The world at large has been inundated with news from the recent Russian incursion into the country of Ukraine. While the storms of war gather, pianist and composer Vadim Neselovskyi chooses to remind people of the country’s important cultural legacy. Neselovskyi has created a full-length solo piano piece inspired by his hometown on the Black Sea—and a Unesco World Heritage City of Literature—Odesa.

Odesa: A Musical Walk Through a Legendary City plays like a theater piece, using melodies and rhythms to fully immerse the audience into the work. Rich with melodic tunes, folk music, jazz, and sprinklings of classical music for which Neselovskyi first gained prominence, this concert is a celebration and honoring of Ukraine’s important cultural heritage.

A child prodigy in still-Soviet Ukraine, Vadim Neselovskyi became the youngest student to be accepted into the famed Odesa Conservatory. At the same time that he was honing his classical virtuosity, he became captivated by jazz sounds. He moved to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music, where was selected by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Terence Blanchard to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute. Whether as a pianist, a composer, an improviser, a soloist or a bandleader, Vadim Neselovskyi creates music that is truly inspired and wholly unique. The Los Angeles Times has praised Neselovskyi’s “extraordinary playing” while The Guardian (UK) has called him “the most promising of the young improvisers.” All About Jazz recognized his singular versatility, referring to him as “a strong pianist [as well as] a composer who blends form and freedom in new ways.”

Jazz Poetry Month: Vadim Neselovskyi "Odesa—A Musical Walk Through a Legendary City"