The Petras Vyšniauskas Quartet
By Rūta Skudienė
In the 1990s, jazz in Lithuania began to be identified with manifestations of exceptional creativity, characterised by the most radical means of expression of new music; musicians with an academic background also started playing music of this genre.
The Vyšniauskas Quartet was one of the original bands of the period. It combined jazz stylistics with tunes and intonations from Lithuanian folk music, imitated its instrumentation, and did not avoid a programmatic character (e.g. the compositions “An Old Lady had a Grey Goat”, “When I was Growing up at my Grandma’s”, “Mother Sun”, “Clog Song”, “And Clear Water“, and others). In the words of the jazz critic Oleg Molokoyedov, “Petras Vyšniauskas’ quartet played in an unusual way. It was new, polystylistic jazz, embracing free jazz and local folklore with a good dose of post-bop energy. The quartet usually performed its programmes as suites, which was stylistically coherent with the style of the Vilnius school of jazz.”1 While playing with other performers, Vyšniauskas made maximum use of syncretic elements, polystylistics, theatricality, the innovatory development of the musical thought, expressive and unconventional means of producing sound, and his ability to play several instruments at the same time (“Salto Mortale”, “The Laptev Sea”, “Capricorn”, “Performance”). His expressive solos in the programmes of Čekasin’s big band, as well as his remarkable improvisations in the manner of post-bop, and even popular jazz in the recording of the concerto for voice and orchestra by Konstantin Petrosian, deserve a mention.
The first album by the Vyšniauskas Quartet Searchings and Discoveries was highly acclaimed by the authoritative American jazz critic Howard Mandel: “Vysniauskas is an individual with steely tone and line-meets-texture ideas of composition. His Melodiya LP Searchings and Discoveries only hints at his talent; his control of the soprano equals that of anyone in the post-Lacy/Shorter generation.“2
The multi-instrumentalist of Lithuanian jazz Petras Vyšniauskas (b. 1957) (ss, as, ts, bs, cl, bcl) graduated from the Lithuanian State Conservatoire, from the clarinet class (under Professor Algirdas Budrys) and saxophone (under Vladimir Chekasin). From 1979, he played with the bands in the Dainava and Gintaras restaurants. In 1980, on the recommendation of the musicologist Liudas Šaltenis, he formed a jazz band in the legendary Neringa Cafe in Vilnius. In early 1982, the members of the band were Petras Vyšniauskas and Vytautas Labutis (saxophone), Leonid Šinkarenko (bass), and Gediminas Laurinavičius (percussion). In 1983, the quartet won the 7th Soviet Union Competition of Pop Performers, and the Grand Prix in Birštonas in 1982 and 1984. In 1990, the prize went to the duo of Petras Vyšniauskas and Arkady Gotesman. According to a questionnaire published annually by the Latvian newspaper Sovetskaya molodyezh,3 Vyšniauskas was voted best saxophonist in the Soviet Union in 1985, 1987 and 1989, and musician of the year in 1985 and 1987. In the 1980s, he played with many Lithuanian musicians and bands: the guitarist Juozas Milašius, the pianists Saulius Šiaučiulis, Viacheslav Ganelin, Oleg Molokoyedov, Kęstutis Lušas and Tomas Kutavičius, and the percussionist Arkady Gotesman, and established the Vilnius Dixieland. In the 1990s, his duo with the performer of folk songs Veronika Povilionienė gained widespread popularity abroad. Already at that time, Vyšniauskas did not limit himself to jazz. The Lithuanian composers Rimvydas Racevičius, Arūnas Navakas, Vidmantas Bartulis and Faustas Latėnas wrote music for him. He performed a concerto for saxophone and symphony orchestra by Andrey Eshpay with the orchestra of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society. He participated in major jazz festivals in the former Soviet Union and Europe, and played with Vladimir Chekasin’s big band, Viacheslav Ganelin, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Jimmy Owens, Elliot Sharp, Klaus Kugel, Viacheslav Gaivoronsky and Vladimir Volkov. By 1990, he had released more than 20 albums, and composed music for theatre and cinema; he has given many concerts in Western Europe and taken part in various international projects.
The multi-instrumentalist Vytautas Labutis (b. 1960) studied at the Juozas Tallat-Kelpša Higher School of Music. He graduated from the Lithuanian State Conservatoire in 1986. His first saxophone teacher was Vladimir Chekasin. In 1982, he began to play with the Vyšniauskas Quartet, and later in the big band of the Conservatoire. He won a Soviet Union pop artists' competition with the quartet of Vyšniauskas in 1983, and that of Gintautas Abarius in 1987. In the 1980s, he played with Vladimir Chekasin’s quartet and Gintautas Abarius’ band. From 1987, he taught the saxophone and improvisation at the Balys Dvarionas School of Music in Vilnius. In 1988, he formed a trio with Leonid Šinkarenko (b) and Gediminas Laurinavičius (dr), which grew into the Vilnius Jazz Quartet in 1989 with the participation of the pianist Oleg Molokoyedov.
The bass guitarist Leonid Šinkarenko (b. 1957) studied at the Juozas Tallat-Kelpša Higher School of Music, attended Chekasin’s jazz lessons, and was invited to join his big band in the early 1980s. He has played with the Vyšniauskas and Chekasin quartets, the Labutis Trio, the Vilnius Jazz Quartet, and in various combinations with Vyšniauskas, Kęstutis Lušas, Juozas Milašius and Remy Filipovitch.
He taught bass guitar in the popular music department at the Balys Dvarionas Children’s School of Music in Vilnius, and was voted one of the best jazz bass guitarists by the above-mentioned Soviet Union questionnaire several times.
Gediminas Laurinavičius (b. 1956) studied at the Vilnius School of Electromechanics and the percussion class at the Tallat-Kelpša Higher School of Music. From 1979, he took jazz lessons under Chekasin. He has played with the quartets and the big band of Vyšniauskas and Chekasin, the Labutis Trio, the Vilnius Jazz Quartet, and in duos with Petras Vyšniauskas, Vladimir Tarasov and Remy Filipovitch, with whom he recorded Open your Eyes, released by Album Records. He leads the percussion class at the Vilnius Balys Dvarionas Children’s School of Music.
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1 Molokoyedov, Oleg. "Džiazo kūrimasis ir raida Lietuvoje" (The Establishment and Development of Jazz in Lithuania), Džiazo istorija. Vilnius: Kronta, 2001.
2 DownBeat, September 1988.
3 Šaltenis, Liudas. "Birštonas 84“, Literatūra ir menas, 14 April 1984.
