The Russian Winter Review
By David Kempler
Lion in Winter
I've always liked the music of The Fugees, but never knew a thing about John Forté or his work with the band, so when I heard there was a documentary about his touring Russian I was curious about what it might entail.
Mr. Forté recently did time in the penitentiary for a drug offense. Only after the unlikely trio of Carly Simon, Orrin Hatch, and George W. Bush interceded on his behalf was he released from prison.
"The Russian Winter" chronicles Mr. Forté's musical tour of Russia during the dead of winter, making the title an accurate one. From the outset, what I noticed about him was that he was bright, soft-spoken, serious, and affable. What wasn't clear until well into the film, was why this was worth presenting to an audience, but at some point it all came together as a combo concert/travelog exploration of a very talented man.
As he and his companions make their way across Russia, we are along with them for what comes with concerts; the preparation, the personality clashes, the ineptitude and corruption of Russian beauracracy, but most of all the witnessing of creativity being born and revealed. Though I knew nothing of his music, by its end I knew that I would have to acquire his music for my listening pleasure.
The absolute highlight is when Mr. Forté meets Alina Orlova, a female Russian pianist/composer. She joins him on tour and their back-and-forth creative music sessions are like watching two masters gel as one.
What started out as a slow-paced viewing of a band's travels evolved into quite more than that. It felt like attending a concert of someone whose music you like, while almost being backstage and with them throughout the process. "The Russian Winter" caught me very off guard and in a very good way.
