Willy Tokareva Biography

The Kuban Cossacks for him are not a movie myth, but the real roots, the spirit of the ancestors, from whom he inherited the vitality and passion for the song. Someone could take his name for a foreign one, especially in the context of the American Odyssey and round-the-world trips of the singer. However, this is the Russian Soviet name - completely Wilen, from the initials “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”.

This name, in combination with the classical Russian patronymic and a proletarian surname, as if symbolizes the combination of Russian, Soviet identity with world, planetary consciousness. They say that the name determines the life path of a person. So the biography of Willy Ivanovich Tokarev testifies to harmony, the balance between his patriotism and the sensation of himself as a citizen of the world.

Tokarev is not one of those who discovered the artist only in adulthood. The artistic warehouse of his personality has been found in it since childhood, moreover, combined with leadership qualities. Already at five, he organized a choir in his yard. The first poem published in the school newspaper the first poem in his future favorite genre of household sketches in the school newspaper.

He retold on how he spent the money issued by his mother on bread, bought a movie ticket. By the age of twelve, he played on folk string instruments, and at the age of fourteen he began to compose melodies, passionately absorbing everything that could be heard using the Record radio and grampes available at that time. It seems that even then Willy realized that the best way to find good songs is to create them yourself.

Soon the round -the -world trip of Willy Tokarev began. In the year, the family moved to the Dagestan city of Kaspiysk, and a few years later Willy went into the first sea swimming by a boiler driver. Then he served in the communications troops, and after the army he moved to Leningrad, where he received a musical education and confidently entered the elite of the Russian song stage - not only as a bright jazz smuggler, an excellent accompanist and interpreter of light music, but also as the author of songs, which quickly became popular.

Being a student at the Music School at the Leningrad Conservatory, Willy Tokarev managed to work in the best Russian Big Bunders-Anatoly Kroll's orchestra, Sympho-Dzhaz Jeanne Tatlyan, ensemble Boris Rychkov, who accompanied Guli Choheli, Mark Bernesu in the Leningrad Myuzik-Holla “White. nights ". Later he was invited to the most starry ensemble Alexander Bronevitsky “Friendship”, where he sang in the vocal group with unique Edita Piekha.

Throughout the Leningrad period, Willy Tokarev wrote songs. He is the author of the popular song “Rain” from the repertoire of Pieha, the lyrical ballad “Who is to blame? He also owns many other hits of that time, performed by the idols of the Soviet stage, accompanied by the best orchestras of light music. With such a portfolio, he was invited to the orchestra of the Leningrad radio and television under the direction of the legendary Jazist David Goloshchekin.

Meanwhile, it was a notorious period of persecution of jazz. The fact that an order came from Moscow prohibiting “more than three syncop” within the limits of one musical work at a concert came from Moscow. According to Willy Tokarev’s stories, it became for him the “last straw”, and he decided to change the status musical capital to the northern city of Murmansk, where he had more opportunity to be himself.

It was in Murmansk that Tokarev received massive recognition as a performer of his songs. The hit of the “Murmanskchaanochka” year made him “the hero of the Kola Peninsula”. But Willy Tokarev was looking for more space for his songs. He was looking for a listener of social verses and ballads around the Russian world, whose plots he took from newspapers, street meetings and talk about Soviet life.

The United States moves to Willy, where the difficult path from the handyman, the postman and taxi driver to the idol of the Russian -speaking stage passes. Brighton Beach was then a rather original, bright culture, a sort of many -sided, a multi -colored “little Odessa”, which has not yet wilted the semi -consumption status that he is endowed today. A former sailor, an adventurer and the creator of his fate fell into a mysterious, alluring and frightening America, familiar to his generation according to the books of Stainbek, Faulkner, Hemingway, the “style” fantasies of Aksyonov, the cloth language of the Cold War and the series Valentin Zorin, this Michael Moore of the era “developed socialism”.

For many, his films remained the only way to mentally “ride in America”, and Willy was one of those who went there in real time. The notorious “America of the seventies” then turned to the young musician precisely with this tough black and white “Zorin” face, but he answered her challenges boldly and confidently, as befits the Kuban Cossack. At one time he was an assistant nurse, served as a courier on Wall Street, from where he was fired for ignorance of the English language.

When the owner after the “exam” unceremoniously pointed to his door, Willy was so shocked that, not seeing anything in front of himself, he walked from the bottom up-all Manhattan from Wall Street to the street, and this is about twenty kilometers.He went out in the morning, got to the house in the evening. It was the day of the two greatest lessons: firstly, Vilya once and for all realized that in his life there is no more place for shocks, that everything needs to be treated philosophically.

Secondly, Vilya realized that without a good language in this country there is nothing to do ... ” You can recall the story of Vladimir Korolenko “Without Language” about the first Russian immigrants in America. The hero of the story Matvey Lozinsky, after the Oblomov series, gets on the train and wants to leave New York. But most of all, the endless length of the city landscape amazes it.

Matvey is waiting, “when the field will finally begin,” but he is still not. Thus begins "training in America." The eighties were for Tokarev as turning and fateful as for his native country. After the relatively unnoticed first lyrical album “And life, it is always beautiful”, the second album “In a noisy booth” brought him noisy fame. It is very characteristic that the first, lyrical, collection, in which the musical and poetic range of Tokarev and his approach to arrangements was fully expressed, did not bring the musician such success as a collection of humorous crucifixes and urban romance, stylized in the genre of domestic humor.

This was predetermined by the further promotion strategy of Tokarev in the "Brighton" period, reflected on the stereotypes of his perception of both at home and abroad. But the sophisticated music lovers and archives, such as Seva Novgorodtsev or Boris Sichkin, understood what the essence of the album with the lyrical songs “And life, it is always beautiful”, whose title song has become a classic.

Interestingly, Willy Tokarev did not sang and does not sinks the criminal glow world. He simply states the facts in a song form, about which official propaganda is silent. During the 10ths, Tokarev became the object of close attention of all lovers of the Russian song in America, first speaking in one of the first Russian Brighton restaurants “Sadko”, and then in the equally famous restaurants “Primorsky” and “Odessa”, where he was accompanied by amazingly talented Irina Ola.

Then, Russian by nationality, out of respect for his work, unofficially assigned the title: "Honorary Jew Brighton Beach." He also founded his own label with the spectacular name “One Man Band” and recorded twenty -two albums, including such as “gold”, consisting entirely of hits. All of them are conceptual, thematic and include songs in different genres, each of which is important for Tokarev in its own way: household sketch, a biography song, prison ballad, humorous social bids, congratulations or madrigal, serenade, lyrical themes, patriotic songs, etc.

All these genres differ not only in characteristic sets of poetic techniques, but also certain technical points in arrangements. With each album, Tokarev’s popularity at home grew, although it was still difficult to predict his triumphal tour of the USSR. He first flew home with concerts in the year. The tour was truly starry: 70 concerts in different cities throughout the Union.

The famous entrepreneur Viktor Shulman and Alla Pugacheva played a large role in organizing a tour. Thanks to Joseph Kobzon, his triumphal concerts in the cities of the Soviet Union in the year took place. The same full house repeated the next year. It was possible to wait for the sweaty return to his homeland. So it happened. Having become a recognized classic of the Russian stage, having received a grateful audience of various ages and social groups here, he no longer saw the reasons for emigration.

Now he lives in Moscow. Here is his studio, where a creative process is constantly going on, people are found, more and more songs are recorded. This new page in the creative biography of Tokarev is associated with joyful events of personal life. It’s enough not to talk with her for a long time about modern culture to understand that her style of thinking contains reliable filters from stereotypes that prevent the music from freely listening to music.

It is easy to imagine that at this level they immediately had complete contact, but this was not exhausted. Now Willy and Julia have two children, Evilin and Milena, in the names of which the roll call with the name of his father is heard. Evilin and Milena live with parents in Moscow, in depth study music, painting, ballet and Russian culture. Representing a new generation with tastes unpredictable to us, they also receive a unique “aesthetic vaccination” from the father, who has become a symbol of the unification of several generations, genres and territories of the Russian song.

If Willy Tokarev had once to look for a listener for his songs, first emigrating from Leningrad to the “outback”, and then to America, now he may not afford to depend on mass tastes or stereotypes, nor on the market-commercial censorship, which replaced the Soviet ideological, or “anger of the day”, nor from his widely rallied pop performer, the so -called Russian chanson.He promotes the heritage of the stars of the world stage and the great Big Bands of “light music” on the Radio “Echo of Moscow”, continuing free creative reflection.

In the year, he voiced the Luxembourg film "Tour de Force", recorded the conceptual albums "I loved you" and "Hello, Israel! In these albums there are voices and languages ​​of different countries, peoples, cultures, which seems natural for the “citizen of the world”. One of many examples: his song “My Tashkent” has become the national song of the Uzbeks. Willy Tokarev’s instrumental album soon comes out, demonstrating a new line of his multicolor creativity and capable of making the same sensation as many years ago the album of songs “In a noisy booth”.

His albums, which are already more than thirty, as before, are diverse in the Russian language, English, Italian, Spanish, in style from jazz to the so -called Russian chanson and genre: humor, civilian and love lyrics, household sketch, children's song and much more. Traveling around the world, he releases an album with his songs "in the cities where I was." More than twenty cities were awarded to be mentioned in his surprisingly geographically accurate songs.

Being invited with concerts in Venezuela, he releases an album with his songs in Spanish. Repeatedly he was awarded both the prestigious chanson of the year, awarded at a ceremony in the Kremlin, and other awards, orders and diplomas. He does not seek glory and does not have official ranks, but in March in the legendary Kiev “dejavu”, with a full house and in the presence of many journalists, after a powerful, triumphal performance, he was informally declared a national artist of the world.

Listening to his songs, you come to the idea - Willy Tokarev is a natural melodist, brought up on a folk song, a popular, classical and jazz music song. At one time, the wonderful composer Jan Frenkel said about him: “Among the songs of Willy Tokarev there are several songs that any venerable composer can envy.” Like many, but not all talented people, Tokarev is inherent in the unobtrusive modesty that bribes everyone who is in contact with him in everyday life.

Willie is known for his spiritual openness, responsiveness, hospitality, generosity, lack of snobbery, arrogance, “starry disease”. He always goes to where he is invited, regardless of commercial benefit and comfort of conditions. The main thing for him is spectators whom he appreciates very much, saying that they are an incentive of his work. More than a hundred songs laid out on the official website of Willitokarev.

And it’s hard to disagree with this. And his remarkable statement answers many questions: "In life, I do everything so that the Lord God is pleased with me." Confirmation of this is his song “Prayer”, which he performed in the transfer of Channel One of Russian television. I have matured.