"Ragtime," Alexei Rumiantsev said, "is the first genuine American music, a mix of Afro-American and European tradition. Ragtime gave birth to jazz. When I was 14, my father was working in the old Czechoslovakia. For my birthday he brought me from there an album of Duke Ellington, the 'New Orleans Suites.' That album was a legendary tribute to New Orleans, and was not easy to get in the Soviet Union then. It was a turning point for me. I yearned for jazz."
Alexei was born 36 years ago in St. Petersburg. The city was then called Leningrad, acclaimed as the "Venice of the North." Alexei says that as a small child he chose musical instruments instead of the usual toys. He banged his drums not only with boyish enthusiasm but also with rhythm and style. His parents still keep the small accordion on which he played tangos. "So my parents said, 'OK, let him study music.' I was about 6 when I began piano lessons," he said.
Both his parents were engineers with work that moved the family to Cherepovets. He said: "I had an excellent general education there at the Music School for Children, then returned for study at the preparatory school for the St. Petersburg Conservatory. At 18 I took a jazz course at a high school in Moscow. Then I had to do my military service."