In A Mellow Tone
Wednesday July 12th, 2023 with Heavy Ben
Estonia: RR GEMS label, Misha Panfilov, Soviet-era jazz

I received a parcel in the mail recently from Tallinn, Estonia courtesy the RR GEMS record label. There is so much great music from RR GEMS in the form of spiritual jazz, fusion, avant garde, and hard bop. This is new music coming from various European countries and a few sessions recorded in Montreal. We've also got contemporary recordings coming out of Estonia from Misha Panfilov, whose output in recent years has been King Gizzard-esque in terms of quantity, quality and biodiversity. And, we'll take a trip back to the 1960s and 70s with a half dozen tracks from Soviet-era Estonia, many of which are seeing the light for the first time ever thanks to two compilations on Tallin-Based Funk Embassy Records. These collections are a taste of Estonian music from the bygone Soviet era during which the government attempted to control the artists and music being made. Nevertheless, a lot of Western influences made it through, as Estonia was the westernmost country in the USSR. Estonia was known as the ESSR, Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, which covered occupied and annexed territory, from 1940-1991. Estonia was screwed over big time - first from Stalin, then the Nazis, then communist USSR. It's a miracle that the people were able to endure over a half century of occupation with their identity and language, nevermind these vintage recordings. Interesting to today's perspective — the majority of the world's countries did not recognise the incorporation of Estonia into the Soviet Union de jure and only recognised its Soviet administration de facto or not at all. A number of countries continued to recognise Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in the name of their former government. This policy of non-recognition gave rise to the principle of legal continuity, which held that de jure, Estonia remained an independent state under occupation throughout the period 1940–1991. Consider what is happening today in occupied Palestine, Taiwan, Cyprus, Syria, and Ukraine. The three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — were the first to break away from the USSR by proclaiming the restoration of their independence in 1990, claiming continuity from the original states that existed prior to their annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940. First to recognise Estonia as an independent country was Iceland, on August 22, 1991 And now, Tallinn is one of the top 10 digital cities in the world, with the highest number of startup companies (e.g. Skype, Bolt, Wise) per capita in Europe. There is a healthy music scene in Tallinn with electronic, rock, funk, DJs, and on our program tonight... two hours of jazz. RR GEMS records https://www.rrgemsrecords.com/ Funk Embassy Records, who released two volumes of "Groove Of ESSR: Funk, Disco, Jazz From Soviet Estonia" https://funkembassyrecords.bandcamp.com/ Misha Panfilov https://mpsc.bandcamp.com/ Pictured: the little red item at the centre is a rhum candy from Tallinn that my friend Keybord Paul brought back, surrounded by records by Organic Pulse Ensemble, Misha Panfilov, Muriel Grossmann, KADEF (Kadef Abgi, feat. Sam Shalabi and recorded in Montreal). (to embiggen the show icon, right-click and choose "Open image in new tab")