SHORT TAKES : Jazzing Up East-West Diplomacy

SAN FRANCISCO —  For Alexander Oseichuk, who remembers when Josef Stalin banned saxophones in the 1950s, it was a dream come true to be trading riffs with American sax legend Joe Henderson. Oseichuk and three other Soviet jazzmen, who learned most of what they know of American jazz by listening to records, found themselves recently jamming with the real thing.

The Igor Bril Quartet, an all-star collection of musicians from the Soviet Union, played in three concerts with American jazz greats Bobbie Hutcherson and Joe Henderson, and there was amazement on both sides over the way they jelled.

“You’d never know these guys hadn’t been together for a long time,” said Gerry Pearlman, the American promoter of the concerts in San Francisco, Stanford University and Mill Valley. “They were trading off wonderfully.”

Vibes virtuoso Hutcherson said he was impressed with the musicianship of the Soviet players, who included pianist Bril, Oseichuk on the saxophone, Victor Dvoskin on bass and Eugene Ryaboy on drums.