Its history’s third decade unsealed, Blues begins to understand that the childhood of becoming belongs irrevocably to the past. The precedent is now created. We are making a smooth transition to the age of adult infinity. We exist. And although, throughout its first twenty years, Blues has regularly undergone rebirth, time and again, the probability of new births is inseparable from conjunction with the permanent fact of its own a priori presence.

“Blues is bottomless — it’s so deep,” wrote one of its admirers. What can be added to the image now formed, the picture painted? Infinite possible additions, with endless opportunities to draw upon its bottomlessness. But only a closed matter can fully open. And thus today, even as we pay tribute to what has come to pass, we also bid it farewell, stepping over its threshold. Where to? Emphatically beyond!

When the time comes for a choice, seeking tips and hints is ill-advised.

Yet Blues, even going past its own limits and continuing its work of being unrecognizable, always stays the same Blues…

Marking the solemnity of the moment, I congratulate the Blues community on sharing this twenty-year anniversary. I bow in grateful reverence to all who with their approval, participation, support, censure, suspicion, resistance or perfect indifference have helped shape and affirm the music of Blues.

T.Apraksina

(Translation from Russian)

Photos by E.Starovoitova and D.Yegorova.