Arts/Review

tone.

Jazz club singing the blues

goal, however, he has slammed into a wall

In Moscow there used to be a joke like
this: a tourist approaches a Muscovite
near Red Square and asks: “Can you tell
me the way to the nearest jazz club?” The
Muscovite responds: “Sure, it’s very sim-
ple. But you'll have to take an airplane.”

Like a lot of those old jokes, this one is
in the rubbish bin. At least for now.

For the past year, the Bluebird, at 23
Chekhoy Street, has been throbbing every
Wednesday night to the beat of innumer-
able innovative and carefree Soviet jazz
groups as well as quite a few well-known
western stars, such as Quincy Jones, Billy
Taylor and Pat Metheny’s band. The club
has attracted an immense amount of
attention and is widely regarded as a suc-
cess story of perestroika.

For those who have been regulars at the
Bluebird over the past year, myself
included, there is no doubt that the club’s
spectacular take-off has been due to the
tireless efforts of its manager, Vartan
Tonoyan, a 28-year-old Armenian jazz
fanatic with a gift for organization. Vartan
has pursued and befriended many top jazz

‘Moscow Notebook

musicians, inside and outside of the USSR,
and has begged and wheedled to get them
to come and perform at the Bluebird. And
he has done it all on a shoe-string.

However, all is not well under the sur-
face, and the brewing conflict tells us
something about the complexities of the
struggle for perestroika.

Vartan is an employee of the local
Komsomol (Young Communist League),
the organization that owns the club. He
has to check with them before he makes a
move, and frequently people who know
nothing about jazz or staging concerts tell
him how to arrange things. The club’s
kitchen is run by the regional restaurant
Kombinat, which has plenty of rules of its
own. There is a plague of officials con-
stantly coming and going, prescribing,
withholding and admonishing.

“You know,” says Vartan, “if they
didn’t keep busy checking on people,
someone might ask them what it is they
exist for anyway?”

Vartan’s solution is simple. He wants to
take over the Bluebird with a group of
friends and run it as a. co-operative. In this

jazz incompatible?

Fred Weir

of red tape. Co-ops are now perfectly legal
but, as numerous examples in the Soviet
press testify, the bureaucrats seem to be
making war on them. Many officials’ idea
of restructuring, apparently, is to multiply
the paperwork and tighten the-screws.

In all fairness, they too have a point of
view. They say, quite accurately, that some
of the new co-operatives are taking advan-
tage of holes in the Soviet consumer econ-
omy to rake in huge and unwarranted
profits. These people need to be watched,
they say.

On the other hand, the Soviet govern-
ment has already passed a fairly extensive
law which spells out tough controls on the
hiring of labour, a progressive income tax
and other guidelines for co-operatives.
Isn’t that enough? ask co-op activists.

Meanwhile, Vartan is at the end of his
rope, his nerves are shot, and he’s thinking
of packing it in. If the Bluebird folds, it will
bring the jokes back into vogue, and also
that age-old question: are socialism and

Federation of Russian Canadians

greets the employed and unemployed
workers of our province this May 1,
the international holiday of working people.
Our wishes are for full employment in our
country — for peace throughout the world.

MAY DAY GREETINGS
For Jobs & Peace

Organization

Finnish

of Canada

Association of United Ukrainian Canadians
805 East Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C.

greets the working people of this province.

For peace, prosperity and jobs
on this May Day, international
holiday of working people
throughout the world.

Tr

EQ

id

GREETINGS
ON MAY DAY
nccomeumabitate
~~ Canada-USSR
Friendship Society
Fraser Valley Branch

WARM GREETINGS
TO ALL OUR FRIENDS
AND SUPPORTERS
ON MAY DAY

Canadian-Cuban Friendship
Association
P.O. Box 69482, Stn. K
Van., B.C. VSK 4W6

ST EEE eS

Greetings
on the 102nd
anniversary of

May Day
from
Ukrainian
Senior
Citizens
Club, #1

FIGHTING THE FARM CRISIS.
Edited by Terry Pugh. Published by
Fifth House, Saskatchewan. $8.95,-
paperback. Available at People’s Co-
op Bookstore.

‘Over one-third of Canadian farm
families are in financial crisis, but for
many of us living in urban area the
difficulties faced by these families
seem remote. Take a weekend drive in
the countryside and everything looks
deceptively normal. But after reading
this collection of articles, written for
the most part by the farmers them-
selves, the financial and emotional
hardships afflicting rural communi-
ties all across the country become
painfully clear.

With contributions from leading
members of the National Farmers
Union, lawyers, consumers and church-
people, the book briefly covers all
aspects of the farm crisis. Topics
range from the role of capital and
agribusiness, to building farmer and
labour alliances, to practical survival
suggestions for farm families facing
foreclosure.

Fighting the Farm Crisis is easy.
worthwhile reading. A valuable con-
tribution in building understanding
and unity between farmers and other
working people.

&

FIELD WORK. By Maureen Moore.
Published by Women’s Press, Toron-
to. $8.95 paperback. Available at
People’s Co-op Bookstore.

If you would like some lighter read-
ing, how about a murder mystery set
in Vancouver with a different kind of
detective working to solve the crime.
The detective is Marsha Lewis, a
single-mother, feminist and graduate
student working with the Vancouver
police department as part of her
degree in urban anthropology. She
finds herself caught in the midst of the
high profile investigation into the
murder of Dr, Alex Frampton.

Early on in the investigation Dr.
Frampton’s anti-women attitudes are
revealed, and a group of women
health activists are soon high on the
suspect list.

Field Work is Maureen Moore’s
first novel. It is well-written and I
enjoyed sharing Marsha’s view of the
world. Although Moore sometimes
tries too hard to inject political and
social commentary into the plot, the
story moves along quickly. Next time,
you are looking for an entertaining
read, try Field Work.

— Angela Kenyon

Pacific Tribune, April 27, 1988 « 27