恋愛至上主義 - Love Supremacism by Alexander Dubovoy

Following his first solo album, Portraits Drawn Without You, Alexander Dubovoy is proud to release his new solo album 恋愛至上主義 / Love Supremacism on Adhyâropa Records. It features innovative reinterpretations of jazz standards recorded by recording engineer (and frequent musical collaborator) Hans Bilger in February 2024 in Berlin.

The starting point for the album is 恋愛至上主義 (renaishijoushugi), a concept which Alexander first encountered in the Japanese television drama 「恋せぬふたり」(“Koisenu Futari”), a show that radically examines consent in relationships. 恋愛至上主義 translates in English to “love supremacism” (which includes perhaps an unintended allusion to John Coltrane). It refers to a pervasive social system in which romantic relationships are valued more highly than other types of human care or experience. Of course, these types of relationships are important for many people, but they may not be for others, and they are not the only valid way to structure one’s life. Though particularly repressive for those who do not fit into its relationship models, love supremacism affects us all. For example, many people who are in romantic relationships may not adequately prioritize their needs for friendship and other support.

Alexander had long noticed the outsize number of jazz standards written from a love-supremacist mindset. Particularly, many earlier standards that were written for musical theater epitomize 20th century US capitalist culture’s exploitation of romance for capital benefit. For this project, Alexander focused on selecting jazz standards, all of them old love songs, that he had had a hard time personally resonating with, often due to their saccharine treatment of love. The first of these “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” took on new meaning for him during the unprecedented monotony of the global COVID-19 epidemic. He continued arranging each piece to celebrate or reflect upon a type of non-romantic human care, ranging from familial love to friendship to metta, a Buddhist concept of loving kindness. The resulting arrangements dissect each piece, bringing out unexpected moments and new life from these old compositions.

The two compositions that perhaps do not fit into this mold are “Pannonica” by Thelonious Monk and “Ida Lupino” by Carla Bley. These composers have, however, influenced Alexander’s approach to ballad playing significantly enough that it felt inauthentic not to provide an homage to both of them.

恋愛至上主義 / Love Supremacism is part of a double release alongside the upcoming Don’t Hate the Potate, a collection of improvised miniatures recorded during the same chilly weekend in February 2024.

Bio

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Alexander Dubovoy is a Berlin-based pianist, singer, and composer. He graduated from Yale University in May 2016, where he wrote an award-winning thesis on the history of jazz in the Soviet Union and co-founded the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective, a student movement for jazz at the university. Since graduating, he has performed at storied international venues, including the Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC, Donau115 in Berlin, Rakuya Label in Tokyo, etc. Currently, he performs regularly in Berlin, including with Brazilian Vibes, a project to celebrate Brazil’s rich musical heritage. His solo album Portraits Drawn Without You has garnered over 8 million streams on Spotify. In 2025, he will be the recipient of an Asian Cultural Council grant to compose music about sake production in Gujo-Hachiman, a town in Gifu prefecture, Japan. In addition to his performance career, he currently works for Groupmuse, a cooperative arts organization with a social mission to ensure fair pay for musicians, and teaches computer programming. His work has been featured by the New York Times, NPR, the Boston Globe, etc. https://www.alexanderdubovoy.com

Jazz/improvising singer/pianist based in Berlin, Germany.

alexanderdubovoy.com
Facebook
Twitter