Igor Kokhanovsky

Igor Vasilyevich Kokhanovsky
Born Игорь Васильевич Кохано́вский
April 2, 1937
Moscow, USSR
Occupation singer-songwriter, poet, writer
Years active 1964-present

Igor Vasilyevich Kokhanovsky (Russian: Игорь Васильевич Кохано́вский, born 2 April 1937, in Moscow, USSR) is a Soviet, Russian bard, poet and lyricist whose songs recorded, among others, Anna German, Sofia Rotaru, Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Lyudmila Zykina and Vladimir Vysotsky, his classmate and friend.[1]

Biography

Igor Kokhanovsky was born in Moscow and attended the same school (from 1952, the same class) as Vladimir Vysotsky.[1] The two boys became close friends; they simultaneously developed a passion for literature and poetry[2] and exerted the strong influence one upon another. Igor was the first to start writing poetry and play guitar; it was he who's taught Vladimir some chords. But it was Vysotsky who first came up with his own songs. "‍ '​Semyonych, what's that?' - I asked, as he sang some. – 'My own, I started to write such pieces.' - Out of sheer envy I wrote Indian Summer, a song dedicated to Lena Kopeleva [Lev Kopelev’s daughter], a girl whom I was in love with at the time. This song served for a while a hymn for our company."[3]

The duo enrolled into the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering but, unlike his friend, who dropped after a year, Kokhanovsky graduated and for a year worked at a construction site in Moscow Oblast. In 1964 he moved to Magadan to work there as a correspondent for Magadansky Komsomolets newspaper (1965-1968), as well as a gold prospector in Chukotka.[1] It was in Magadan that his debut book of poetry The Sound Barrier (Звуковой барьер) came out.[3] Vysotsky dedicated five songs to Kokhanovsky, including "My Friend Has Moved to Magadan".[1]

"Indian Summer" (Бабье лето), often performed in its original version by Vladimir Vysotsky at his early concerts, became popular among Moscow students. In 1964 composer Tamara Markova (having heard Babje Leto in a suburban train, sung by a group of young people) approached Kokhanovsky and asked for the permission to write her own music for the piece. Soon Klavdiya Shulzhenko recorded Markova's version of the song. Several years later Poyushchiye Serdtsa (The Singing Hearts) pop band came up with the third one, music this time written by Yuri Antonov, whom Kokhanovsky approached himself.[4]

In 1976 Kokhanovsky recorded his debut album Indian Summer featuring the song "The Face in the Palms" put to music by Anatoly Dneprov, who's just left for the USA. Kohhanovsky, asked by the Melodiya record label to remove the track, refused, and thus the album has never been released. His second one, The Discs Are Spinning, recorded with Yuri Chernavsky and his Krasnye Maki (The Red Poppies) pop band in 1979, became a massive Soviet disco hit and by 1983 has sold 15 million copies.[4]

In 2014 Kohhanovsky published the new book, called The Mismatch (Несовпаденье), about the "mismatch of my set of moral values with those dominant today," as he explained.[4] As of late 2014 he was working upon another book, Vysotsky Remembered featuring interviews with Alla Demidova, Yuri Lyubimov, Veniamin Smekhov, Eldar Ryazanov among others.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Igor Vasilyevich Kokhanovsky". www.bard.ru. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  2. ↑ "The Silver Strings. I.Kokhanovsky and V.Vysotsky". www.irrkut.narod.ru. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sverdlovskaya, Diana. "For the whole life we were told we were look a likes…". Molodyoznnaya Gazeta. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Mozhayeva, Svetlana (14 September 2014). "Igor Kokhanovsky and Babje Leto". Vechernyaya Moskva. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  5. ↑ "Poet Igor Kokhanovsky compiles a book Vysotsky Remembered". V Glamure magazine. Retrieved 2014-01-13.