A Cappella Magic

Airport – the official magazine of the International Airport Borispol (Kiev, Ukraine). #3/2005

By Alisa Garsh

ManSound does sound like a brand name. In a certain sense, ManSound is a
brand, though in fact it is a superb a capella group. Listening to them
makes you happy. This happiness may be naive or sophisticated, depending on
your esthetic sophistication - or lack of it, on your ability to enjoy this
kind of music, your general cultural background and education. But it is
happiness all the same. They say tastes differ. As far as ManSound are
concerned, no matter what your tastes are, you are sure to enjoy their
music. The only thing that may differ is the level of enjoyment.

Jazz produced by ManSound sounds softer and somewhat sweeter than jazz
classics of the purist kind, lighter and less graphic than black jazz, more
restrained than spicy ethno-jazz, more piercing and richer than the best
Ukrainian pop jazz. Also, ManSound leaves a long lingering and very pleasant
aftertaste.
Some facts from the more recent and from earlier history of this group are
symptomatic. In February 2005 CARA Award called “Nature Boy” from ManSound’s
album If It’s Magic one of the best jazz pieces of 2005. In January 2005,
ManSound performed at the inauguration ceremony of the president-elect
Viktor Yushchenko. In the fall of 2004, ManSound toured European countries,
visiting the places they had been to before, and were an unqualified
success. A year earlier, they went to the USA as guests of honor of the
Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. It was the third time they participated in
the festival where they played to full houses and gave master classes. In
2002, ManSound was awarded Grand Prix at the international Vokal Total
Contest in Austria. Still earlier they performed at Moscow jazz festivals,
to participate in which they were invited by Vyacheslav Gorsky and Aleksey
Kozlov. ManSound were a sensation then and had a very good press. When they
performed a gig on the radio to be broadcast live, they discovered that the
studio was overcrowded with musicians and jazz lovers who did not have
anything to do with the broadcast itself but who came just to listen to
them. In other words, they have long become established as jazz high-class
performers. And they do not stand still as far as their music is concerned -
they keep getting better and more sophisticated.
Every time, after each new ManSound album is released, their live
performances acquire a clearer intonation, a better balance of voices and
timbres become more distinct. Their arrangements have ingenious texture,
non-trivial harmonies, uncanny timbre mobility and absolutely seamless
breathing technique. ManSound have an ability to involve their audiences in
sharing their musical message. Listening to their music, I always want to
sing along but all I can do is sing silently, as it were. Some of their
pieces, such as a medley from George Benson’s songs produce such a great
impressing upon their audiences that people want to get off their chairs and
dance, listening to the almost-instrumental driving sounds. The way they
perform such Ukrainian traditional songs as “Oy polechko-pole” (Oh, My
Little Field!), in which abrupt musical phrasing is combined with a great
amplitude between restrained voice passages and emotional outbursts, moves
their audiences to tears. Their performance of “Silent Night” and “Alleluia”
bring their audiences close to an almost religious ecstasy.
Their experience and quest for perfection make every ManSound performance a
unique event. When ManSound came on the music scene their members were
mature musicians who were united by their talents and music preferences.
ManSound have been performing for ten years now and during this decade some
members left and new members joined. Their repertoire, their vocal manner
and to a certain extent their musical identity have changed too. They sang
black Gospel songs in a manner of the American group Take 6, eccentric
pieces like “Java Jive”, their own interpretations of jazz standards of
Beatles’ songs and of Stevie Wonder’s songs. Their repertoire is of the kind
that reveals their vocal and rhythmic unity, intonation, and other
parameters of a capella jazz singing to its best advantage. Not only
Ukrainian audiences can easily relate to their singing - Americans, Balts,
and Central Europeans who have been exposed to choral traditions for
centuries particularly appreciate that part of ManSound’s repertoire which
includes Slavic songs. ManSound’s Slavic Roots album that contains
arrangements of traditional Ukrainian and Russian songs is particularly
popular abroad. Slavic expressivity is a characteristic melodic feature and
ManSound offer their interpretations of Slavic music in which each voice is
given its due. ManSound presents such musical phrasing which reveals in full
Russian and Ukrainian peculiarities. Russian musical phrasing is dark
whereas Ukrainian is light and lofty.
Most of the arrangements have been written by Vladimir Mikhnovetsky,
ManSound’s leader. He was the founder of the group and its motor over the
years. He possessed a well-trained baritonal tenor which was honed during
his work with Kapella imeni Revutskoho, the best choir in Kiev. After
several years of singing with the Revutsky Choire, Mikhnovetsky founded
the first a cappella jazz sextet Jazz-Exprompt. When he realized that a capella
singing could be adapted performing jazz with excellent results, he invited
Vladimir Sukhin, a tenor who used to be an artistic director of Ergyron, a
Chukcha-Eskimo national music ensemble, and Ruben Tolmachev, a basso who at
that time did not care to listen to jazz, much less sing it, to come
together and perform a capella. Invitations were accepted. Tolmachev who has
an amazingly flexible and very pleasant voice and a great technique of
singing, finds time for directing of a boys’ choir, Zvoochek (Little Bell),
teaching at the Music Academy and producing his own music arrangements.
Two tenors, Yury Romensky, with handsome metal in his voice who is a
virtuoso of improvisations, and Vladimir Trach who provides soft lyricism to
the performance of Ukrainian songs, contribute to an ideal makeup of
ManSound. The experienced Vyacheslav Rubel performs as a baritone, but there
is no baritonal tenor after the founder of ManSound left the group in
October 2004. Music scores for six voices had to be re-arranged for five,
and now ManSound performs as a quintet. But even in its reduced strength,
ManSound remains a remarkable music phenomenon. There are indications that
it may again become a sextet again when a singer who will match the high
professional standards and meet compatibility requirements, will be found.
What keeps ManSound together and their audiences spellbound? It’s something
that as a group they can do so much better than each of them separately. In
their case, the result is much greater than the sum total of individual
components.
By Alisa Garsh

ManSound: national hymn in the spirit of gospel
Kyiv Weekly Wed Sep 6, 2006. By Vladyslav Zhurba.

Jazz Review of The 3rd Yednist (Unity) International Jazz Festival
№12 March 30 2004 «The Day»

Read more articles in Russian
http://www.mansound.com.ua/ru/press

Ukrainian gospel group a hit despite jet lag
"Moscow-Pullman Daily News", 24.02.2000