DERATSUEV Grigory Mikhailovich (24.09.1971, Rostov-on-Don) is an educator, one of the organizers of Rostov-on-Don children’s jazz education, a percussion performer, an artist of Kim Nazaretov’s jazz orchestra, a laureate of All-Russian and international jazz contests and festivals. He has become a well-known soloist of Rostov big bands and one of the band New-Centropezn Jazz Quartet leaders.
He studied how to play a trumpet at the school of musicians’ pupils. He took an interest in percussion after he had seen video films showing records of Buddy Rich and “Electric Band” of Chick Corea.
In 1991 he graduated from the Variety and Jazz Department of Rostov College of Arts, in 1996 – from S. V. Rachmaninoff Rostov State Conservatory (Academy). He made his jazz musician’s début in 1988 at the Tula Festival as a member of Aram Rustamyants and Evgeny Gnezdilov’s Quintet. He worked in Viktor Budarin’s “Don-Band” for 4 years (in 1993 he performed at the jazz festivals in Novosibirsk and Saint Petersburg); worked as an artist of the orchestra of Young Spectator’s Theater (1993); in the position of a concertmaster at the Variety and Jazz Music Faculty of S. V. Rachmaninoff Rostov State Conservatory (Academy) (1994-1995).
As a member of an ensemble that in 1998 had adopted a name New-Centropezn Jazz Quartet, he participated in the international contests:
- “Euro-Jazz-94” (Belgium) – the 5th place and a special prize “Most promising young band”.
- XIV European Contest of Young Jazz Bands in Leverkusen (1995, Germany) – Grand Prize.
- XXII International Contest in Gecko (1998, Spain) – “Best Band in the Opinion of the Audience”.
He has been working in the school since 1995. His pupils take prize-winning places at the international contests in Russia (Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don) and the near abroad (Ukraine), perform at the jazz festivals in Germany, Scotland, Ukraine, Russia. There are also winners of the International Contest of Young Jazz Performers: Robert Galstyan (2003, I Award), Samvel Sarkisyan (2011, II Award).
As a quartet, New Centropezn constantly appears at the international jazz festivals of the near and far abroad. As a percussion performer of Kim Nazaretov’s jazz orchestra –where the quarter has been a rhythm section since 2001- he has participated in various international projects. The most important of them is East West European Jazz Orchestra which came into being (since 2004) thanks to the long-term relations between twin cities Rostov-on-Don and Dortmund and which united musicians from Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, the USA, France, Serbia, the Netherlands.
