Misterioso brings you interviews, feature articles, and CD reviews of the work of Jazz and Improvised Musics’ great creators, as well as photographs of some of those same artists.

Misterioso’s Philosophy: “The language of music is an entirely different mode of communication than the written word. When a writer chooses a word or phrase to illustrate a form, a 'school' or even the approach of a given artist he had better be prepared to explain the context of those words. The art of writing about music implies describing the inexplicable. Categorization of music generally denotes sheer laziness, lack of insight, and in the worst cases, hack journalism on the part of a writer.” -Laurence Svirchev

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington put it another way: “You can say anything you want on a trombone, but you have to be very careful with words.”

Misterioso is published by Laurence Svirchev. Based in Vancouver Canada, Svirchev began photographing creative musicians in 1989 and writing about them in 1992. His jazz works have been published in Coda, Planet Jazz, Step Magazine, The Wire (England), Cuadernos de Jazz (Spain), Jazz Halo (Belgium), American journals such as 5/4 Magazine, Strings, Jazziz, Downbeat, Jazz Times, and a host of international newsprint journals. Many of his interviews and photographs have been conceived during encounters in Vancouver’s fertile artistic terrain. For over a decade, Svirchev was a photographer and writer for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. He has also been a guest journalist and photographer at the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Tampere Finland Jazz Happening, Jazz em Agosto in Lisbon Portugal, and the Fete de Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Quebec Canada.

Laurence Svirchev has traveled extensively, most recently in China, where he has published his travel articles and photography in Chinese magazines. He is a wilderness adventurer, traveling with camera gear into the far reaches of BC’s wilderness. In 1969, he was conscripted into the US Army to participate in political-economic-military aggression in Asia. He refused to co-operate and moved to Canada. Originally a political activist and manual factory worker, he is now a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) working to protect the health and safety of workers. Svirchev has also worked for a decade in occupational cancer epidemiology and is well-published in the scientific literature. Laurence Svirchev is always looking for the next vista.