State Jazz Orchestra of the USSR


The USSR State Jazz Band was a Soviet jazz band that existed in 1930s–1940s.
After it was auditioned by Joseph Stalin in 1938, a number of similar state-sponsored musical ensembles were created across the country.

Critical analysis

S. Frederick Starr comments in his book on the Soviet jazz that the band "played with a polish and precision any Western pop orchestra might have envied". But then he adds:
Boris Schwarz's book Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia, 1917–1970 describes The State Jazz Orchestra of the USSR as "essentially" a "„light“ music" orchestra.

Selected discography