Russia: Far-Out Dzhaz

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Soviet Russia blows hot and cold on the subject of jazz—but never cool. Insisting that jazz came up the river from Odessa long before it made its Mississippi passage, Soviet authorities three years ago began relaxing the ban against Dixieland and swing. As a result, such dated numbers as When the Saints Go Marchin In and Sixteen Tons are now popular in Russia. Yet the Soviet music masters could not bring themselves to permit Russian musicians to play kholodny or cool dzhaz—the progressive sound of Thelonious Monk and Stan Getz, much admired by many Russians who hear it on the Voice of America or on smuggled records.

Two rebels against this artistic repression sat last week in a U.S. refugee camp in West Germany—Bassist Igor Berechtis, 31, and Saxophonist Boris Midny, 26. As they told it, the pair decided to defect after sitting in on a 1962 after-hours jam session with members of Benny Goodman's touring band.

After that, whenever they had wanted to play far-out in Moscow, they had to do it secretly in someone's apartment. Said Midny: "Our individuality was crushed." Looking for a way out of the country, they joined the non-jazz orchestra of-the Bolshoi Variety troupe last month just before it left for a tour of Japan. Once in Tokyo, the two men slipped away to the U.S. embassy. The U.S. flew them to West Germany to avoid getting the Japanese in trouble with the Russians, and the two cats probably will reach the U.S. soon. After all, as one U.S. official in Washington explained: "These guys aren't political. All they want is to latch onto some combo in New York."