Riga pop orchestra

Artistic directors and conductors in different years were: founder Ringold Ore (1957-1959), Alexander Kublinskis (1959-1961), Egil Schwartz (1959, 1961-1964), Raymond Pauls (1964-1971), ( 1971-1976).

At the time of its foundation, the orchestra collaborated with the vocal quartet of the Latvian Philharmonic under the direction of V. Samsa. The REO completely included the Latvian radio sextet created the year before, several musicians from the Riga big band Ivar Mazurs came. According to Valery Kopman, the Mazurs Orchestra in the 1950s was the best in the city ^[1] . In the first composition of REO, tenor-saxophonist Gunnar Kushkis, trumpeters Boris Kogan and Vyacheslav Shkenev, trombonists Aldis Amolins and Uldis Krasts stood out ^[2] .

At the beginning of the 1960s, the female vocal ensemble of the Latvian Philharmonic Society “Riga” under the direction of Elga Egenberg was included in the orchestra ^[3] . Over the years, the soloists of the Riga pop orchestra were: Aino Balin , Larisa Mondrus , Nora Bumbiere , Valentina Bhutan , Margarita Viltsane , Ojar Grinbergs , Victor Lapchenok , Zdislav Romanovskis.

Ballet soloists and a dance group took part in the work of the collective. The repertoire was based on pop and jazz works by Latvian composers and jazz classics by foreign authors. REO flourished as an jazz orchestra a couple of years later, when it was headed by Egil Schwartz and talented youth came: tenor saxophonists Vitaly Dolgov and Alexander Pishchikov. Dolgov showed his talent as an arranger, and the plays of Count Basie , Quincy Jones , Duke Ellington appeared in the program of the orchestra.

The Riga pop orchestra gave foreign tours - over the years of its existence, the collective has visited Poland , Finland , Hungary and the German Democratic Republic ^[4] .

In 1970, the company "Melody" released the only vinyl record of the orchestra called " REO in the rhythm of jazz ."

The orchestra worked until 1976 .

• The story of the Riga pop orchestra on jazzquad.ru