TRI"O" was founded
in Moscow in 1985 by Sergey Letov, Arcady Kirichenko (tuba)
and Arcady Shilkloper (French
horn). The first performance took place at art exhibition of
the avant-garde group "21". Alexandr
Alexandrov has come in 1989 and Yury Parfionov
- in 1992. Originally ensemble has won a recognition among the
underground artists - playing at art exhibitions, literary evenings,
happenings,
modern art festivals, etc.
Since 1986 TRI-O participates
in jazz festivals all over ex-USSR, in Poland, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Austria, Germany,
Italy. TRI"O" made
a lot of tours on jazz clubs of Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
Holland, Finland, USA, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, playing
at such clubs
as "Knitting
Factory",
"Anyway" (New
York), "Bimhuis"(Amsterdam), "Blue Tomato"(Vienna)
and Sud des Alpes"(Geneva).
Together with Serguei Kuryokhin and his POP MECHANICS they played
at Russia, Italy, Denmark. Together with
the
Danish guitar player Pierre Dørge and his band NEW EAST-WEST JUNGLE
ORCHESTRA they played in Russia, Denmark and Germany. The musicians
of TRI"O" realize themselves in different forms of
art activities, among them are theater festivals - in Oslo, Yaroslavl,
Odessa, - poetry festivals - in Milan and Kostroma, festivals
of
the avant-garde art in Volgograd and Moscow, festival of Russian Culture in Nice (France), - and also in collaboration with
the theaters of Anatoly Vassiliev, Mikhail Mokeev, cinema and
TV.
TRI-O: Sergey Letov, Yury Parfenov, Arkady FreeMan (Kirichenko)
Of course, one needn't be an Afro or American derivative to employ the structure, strategies, and freedoms of jazz. [...] particularly provocative small unit - Trio.., led by soprano sax/flute/bass clarinet Sergei Letov.... delved deeply into themselves for motives and vocabularies. They emerge with music based on personal and social experiences, generated by the same faith in spontaneous, self-aware utterance and life's vital pulse that gave rise to the earliest and sustains the newest jazz."
Howard Mandel DOWN BEAT, Sept. 1988