According to the opinion of Russian musical critics Alex Rostotsky has been one of the best electric bass-players for the last 15 years. Being a showman and a melodist, he is known as an artist combining the width of views with his own theme in music and art. Born in Tver in 1955, Alex started studying music at the age of 7 playing the piano. Though he was born in a musical family (Alex's mother was a violinist and taught in a musical school), Alex hated music in his childhood. However, that did not prevent him from graduating from Tver musical college, department of choral conducting. In 1976 Rostotsky moved to Moscow, entered a jazz school and began playing the electric bass. During those years, Alex Rostotsky developed his personal style with a sound full of warm melody and harmony. From 1983, he performed on jazz festivals with various first-rate musicians and toured throughout former USSR. In 1986 Alex started to tour Europe and Asia, performed with many famous musicians, such as Billy Cobham, Ron Affif, Dr.L. Subramaniam, Paul Bollenback, Bob Bray, Tim Armacost, Tal Farlow. In 1994 Rostotsky created his own project named "Jazz Bass Theatre" (JBT), which is organized like a non-repertoir theatre, where each performance has its own style. It varies from ballads to avant-garde influenced by Ornette Coleman; from Ethnic music to modern classic.The album "Oriental Impress" can be a good example of JBT performance. In "Jazz Bass Theatre" Rostotsky brings together various first class musicians from Russia and abroad. Depending on repertoire he also invites painters, photographers and dancers. Alex toured extensively with this project and recorded music for several Russian and foreign companies. Working with sponsors Volkswagen and Messe Dusseldorf, Jazz Bass Theatre performed at "Rhythm and Drive" Festival at the Moscow Auto Salon 2001 (http://www.volkswagen.ru/jazz/) and "Duesseldorfer Jazz Rally" 2004 and 2005 in Duesseldorf, Germany. Rostotsky has recorded more than 20 albums; in the opinion of Moscow Association of Jazz Journalists, three latter ones -"Once I loved" (1999), "Oriental Impress" (2000), "Splashes" (2004) - were recognized as the best in the nomination "Jazz Album". In December 2004 a new fusion album "Time when fish think of the past" was released. It expands the oriental theme started earlier, but at a greater extent develops authentic Russian theme. More than 30 musicians took part in the recording - the string orchestra of the Bolshoj Theatre, an opera singer Anna Sokolova and several outstanding jazz musicians. In spring 2006, Rostotsky recorded a new album "Promenade with Mussorgsky". In this project Alex realized his fondest dream to make a jazz transformation of Mussorgsky's well known masterpiece "Pictures at an Exhibition". The dialogue with Mussorgsky started in 1998, when Rostotsky recorded "The Old Castle" on his Gold CD "Boiled Borscht" released by PopeMusic in US.The new album is wholly devoted to Mussorgsky and based on 7 "pictures" out of 10. "Pictures" themselves are performed solely by the jazz trio, while the famous "Promenade" theme, linking all episodes, involves bass solo and the Symphonic Orchestra. Experimenting with "Pictures at an Exhibition" Rostotsky keeps authenticity of Mussorgsky music, which makes this record intriguing for classical music connoisseurs and exciting for jazz fans. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.