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Bandmembers in Black Russian were Serge Kapustin and Natasha Kapustin, a married couple, along with Natasha’s brother Vladimir Shneider. The two Shneiders were the children of folk musicians and had been trained as classical pianists. Although identified as Russian, they were actually born in Latvia, a separate country now. In 1973 at an underground rock gathering at Moscow University, Natasha Shneider met Serge Kapustin, the son of a radio broadcaster, and he joined her in the Soviet orchestra where she was employed. The three began making plans to emigrate to America as early as May of that year.
They had been successful musicians in the U.S.S.R. but were worn down by the capricious restrictions of the Communist establishment. Serge Kapustin said that he was once forced to take out a bass line in one of their songs because it sounded “too Western”, and not more than one fourth of their songs could typically be sung in English.
One might think that the name Black Russian naturally arose from a Russian band being signed to a black record label, and there is also a drink called a Black Russian, composed of vodka mingled with coffee liqueur; but it wasn’t really like that. In an Associated Press interview that was printed in the London newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Natasha Kapustin said: “It means we are black Russians, not red Russians. And we were black sheep.” Serge Kapustin added: “And there is our influence from black rhythm ’n’ blues and soul music. ‘Black Russian’ became our nickname in underground circles in Moscow.”
As quoted in the blog What Fresh Hell is This (overall the best source on information on Black Russian that I was able to find on the Internet), People magazine said of the group in their October 16, 1980 issue: “The Kapustins were members of Sovremennik, a state-run pop orchestra, with Natasha [Kapustin] on vocals and piano and Serge [Kapustin] on guitar and percussion. Vladimir [Shneider] produced and played piano for the Singing Hearts, which was one of Russia’s hottest groups in the mid-’70s. But, as Vladimir notes, they were pumping out more agitprop than pop. ‘We’d sing 37 songs about how good the Communist Party is, and at the end — if we were lucky — we were allowed to play a mellow song like ‘Killing Me Softly’ or ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. But never rock.”
The Communists could not keep rock and roll out of the country entirely; Natasha Kapustin recalls: “Even though Western music was condemned in Russia, we knew what was happening in the world. We listened to the Voice of America broadcasts, the major European radio stations and got records from our Western friends or bought records on the black market. I can still remember the day Jimi Hendrix died because there were black armbands all over Moscow.”
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Serge Kapustin, Natasha Kapustin and Vladimir Shneider of Black Russian were dissident Russian Jews who defected in May 1976 and came to New York City. They eventually saved enough to go to Hollywood where they auditioned for Berry Gordy at Motown Records. People magazine notes that this delay in their success in this country was just as well: “The group couldn’t go public with its fascinating story until six additional family members arrived safely in the U.S.”
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What Fresh Hell is This quotes this item in the June 14. 1980 issue of Billboard Magazine about Black Russian: “Actually from the U.S.S.R., Black Russian is a pop trio which makes crystalline pop/r&b that comes across as a more r&b-oriented ABBA. Natasha Kapustin has an excellent soaring voice. ‘Leave Me Now’ really gives her room to show off her vocal strength. The production is exceptionally clean with Vladimir Shneider’s keyboard and the synthesizers of Serge [Kapustin] and Natasha Kapustin lending a cushy sheen. The album is evenly divided between uptempo dance cuts and moody ballads. Best cuts: ‘Mystified’, ‘Leave Me Now’, ‘Emptiness’, ‘New York City’, ‘Love’s Enough’.”
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The songs by Black Russian are all in English, with Natasha Kapustin handling most of the vocals; they have something of a disco-lite vibe in keeping with the time period. The bandmembers wrote all of the music and also produced and arranged all of the songs on the album. Besides vocals, Serge Kapustin plays keyboards and guitar, Natasha Kapustin plays keyboards and synthesizers, and Vladimir Shneider plays synthesizers. Another eight musicians are listed on the credits at Discogs; Guy Costa – their first contact at Motown Records – is identified as co-producer.
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Within a few more years, Serge Kapustin and Natasha Kapustin divorced, with the latter regaining her maiden name Natasha Shneider. Most of her post-Black Russian work was with her musical partner and second husband, Alain Johannes; he is also from far away, having been born in Santiago, Chile. Natasha Shneider was in a well regarded band called Eleven along with Johannes and top drummer Jack Irons.
(April 2015/1)
