled, and signed my magazine.

Then I said THANK YOU!, and I have replayed that scene in my head for years afterwards, remembering every "wrinkle":)!!!

It was like meeting God!

I guess, Alex felt the same way when, at 13 years old(1962), he saw and heard Benny Goodman, the King of Swing!, and his Big Band at the same Sports Palace in our hometown of Kiev, Ukraine... That encounter was probably most likely what got Alex hooked on Jazz?!... And destiny and fate had me following...

The above 3 photos of Duke are courtesy of Leonid Samoilovich, who was Alex' bandmate in Kiev, guitar, and avid photographer. He now resides in San Francisco area...

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But, at the beginning...

Young "pioneer", "back in the USSR"(Soviet Union), the pioneer of my musical life... 

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Leaving the Iron Curtain behind....

Alex with Edouard Bronson (sax), Jazz Club (Barbarim?), Tel Aviv, Israel, 1973

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A Bootleg Recording of Alex...

It burns me up that I never recorded Alex at the jam sessions, sitting in, or working with the greats like:

Junior Cook, Dexter Gordon, Bob Berg, Lee Konitz, Ronnie Cuber, Ralph Moore; Slide Hampton, Curtis Fuller; Woody Shaw, Tom Harrell, Brian Lynch; John Hicks, Mulgrew Miller, Benny Green, David Hazeltine... Those are just some names I remember...

Worse yet, I hardly have any photos, never mind videos... Luckily, I was able to find this recording:

Listen! Слушайте!

All About You

( 6 min : 11sec )

Composed by Vladimir Horunzhy *

This is a bad quality audio cassette bootleg recording of a concert at New York City Public Theater, 1983?!

Thanks to Lev Zabeginsky for preserving that ♥♥♥ Priceless Memory ♥♥♥!!!

Connect with Arkady!!!