The musical group with the slang name BAND ODESSA has nothing to do with the "pearl of the Black Sea". Known among the emigrants of the federal state of Bavaria: acts as an escort at Russian-language holidays. For Russians, the work of BAND ODESSA is available on the Internet - on the YouTube channel and on social networks.
Touches for the portrait of the band's creator
Inexperienced users of informational Internet resources call BAND ODESSA instead of a band a “gang” and believe that it is an association of street dancers, chanson musicians and performers of thieves' songs from the city “by the Black Sea”. The more advanced turn to the website that has official information about the team. The advertising post reads (punctuation preserved): “Remixing songs that are better than the originals !! Any events in Germany !! DJ, Disco, CD !! Phone: 0931 6666443"
Guitarist and vocalist from the German city of Würzburg Arnold Richter (BAND ODESSA - BAVARIA - Arnold Richter Leader-vocals) is indicated as the creator, the only participant and contact person. The type of his creative activity is the musical accompaniment of Russian-language events, the services of a DJ and toastmaster at family events. In addition, there was an offer of discs with their recordings and an advertisement for the catering agency "Natalie". There are no photographs of the team on any of the Internet resources, with the exception of a few 20-year-old photographs, which depict a man and a woman. You can contact them, in addition to the specified contact phone number, by e-mail: [email protected].
It so happened that in 2017, one of the users of social networks recognized Tolik Aranovich as the creator of BAND ODESSA - a native of Soviet Ukraine, who in the dashing 90s, taking his spouse with him, moved to Germany for permanent residence. Presumably he is a native of the village. Vlasovka, Luhansk region, from a family of "Russian Germans". In his youth, during the USSR, he was fond of popular music, together with his wife they played in KVN. With the advent of perestroika, he tried to conduct business activities. But this information on the part of the owner of the Odnoklassniki account with the nickname BAND ODESSA still remains without refutation or confirmation. The only illustration of the Soviet past of the current Bavarian is the commentary and photos of relatives posted on his page in May 2019.
Judging by the video reviews regularly published here, the couple who emigrated to Germany in their free time often visit flea markets - the Bavarian flea market, 1 euro stocks, local social and antique shops. The subjects of their interest in fleeting clothing markets are antique porcelain and ceramics, jewelry made of metal and stone. The musician carries out the Internet trade in rarities through the social network VKontakte.
Arnold Richter does not publish photos or advertising materials of the group on the network, the creator of which he positions himself. But as they say in Russia, "you can't hide an sewn in a sack." At one of their holidays, one of the representatives of the German Russian-speaking diaspora captured the performance of a musical group in vests called BAND ODESSA.
The work of the cover maker and clip maker
The final creative product of BAND ODESSA is homemade videos shot on remakes and parodies of Russian chanson, retro songwriting and Soviet hits of the 1980s. Today their number, posted on YouTube, is about 200. The music creator simultaneously acts as a clip maker, as evidenced by the label and the presence of a watermark. There are also videos produced by Valery Pleseinov, a pensioner from Lipetsk. In his account, a lover of photography and video editing, Russian chanson and comedies Gaidai wrote that he had “more than 350 clips from Band Odessa”.
According to professional arrangers, the BAND ODESSA group is represented in a single person. They give the following assessment to covers: non-studio recordings, "the tracks are not bad, although they are made on self-play", the music is "played on the keys by one person and performed by a couple of good vocalists." The videos sometimes feature attractive female musicians, dressed in the usual style, in vests. But it is impossible to conclude that they are members of the team only from these frames.
The owner of the nickname in the BAND ODESSA network has not disclosed his identity for 20 years. Until the mid-2000s, I talked with Russian minus players on specialized sites. There flashed a couple of messages from the authors of the music that he "borrowed" their arrangements, and his accounts soon became inactive. In 2017, the musician began to actively establish independent promotion through the YouTube channel.
The video sequence for the clips is presented either by cutting from films of the Soviet era, or by editing fragments of performances by various dance groups, both professional and amateur. The latter became the reason for the popularity of BAND ODESSA on the Internet. And at the same time it served as a pretext for the controversy that flared up in 2018 and has not subsided so far about the creative image of the group. Many people note that in these amateur videos, the music goes against the rhythmic pattern and character of the dance fragments that illustrate it.
The fact is that the video sequence includes footage of the performances of professionals and fans of club dances, which are popular both in the West and in our country:
- swing, lindy hop (and their varieties - push, whip, Caroline shag, jitterbug);
- step, charleston, boogie-woogie, rock and roll;
- Latin American salsa, bachata, kizomba;
- Brazilian lambada, Indian belly dance, etc.
The most talked about on the network are clips that use recordings of Swing Dance Clubs and World Lindy Hop Championships.
The Afro-American swing was moved from the street to the dance floor in the 1930s. In a modified and Europeanized version, modern lindichopers began to perform it in the early 1980s. At its core, swing dancing is a visualization of jazz. And therefore, they simply cannot be an illustration of covers of Russian retro songs, disco rhythms, thug repertoire and other works in the style of “tyts-tyts-tyts” and “un-tsa-tsa” - neither in syncopated rhythm, nor in the peculiar temperament of the dancers' movements.
The two components of the BAND ODESSA videos are united by one thing - the emotional background embedded in the musical fabric and the dance pattern. On the one hand, there are energetic and impulsive "jumps and wobbles" inherent in Western lindy hop with elements of acrobatics. On the other hand, there is a clear and groovy rhythm of retellings and parodies of the most popular Russian, Soviet and Russian hits.
Whether such an "international mix" has the right to exist is ultimately up to the experts to decide. Due to disagreements and disputes, the BAND ODESSA YouTube channel has already been blocked twice for violating the rules and misleading users. At present, Band Odessa continues to function and shares the results of its work through social networks. The opinion of Internet users who give "likes" to the clips is that BAND ODESSA "cheers and lifts the mood."
