Can You Ukrainian Tango? Oh Yea!

Hello Ukrainian Tango fans! Wonderful news for you! A new album is in the works! Calgary's own Stephania Romaniuk, lovely vocal performer and some of Calgary's best classical and jazz instrumentalists are up to their castanets in Ukrainian tango!

Way back n the early 30's, Western Ukraine's capital Lviv was the home of talented Bohdan Wesolowsky. A musical colleague of Anatoly Kos-Anatolsky at the Lviv Conservatory, Wesolowsky's piano, vocals and accordion contributed Latin sounds, tango, and Austrian influenced waltz to Leonid Yablonsky's jazz orchestra sound. Light and frothy fare, this new genre was indeed a hit with young people! Wesolowsky soon thirsted for more and moved to study composition and economics in Vienna! Emigrating to Montreal after the war, Wesolowsky became the first radio announcer-producer for the Ukrainian division of Radio-Canada International until his death in 1971.

Interestingly, Ukrainian tango, foxtrot and light waltz were Wesolowsky's forte! Passionate love songs, fused to Latin rhythms and Viennese class, tantalizing, enticing, full of yearning, these were the exciting new sounds in small intimate settings, night clubs and cabarets, perhaps the Ukrainian version of a "speak easy". Of course it was also a time for live radio, early recordings, which made Wesolowsky's music accessible everywhere.

Love songs, sultry, weighty and nostalgic, embittered, empty and unattached, or playful and upbeat, these songs have a light hearted edge, a "don't take yourself so seriously" attitude. Wesolowsky was really about early Ukrainian estradna music - the popular style of Ukrainian jazz bands and orchestras everywhere.

Vocal performer, Stephania Romaniuk is itching to release this great new, fun recording of sultry Ukrainian love songs! So it is your special opportunity to help her along! Check her Kickstarter campaign and contribute generously!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1686146502/by-gone-days-ukrainian-jazz

Soon you and your honey will be slow dancing, Ukrainian tango style into a romantic evening by the....wait....romance cannot wait! Do it now!