Alexander Rosenbaum

Alexander Rosenbaum (Александр Яковлевич Розенбаум, Aleksandr Jakovlevič Rozenbaum) (born September 15 1951 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a Russian-Jewish shanson bard from Saint Petersburg.

Rosenbaum graduated from the Pavlov Medical School in 1974, and worked in the medical field for four years. His musical education consists of piano and choreography courses at a musical school. In 1968, while still a student, Rosenbaum started writing the songs for which he is famous. His early songs were for student plays, but he soon also wrote for rock groups and performed as a singer-songwriter (starting in 1983, sometimes under the pseudonym "Ayarov").

Among his most famous songs are the ones about the Soviet-Afghan War, Cossacks, and the Jewish Mafia in Odessa. Songs such as "Gop-Stop" (a comedy about two gangsters executing an unfaithful lover) and "Vals-boston" (Boston (dance)) are popular across Russian social groups and generations.

Rosenbaum accompanies himself on either a six- or twelve-string acoustic guitar, using the Open G tuning (adopted from the Russian seven string guitar).

Discography

 * Pamyati A. Zvezdina-Severnogo (In memory of A. Zvezdin-Severniy; April 1982)
 * Noviye pesni (New Songs; November 1983)
 * Epitafiya (Epitaph; 1986)
 * Moi dvory (My Home Streets;1986)
 * Narisuyte mne dom (Paint Me a House; 1986)
 * Doroga dlinoyu v zhizn (The Life-long Road; 1988)
 * Kazachyi pesni (Cossack Songs; 1988)
 * Anafema (Anathema; 1988)
 * Nyu-Yorkskiy kontsert (A New-York Concert; 1987)
 * Gop-stop (Gop-stop;1993)
 * Goryachaya Desyatka (Hot Ten; 1994)
 * A. Rozenbaum i “Bratya Zhemchuzhniye” 11 let spustya (A. Rosenbaum and the “Zhemchuzhniye brothers”, 11 years after; 1994)
 * Veshchaya sudba (Prophetic Fate; 1994, compilation)
 * Nostalgiya (Nostalgia; 1994)
 * Vyalotekushchaya Shizofreniya (Schizophrenia in Slow Progress; December 1994)
 * Byloye i diski (The Past and the Disks; volumes 1, 2 and 3)
 * Antologiya 1. Domashniy kontsert (Anthology 1. A Home Concert; 1981)
 * Antologiya 2. Posvyashcheniye posvyashchayushchim (Anthology 2. Devoted to the Devoters; 1983)
 * Antologiya 3. Kontsert v Vorkute. (Anthology 3. A Concert in Vorkuta; 1984)
 * Antologiya 4. Kontsert na LOMO (Anthology 4. A Concert at LOMO; 1987)
 * Rozoviy zhemchug (Pink Pearls; August-November 1995)
 * Na plantatsiyah lyubvi (On Plantations of Love; March-May 1996)
 * Kontsert v den rozhdeniya (A Birthday Concert; September 1996)
 * Vozvrashcheniye na Argo (The Return to Argo; February 1997)
 * Iyulskaya zhara (July Heat; November 1997)
 * Luchshiye pesni (The Best Of; 1982-1997, compilation)
 * Transsibirskaya magistral (Trans-Siberian Railway 1999)
 * Odinokiy volk (Lonesome Wolf; 2001, compilation)
 * Nastoyashchiy soldat (Real Soldier; April 2000)
 * Staraya gitara (Old Guitar; 2001)
 * Ya lyublyu vozvrashchatsya v svoy gorod... (I Love Coming Back to My Town…; 2003)
 * Strannaya zhizn (Strange Life; 2003)
 * Ya vizhu svet (I See the Light; December 2005)

Political Career
On December 7th 2003 Alexander Rosenbaum took office as a member of the Russian parliament for Yedinaya Rossiya and a deputy chairman of the State Duma Culture Committee. His term expires December 2007. When asked by a journalist as to what he had to sacrifice to be able to run for MP, Rosenbaum answered:

Spare time. Ostensible respect of a certain group of people. Because it is so easy to kitchen-talk about what had better be done, while never attempting anything yourself. It is false people who hold you a more progressive person if you stay underground barking at the ones in power, rather than take up a seat in the State Duma.