Borys Borysovych Renskyi (13 September 1903, Sumy - 1 November 1969, Klintsy, Bryansk region, during a tour) was a jazz orchestra leader, founder of the first theatre jazz in Ukraine, conductor, entertainer, jazz composer.
Biography
Boris (Borukh) Rensky was born on 13 September 1903 in Sumy. His father, Boris Brandorf, owned a bakery and a shop on Troitska Street.
In 1920, he graduated from the Kharkiv Music School. Since 1921, he worked as a musician in an orchestra, later performed on the stage in the conversational genre, and was an actor in miniature theatres. In 1924, he entered the professional stage as a verse writer. He took conducting lessons from A.E. Margulan.
In 1929, he made his debut in Kharkiv with his theatrical jazz orchestra, the first theatre jazz orchestra in Ukraine: P. Zhuga (trumpet), J. Schwartz (trombone), Z. Agranovsky (soprano saxophone), P. Arkhipov, G. Takhtaulov (alto saxophone), K. Polyakov (tenor saxophone), S. Israelova (piano), M. Lazarev (banjo), A. Tkachenko (percussion instruments).
Thea-jazz concerts were a kind of variety music performances that used the principles of variety shows, revues, and vaudeville; the orchestra's musicians were also actors. The programme consisted of separate concert performances, where Rensky played the main role - performing humorous sketches, announcing numbers, dancing. The artist was so popular that his experience was imitated by other entertainers. The orchestra, conducted by Rensky, performed classical music and fantasies on the themes of popular songs and film music. In 1934, the orchestra was invited to work permanently in Moscow. The group toured the country extensively, popularising jazz music.
In his hometown of Sumy in the early 30s, Borys Rensky, together with his friends Mykola Yuzhnyi and Oleksandr Hak, also organised a small-scale variety theatre, which was very popular with the public - the concerts were sold out.
Borys Renskyi was friends with Eddie Rozner, Dmytro Pokras, and Leonid Utiosov. In those days, it was difficult to find a good musician who had not been trained in his jazz orchestra. This group successfully competed with the popular jazz of Leonid Utesov.
During the Second World War, Boris Rensky's jazz orchestra was active at the fronts (over 2000 concerts), performing patriotic programmes for soldiers.
In 1946, Rensky's jazz orchestra was disbanded as it did not meet artistic requirements. In the 1950s and 1960s, the band transformed into a big band and performed jazz compositions by both Soviet and Western composers - Duke Ellington, Count Basie and other popular jazz authors. Boris Rensky was not only a talented musician, but also a composer: he wrote songs and pieces for the orchestra.
At one time, the famous singer Vera Leshchenko performed with the orchestra.
The artist died on 1 November 1969 and was buried in Moscow at the Vostryakovsky Cemetery.
