Lundstrem received a degree in composition from the Kazan State Conservatory in 1953.
After Stalin died in 1953, Lundstrem set up Russia's first state jazz orchestra, an ensemble he led until recently.
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Oleg Lundstrem, Pioneering Russian Jazz Musician, Dies
Russian jazz musician Oleg Lundstrem died on October 13, the Associated Press reports. He was 89 years old.
Lundstrem is credited with keeping jazz alive in Stalinist Russia, despite official opposition to it as a bourgeois form of music. The musicians in his nine-member jazz band, which was formed in Shanghai, were assigned to opera and ballet ensembles, but managed to stay together and play anyway, in the republic of Tatarstan.
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