“I know how much that camera is because I saw it at Frys,” volunteers the young man with the Eastern European accent. “That’s $500.” We’re outside a small San Francisco club, part of a small crowd of young men and women with accents.
“Actually, more like $2500 all together.” My friend and photographer Justin mutters.
“Wow!” The man exclaims. “You could buy a motorcycle for that!”
I ask him if he is a fan of the artist who will be performing tonight.
“Not really,” he responds.
I tell him I’m writing an article, and he asks me if I’m Russian.
“Not really,” I respond.
He asks me if I’ve got Russian blood.
“Kind of.”
“Jewish?”
Not sure I want to answer this one. Maybe we should just continue talking about Justin’s camera.
“Kind of,” I say.
“I knew it. Me, too.”
Maxim, my newly acquired Jewish friend from Minsk, retreats back to his cigarette and Justin and I continue into the club, where the musician Maxim isn’t really a fan of is about to begin his set.
Leonid Fedorov was born in Leningrad in 1963 and by the late 70’s was writing and playing music with his first group. Assuming its final form in the early 80’s, the band took the name Auktyon and soon were installed as a major part of the burgeoning Leningrad rock music scene. By the mid 80’s the band had recorded its first studio album, and Leonid Fedorov, the band’s guitarist, lyricist and frequent vocalist, was on his way to becoming a towering figure in Russian rock and avant-garde scenes.
The Russian music writer Andrei Burlaka describes Auktyon’s music as having evolved from “80’s punk and post-punk, through new wave, ska, reggae, through the ethnic music of Southern Europe and the Middle East, and through fusion and acid-jazz.” While many of these more “exotic” musical styles often have negative connotations, Fedorov’s music is truly a staggering hybrid of diverse influences. Yet together they form a singular—and captivating—body of work.
While Auktyon is still very active, nowadays you can often find Leonid Fedorov working on one of his many side projects, such as at this San Francisco show. Billed as a collaboration with the stand-up jazz bassist and multi-instrumentalist Vladimir Volkov, owing to visa issues the concert ended up as a solo affair.
