This month’s Under Appreciated Rock Band of the Month, BLACK RUSSIAN became the first recording artist from the Soviet Union to be signed to a major American record label, in this case, Motown Records.  Their sole album, Black Russian came out in 1980 on Motown Records – evidently the label had decided that there was no reason to segregate their white acts any longer.  

Bandmembers in Black Russian were Serge Kapustin and Natasha Kapustin, a married couple, along with Natasha’s brother Vladimir Shneider.  The two Shneiders were the children of folk musicians and had been trained as classical pianists.  Although identified as Russian, they were actually born in Latvia, a separate country now.  In 1973 at an underground rock gathering at Moscow University, Natasha Shneider met Serge Kapustin, the son of a radio broadcaster; and he joined her in the Soviet orchestra where she was employed.  The three began making plans to emigrate to America as early as May of that year. 

They had been successful musicians in the U.S.S.R. but were worn down by the capricious restrictions of the Communist establishment.  Serge Kapustin said that he was once forced to take out a bass line in one of their songs because it sounded “too Western”, and not more than one fourth of their songs could typically be sung in English. 

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One might think that the name Black Russian naturally arose from a Russian band being signed to a black record label, and there is also a drink called a Black Russian, composed of vodka mingled with coffee liqueur; but it wasn’t really like that.  In an Associated Press interview that was printed in the London newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Natasha Kapustin said:  “It means we are black Russians, not red Russians.  And we were black sheep.”  Serge Kapustin added:  “And there is our influence from black rhythm ’n’ blues and soul music.  ‘Black Russian’ became our nickname in underground circles in Moscow.”  

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As quoted in the blog What Fresh Hell is This (overall the best source on information on Black Russian that I was able to find on the Internet), People magazine said of the group in their October 16, 1980 issue:  “The Kapustins were members of Sovremennik, a state-run pop orchestra, with Natasha [Kapustin] on vocals and piano and Serge [Kapustin] on guitar and percussion.  Vladimir [Shneider] produced and played piano for the Singing Hearts, which was one of Russia’s hottest groups in the mid-’70s.  But, as Vladimir notes, they were pumping out more agitprop than pop.  ‘We’d sing 37 songs about how good the Communist Party is, and at the end — if we were lucky — we were allowed to play a mellow song like ‘Killing Me Softly’ or ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’.  But never rock.” 

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The People magazine article ends with a proposal by Serge Kapustin of Black Russian:  “Just put 100 rock ’n’ roll radio stations along the Soviet border.  You’d kill off Russian Communism — snap — just like that.”  

As I am sure I have said before in these posts, IMHO the growing prominence of rock music in the Soviet Union, and the sense of freedom that kind of music engenders is a big part of why the Iron Curtain fell.  Maybe something like that can happen in the Middle East also, if the younger generation tires of the way everyone is living over there now. 

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The Communists could not keep rock and roll out of the country entirely; Natasha Kapustin recalls:  “Even though Western music was condemned in Russia, we knew what was happening in the world.  We listened to the Voice of America broadcasts, the major European radio stations and got records from our Western friends or bought records on the black market.  I can still remember the day Jimi Hendrix died because there were black armbands all over Moscow.” 

I have two delightful albums in my collection entitled Surfbeat Behind the Iron Curtain that were released several years ago by AIP Records.  They feature mostly instrumental recordings made by Russian and Eastern European bands that were evidently officially sanctioned by the Communist governments.  The small number of these recordings made it necessary for the label to create a faux “battle of the bands” between these groups and similar sounds produced by Western bands of the same time period.  The music is actually quite good though fairly tame.  

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It didn’t stay that way though; harder rocking Russian rock bands began releasing albums more openly by the 1980’s, and some were available in this country as well.  The above double-LP album, Red Wave (1986) featured an album side each of music from four hard rock bands from Leningrad:  Akvarium (“Aquarium”), Strannye Igry (“Strange Games”), Alisa, and Kino (“Cinema”).  At one of the three World’s Fairs that we went to in the 1980’s – probably the Expo 86 in Vancouver, B.C. – the pavilion for the Soviet Union had a section where some of this rock music could be heard. 

With the success of this album, Russian rock bands were able to tour in other countries, and Western rock bands began playing concerts in Russia as well.  As I have noted in an earlier post, Uriah Heep was the first, in 1987, followed by the German band Scorpions in 1988. 

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Serge Kapustin, Natasha Kapustin and Vladimir Shneider of Black Russian were dissident Russian Jews who defected in May 1976 and came to New York City.  They eventually saved enough to go to Hollywood where they auditioned for Berry Gordy at Motown Records.  People magazine notes that this delay in their success in this country was just as well:  “The group couldn’t go public with its fascinating story until six additional family members arrived safely in the U.S.” 

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What Fresh Hell is This quotes this item in the June 14. 1980 issue of Billboard Magazine about Black Russian:  “Actually from the U.S.S.R., Black Russian is a pop trio which makes crystalline pop/r&b that comes across as a more r&b-oriented ABBA.  Natasha Kapustin has an excellent soaring voice.  ‘Leave Me Now’ really gives her room to show off her vocal strength.  The production is exceptionally clean with Vladimir Shneider’s keyboard and the synthesizers of Serge [Kapustin] and Natasha Kapustin lending a cushy sheen.  The album is evenly divided between uptempo dance cuts and moody ballads.  Best cuts:  ‘Mystified’, ‘Leave Me Now’, ‘Emptiness’, ‘New York City’, ‘Love’s Enough’.” 

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Actually the song that has been running through my head most of the times I played Black Russian is “’Cause I Love You”.  Black Russian are professionals who put their heart and soul into this album.  The music stacks up well with the other albums of that era, and truly, “Mystified” should have been a hit single.  As with most of the UARB’s and UARA’s that I write about, I love the whole album, and it is difficult for me to single out particular songs.  My personal favorite though would have to be “Leave Me Now”, a plaintive ballad that is as compelling as any that I can remember from the 1980’s. 

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Although there is nothing about Black Russian in Wikipedia, there is a Wikipedia article about Natasha Shneider that has some information about Black Russian; Wikipedia as well has a write-up about the hard rock band Eleven that included Natasha Shneider and her second husband Alain Johannes.  Allmusic lists Black Russian but has no information at all about the album or the artist.  

Most of the posts that I found on the Internet seem more interested in the Black Russian story than in the music.  Writing for Orange Coast magazine of Orange County, California, Keith Tuber stated in an article entitled “Black Russians Mix Well Socially”:  “The problem with the album, which is musically interesting and contains an assortment of classical chord structures – a manifestation of the trio’s early training – is the lyrics.  Only ‘’Cause I Love You’ is entirely written by one of the bandmembers (Serge [Kapustin]), while the others are collaborations.  To my mind, the words are vastly inferior to the music.” 

Along with links to two of the songs, “Move Together” and “’Cause I Love You”, the blog called The Homoerratic Radio Show says of the album:  “Unfortunately, most of their songs sound like numbers cut from the final version of a mediocre Broadway musical.  Still, the group’s got an interesting story, and these two songs aren’t that bad.” 

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Not everyone feels that way though.  Doc Dosco, a jazz guitarist who played on Black Russian wrote of his early session work on his website www.docdosco.com:  “‘I did tons of “guitar for hire” studio dates back then’, says Doc, ‘and I gigged a lot during the late seventies and eighties.  I was a funky fusion style player and there was lots of funk style work.  I also did pick-up work, casuals, society gigs and played numerous concerts with old timers such as Little Anthony, the Drifters, the Diamonds, the Platters, Freddy Cannon, Connie Stevens.  I worked for composer Dennis McCarthy on the Barbara Mandrell [and the Mandrell Sisters] TV show.  I also wrote songs for Jerry Lee Lewis and German pop sensation Nina Hagen, produced “Billboard Queen” Angelyne, and recorded an album with the revolutionary Motown recording artists Black Russian.’”

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When thinking about Black Russian, I am reminded of a review of one of Sade’s albums in the Village Voice (maybe Promise) that I have been unable to find online.  The reviewer noted that the album sounds like music that you have heard before, but you actually haven’t.  I can imagine that one or two casual listens to Black Russian could lead to the opinions given above – particularly if one is predisposed to dissing anything that even hints of disco – but to these ears, this music represents brilliant songmaking that combines an appreciation of older R&B music with what was happening in the modern scene.  It might be my imagination, but sonically, Black Russian seems louder than most of the other albums that I have been playing recently. 

I once wrote about Patti Smith in another connection that she “sounds like nothing so much as the Beat poets of the 1950’s”.  Despite their groundbreaking sound, Annie Lennox’s vocals for Eurythmics – who came onto the music scene at about the same time as Black Russian – sounded like a 1940’s chanteuse to me.  Similarly, Black Russian is a startling album from the very beginning of the lively decade of the 1980’s whose source is from a decade or two earlier.  In 2015, the album is not a bit passé but still sounds as fresh as it must have the day it was released; today, the album gives the listener a double dose of looking back. 

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Two singles were released from the Black Russian album, “Leave Me Now” and “Mystified”.  In addition to the U.S., the album was released in Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, France, and Spain; and the “Mystified” single was also released in those European counties.  According to a blog post that I saw, Black Russian made an appearance on the Dinah Shore Show.  

Despite the novelty of being able to hear Russian music and the thawing of relations with the Soviet Union – “Détente” had begun around 1969 – sales of the album and singles alike were poor.  I have long since given up trying to figure out why some songs are hits, and others are not.  

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The songs by Black Russian are all in English, with Natasha Kapustin handling most of the vocals; they have something of a disco-lite vibe in keeping with the time period.  The bandmembers wrote all of the music and also produced and arranged all of the songs on the album.  Besides vocals, Serge Kapustin plays keyboards and guitar, Natasha Kapustin plays keyboards and synthesizers, and Vladimir Shneider plays synthesizers.  Another eight musicians are listed on the credits at Discogs; Guy Costa – their first contact at Motown Records – is identified as co-producer. 

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Black Russian had some assistance with the lyrics, perhaps because English is not their native language; they hardly spoke the language at all at the time that they defected.  Lyricists who lent a hand include Allee Willis, who co-wrote the lyrics for their beautiful first single “Leave Me Now”.  Willis has had a long career as a writer, songwriter, set designer, and artist.  Her musical credits are as wide-ranging as can be imagined; together with Stephen Bray and Brenda Russell, Allee Willis wrote the music for the 2005 Broadway musical The Color Purple, based on the 1982 novel, The Color Purple by Alice Walker and the 1985 movie, The Color Purple that was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, and Rae Dawn Chong.  Allee Willis was also one of the writers of the song by the Rembrandts, “I’ll be There for You” that was the theme song for the massively popular sitcom Friends and one of the best selling TV theme songs of all time.  Willis won a Grammy Award in 1985 for Best Soundtrack for Beverly Hills Cop. 

From Wikipedia:  “[Allee Willis]’ songs have sold over 50,000,000 records, including ‘September’ and ‘Boogie Wonderland’ by Earth, Wind and Fire, ‘Neutron Dance’ by the Pointer Sisters, ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’ by Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield, and ‘Lead Me On’ by Maxine Nightingale.  Willis has collaborated with hundreds of leading artists and composers from all fields of music, including Bob Dylan, Patti LaBelle, James Brown, Herbie Hancock, Deniece Williams, and Motown legend Lamont Dozier.” 

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Nan O’Byrne wrote the lyrics for Black Russian’s second single “Mystified” and the flip side of the first single, “Love’s Enough”; and she co-wrote the lyrics for two other songs on the album.  Nan O’Byrne also co-wrote “You Might Need Somebody” that was a UK hit for Randy Crawford in 1981, and “You Might Need Somebody” was later a hit for Shola Ama in 1997; “You Might Need Somebody” was first recorded by Turley Richards in 1980, and “You Might Need Somebody” was also covered by Joe Walsh.  Nan O’Byrne’s songs have been recorded by Earth, Wind and Fire, the Pointer Sisters, Weather Report, Bonnie Raitt, and Philip Bailey. 

Ed Whiting and Beth Forer wrote the lyrics for another Black Russian song, “Move Together”. 

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Shortly after Black Russian broke up, Serge Kapustin and Nan O’Byrne worked with French singer and actress Sylvie Vartan, who is of Bulgarian-Armenian ancestry.  In the 1960’s, Sylvie Vartan was one of the top performers in France; from Wikipedia:  “She is known as one of the most productive and tough-sounding yé-yé artists.  Her performances often featured elaborate show-dance choreography, and she made many appearances on French and Italian TV.”  The term “yé-yé” is derived from the “yeah yeah” calls that were popularized by the Beatles and other 1960’s bands; many if not most of the performers were women, so they became known as “yé-yé girls”. 

After touring with him and making a movie together, Sylvie Vartan married Johnny Hallyday, a true French icon who is often referred to as the “French Elvis” and has sold 80 million albums worldwide (though he remains largely unknown in the English-speaking world).  They flew to Nashville by the end of 1963 and recorded a best-selling album with the Jordanaires (who recorded with the real Elvis for many years) called Sylvie à Nashville; it sold one million copies in Japan alone.  Three of the songs were in English, including one with Paul Anka.  Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday were the country’s “golden couple” and had joint sellout shows annually in the 1960’s through the 1970’s. 

Shortly after Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday divorced in late 1980, Serge Kapustin and Nan O’Byrne collaborated on a song called “Il Me Fait De La Magie” (“It Reminds Me of the Magic”) with French singer Marie-José Casanova.  The song appeared on the French album Sylvie Vartan by Sylvie Vartan that was evidently intended to re-establish her identity as a singer.  The album is one of several eponymous albums listed in the Discogs site, but in the extensive “List of Sylvie Vartan albums” in Wikipedia, the album is apparently the one also listed as Ça Va Mal (the opening track on Sylvie Vartan is “Ça Va Mal”).  The album was reissued on CD in 2013.  

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I did not find anything else going on with Serge Kapustin of Black Russian until recent times, when he worked on several recordings with singer John Pagano.  Pagano is from Rhode Island and combines R&B and easy-listening stylings; he is best known as the long-time lead vocalist in Burt Bacharach’s touring band.  Three songs are available at several Internet sites by the pair:  “Destiny”, “Hope”, and “A Time in Space”. 

As to Vladimir Shneider, there are numerous books published by an author of that name, but I am not sure he is the same one who was in Black Russian. 

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Within a few more years, Serge Kapustin and Natasha Kapustin divorced, with the latter regaining her maiden name Natasha Shneider.  Most of her post-Black Russian work was with her musical partner and second husband, Alain Johannes; he is also from far away, having been born in Santiago, Chile.  Natasha Shneider was in a well regarded band called Eleven along with Johannes and top drummer Jack Irons.   

Jack Irons and Alain Johannes were part of the coterie where the band Red Hot Chili Peppers was born.  RHCP founding members Hillel Slovak (guitar) and Jack Irons (drums) were in a high school band in Los Angeles that was eventually called What Is This?, along with Alain Johannes (vocals) and Todd Strassman (bass).  (The name is taken from the reaction they noticed by many people when they heard the band).  A third founding member of RHCP, Michael Balzary, better known as Flea was the bassist in What Is This? for a time, but he later joined the punk rock band Fear (and began making numerous appearances as an actor); also, Anthony Kiedis was serving as a roadie and “hype-man” for What Is This?. 

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In 1983, Hillel Slovak, Jack Irons, Flea and Anthony Kiedis came together for what was intended to be a one-time, loose performance at the Rhythm Lounge, billed as Tony Flow and the Majestic Masters of Mayhem.  Although only about 30 people were in attendance, the show was so well received that they returned the following week and eventually put together a six-song demo tape under their new name Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

Over a period of time, and following multiple changes in personnel, Red Hot Chili Peppers became a very big deal; and they have sold 80 million albums worldwide, with their fifth album Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) being their commercial breakthrough.  However, neither Hillel Slovak nor Jack Irons played on their debut album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984).  I am used to going to concerts where most of the people there are a lot younger than I am, but I have never felt so out of place as the night we went to see Red Hot Chili Peppers in New York. 

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Meanwhile, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons were still members of What Is This?; Slovak in particular was not initially ready to cast his lot with Red Hot Chili Peppers.  What Is This? was signed with MCA Records at about the same time that Red Hot Chili Peppers was jointly signed by EMI America Records and Enigma Records.  The debut EP by What Is This?, Squeezed was released in 1984, with Chris Hutchinson playing bass; after that, Hillel Slovak went back to Red Hot Chili Peppers and played on their next two albums.  

In the following year, What Is This? released their only full-length album, What Is This? plus a live EP, 3 out of 5 Live.  After that, What Is This? broke up, and Jack Irons returned to Red Hot Chili Peppers also.  According to Wikipedia, the band’s third album, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) is the only Red Hot Chili Peppers album to feature all four original members – Hillel Slovak, Jack Irons, Flea and Anthony Kiedis – on each track. 

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While What Is This? was working on their album, Alain Johannes met Natasha Shneider, and they immediately clicked musically.  She joined What Is This? shortly thereafter.  They then formed a duo called Walk the Moon – not the same band as the Cincinnati-based band Walk the Moon that formed in 2008 – and had other musical sounds besides rock on their album, Walk the Moon (1987).  Jack Irons and Chris Hutchinson evidently played on several of the tracks, but on many, they used drum machines. 

In an interview posted on ultimate-guitar.com, Alain Johannes discussed the album:  “We [Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider] became Walk the Moon and started to explore more of the songwriting stuff and different textures that are not usually rock band-based like synths and all that other stuff and I started playing my odd instruments.  Well, some of them not odd but the pipa [Chinese lute] or sing like a Sufi-inspired Kowali singing and Natasha would do little choirs.” 

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The two are better known for their work with Eleven, a hard rock trio that formed in 1990 when Jack Irons (drums) joined Alain Johannes (vocals, guitar, sitar, horns) and Natasha Shneider (vocals, keyboards, bass) of Walk the Moon; this band was also a partial reunion of What Is This?.  Eleven have opened for major bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, and Candlebox.  

Wikipedia states:  “The band [Eleven] cites their major influences as Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Beatles, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Sergei Prokofiev.  With Chris Cornell [of Soundgarden and Audioslave], they recorded [Natasha] Shneider’s arrangement of Franz Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’, which appears on the album, A Very Special Christmas 3 [1997], in the liner notes of which they state they deliberately chose a classical work to help interest young people in classical music.” 

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Their opening album, Awake in a Dream (1991) was praised by Alex Henderson in Allmusic:  “Eleven was a so-called alternative rock trio of the early 1990’s that drew heavily on the psychedelic rock and soul music of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  Awake in a Dream is much too guitar-oriented to have been played on a Black radio station in 1970 or 1973, and yet, enjoyable selections like ‘Before Your Eyes’, ‘All Together’ and ‘Rainbow’s End’ make it clear that singer/guitarist Alain Johannes, bassist/singer/organist Natasha Shneider and drummer Jack Irons have spent a lot of time listening to the likes of Sly and the Family Stone, Ike and Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder.  Shneider is also heard on the clavinet, a synthesizer that was prominent in 1970’s soul and funk but was seldom used in the urban contemporary music that followed in the 1980’s and 1990’s."  

Of their second album Eleven, Andy Hinds wrote for Allmusic:  “Anyone who lumped Eleven in with the grunge glut of the early 1990’s simply wasn’t paying attention.  Although it’s true that the trio’s excellent self-titled album (actually their second) was mixed with the guitars loud and fuzzy, the musical sophistication that distinguishes Eleven – including not only compositional prowess but sheer chops – leaves most alternative bands in the dust.  Led by the husband/wife duo of Alain Johannes (guitars and lead vocals) and Natasha Shneider (keyboards and lead vocals), their primary calling card is a pair of extraordinary voices, both of which are capable of raw intensity and soulful understatement.” 

With Queens of the Stone Age stalwart Josh Homme providing lead vocals, Eleven recorded the song “Stone Cold Crazy” for the album, Killer Queen: A Tribute To Queen (2005). 

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Jack Irons left Eleven after their second album to play drums for Pearl Jam but later returned to the band.  Both Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider were involved in Jack Irons’ solo album, Attention Dimension (2004); Shneider played electric bass and piano on “Hearing it Doubled” and keyboards on Jack Irons’ cover of the Pink Floyd song “Shine on, You Crazy Diamond”. 

(April 2015/1)

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For Part 2 of this post, go to:  Black Russian (Part 2) .

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Part 1 of this post is available at:  Black Russian (Part 1) . 

(April 2015/2)

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