DZ
DefZone.Net

Kien thuc cong nghe & giai tri

  1. Home
  2. Wiki

Boris Midney (born October 22, 1937) is a Soviet-born American musician, producer, composer and conductor.

Biography

[edit]

Midney was born in Moscow to a conductor and pianist father and classical singer mother. He studied classical composition and clarinet also teaching himself to play saxophone.[1]

In 1964 he defected from the USSR via the US embassy in Japan.[2] Midney's main reason for leaving the USSR was the censorship of art.[3] After arriving in New York City, he formed The Russian Jazz Quartet with whom he recorded an album for Impulse Records.[2] In the 1960s, Midney married Tania Armour from the Armour & Company family.[4]

Later, Midney became a prolific composer and producer of disco music although he rarely was credited under his own name.[5] Using guises such as USA-European Connection, Masquerade, Double Discovery, Caress, Companion and Festival, Midney produced a large body of disco music. He is recognised as being among the first producers to take full advantage of 48-track recording and one of the creators of the Eurodisco genre.[6] Among his productions were disco adaptations of the Broadway musical Evita and of the score for The Empire Strikes Back.[5]

Describing his disco music, critics Alan Jones and Jussi Kantonen wrote:

On the Mount Olympus of disco there are numerous gods but there is only one Zeus and his name is Boris Midney. He's the Stephen Sondheim, David Hockney and Stanley Kubrick of the disco genre all rolled into one.[7]

In 1999 Midney released Trancetter, a progressive trance album.[6] In 1999, OZ/Hot Records reissued Midney's entire catalog on CD.[5]

Discography

[edit]
  • Music From The Empire Strikes Back (RSO, 1980)
  • Trancetter (Max Music & Entertainment Inc., 1999)

With The Russian Jazz Quartet

  • Happiness (Impulse, 1964)

With Paul Levinson

As USA-European Connection

US Billboard Dance Chart[8]
Date Title Position
1978 Come Into My Heart 1
1979 USA-European Connection 43

As Beautiful Bend

  • Make That Feeling Come Again! (aka Beautiful Bend) (Marlin, 1978)
US Billboard Dance Chart[8]
Date Position
1979 3

As Festival

  • Evita (RSO, 1979)
US Billboard Dance Chart[8]
Date Position
1979 3

As Masquerade

As Caress

US Billboard Dance Chart[8]
Date Title Position
1979 "Catch The Rhythm" 31

As Companion

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Feather, Leonard Geoffrey (1966). The encyclopedia of jazz in the sixties. The Archive of Contemporary Music. New York : Horizon Press. p. 211.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  2. ^ a b Ashley Kahn (2006). The house that Trane built. W.W. Norton & Co. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-393-05879-6.
  3. ^ Starr, S. Frederick (1983). Red and hot : the fate of jazz in the Soviet Union, 1917–1980. Oxford University Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-19-503163-8.
  4. ^ "Tania Armour Bride of Boris Midney; Former Student of Design Married to a Composer". The New York Times. 1967-06-18. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  5. ^ a b c Paoletta, Michael (October 23, 1999). "OZ/Hot Unearth Trance's Roots With Midney Reissues". Billboard. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Bogdanov, Vladimir (2001). All music guide to electronica : the definitive guide to electronic music. San Francisco : Backbeat Books. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-87930-628-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  7. ^ Jones, Alan; Kantonen, Jussi (1999). Saturday night forever : the story of disco. Mainstream Publishing. pp. 78–83. ISBN 978-1-84018-177-7.
  8. ^ a b c d Whitburn, Joel (2004). Joel Whitburn's Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. pp. 31, 51, 97, 269. ISBN 0-89820-156-X.


Flag of United StatesBiography icon

This article about an American musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.