Alexei Kozlov, Russia's jazz legend of several decades, will headline an international festival which opens on Thursday.
Called "Petersburg Jazz Spring '96," the festival will also feature bands and musicians from St Petersburg, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, France, the US and Cuba.
The 60-year-old Kozlov started to play saxophone in 1957, during the International Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. Sporting narrow trousers, Ivy-League haircuts and dropping names like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, they were the times' silent dissidents.
As times changed, Kozlov became a hippy for a while, performing "Jesus Christ Superstar" at underground gigs, got involved in jazz rock, forming the fusion band Arsenal and, finally, started to experiment with electronic music using his IBM 486 computer.
The festival's other highlights are trumpet player Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky and double bass player Vladimir Volkov, who became famous as an improvised jazz duo, but now present separate projects.
The festival is organized by the Olbi Jazz Club, which opens the same day with a concert by Britain's Bill Skeet on sax.
The Olbi Jazz Club has grown out of the now-defunct New Jazz Club, formerly located in the Tavrichesky Gardens.
Festival performers will also be playing every night at the Olbi Jazz Club on Shpalernaya Ulitsa.
See Petersburg Jazz Spring '96