The musical group "Bravo" was created back in 1983. The founder and permanent soloist of the group is Yevgeny Khavtan. The band's music is a mix of rock and roll, beat and rockabilly.
The history of the creation and composition of the Bravo group
Guitarist Yevgeny Khavtan and drummer Pasha Kuzin should be thanked for the creativity and creation of the Bravo team. It was these guys who in 1983 decided to create a musical group.
At first, the unsurpassed Zhanna Aguzarova took over the role of the vocalist. Then keyboardist and saxophonist Alexander Stepanenko and bassist Andrey Konusov joined the group. In 1983, the debut album of the musicians was released, which was recorded on cassette.
The first concert of the Bravo group did not go as smoothly as we wanted. Evgeny Khavtan recalled how they were all taken to the police station.
The fact is that the group performed illegally. It was a kind of unregistered business. Aguzarova was generally sent to her homeland, since the singer did not have a Moscow residence permit.
While Zhanna was away, Sergei Ryzhenko was at the helm. When the girl returned in 1985 and wanted to take her former place, misunderstandings began in the team.
It got to the point that Aguzarova took up a solo career and left the group. Aguzarova's place was taken by Anna Salmina, and later by Tatiana Ruzaeva. In the late 1980s, Zhenya Osin became a soloist.
With the arrival of Valery Syutkin in the Bravo group, the group moved to a completely new level. It should be noted that the bright and charismatic Valery did everything to glorify the team.
It was with Syutkin that the team released significant and popular albums. Moreover, it is Valery that many associate with the work of the team. Valery did not stay long in the group, and also made a choice towards a solo career.
From 1995 to the present, Robert Lentz has taken the place of the vocalist. As before, the musical group included the one who stood at the origins of the creation of the Bravo group, Evgeny Khavtan. After a break, drummer Pavel Kuzin returned to the team.
In 1994, musician Alexander Stepanenko returned to the group. And 2011 was remembered by the fans of the group as a new member, whose name is Mikhail Grachev.
The creative path and music of the Bravo group
In 1983, when the band first appeared, the musicians created the top songs. They gained millions of fans in the face of Soviet music lovers.
True, their reputation was slightly tarnished by the story of the detention. For some time, the Bravo group was blacklisted, so the musicians could not perform.
Despite the prohibitions and restrictions, the team remained at the top of popularity. The detention only increased public interest in the Soviet group.
Once the team was noticed by Alla Pugacheva. She liked the songs of the guys, and she helped the group get into the Musical Ring show. The very next year, the Bravo group performed on the same stage with the Russian prima donna, as well as with the famous composer and singer Alexander Gradsky.
The group, along with the rest of the singers, played at a charity concert. The proceeds went to the victims of the Chernobyl disaster.
In 1988, the musical group presented the first official album, Ensemble Bravo, to fans. The collection was released with a circulation of 5 million copies.
In the same 1988, the Bravo group resumed touring. Now the musicians had the legal right to perform not only on the territory of the USSR, but also abroad. The first country they visited was Finland. The success of the team was overwhelming.
After leaving Aguzarova and Anna Salmina, the musical composition "King of the Orange Summer" was recorded. Subsequently, the track became a real folk hit.
The video clip for the song was broadcast on Central Television. Later, "King of Orange Summer" received the status of the best song of the outgoing year.
Valery Syutkin and changes in the group
When he joined the team Valery Syutkinimportant changes have begun. He helped form the Bravo group its signature style of presenting songs, based on the dude subculture.
At first, Syutkin did not fit into this subculture. Mainly because of his appearance, the young performer wore a lush head of hair and did not want to get rid of it.
Even in the music video "Vasya", which was filmed specifically for the music program "Morning Mail", in order to present the viewer with a new line-up, Syutkin starred with his lush hair.
However, over time, Syutkin had to change his corporate identity to a rock and roll standard. An interesting fact is that the song "Vasya" was included in the list of the 100 best musical compositions of Russian rock of the XNUMXth century. (according to the radio station "Nashe Radio").
The main highlight of the "Syutka" period was the tie. Interestingly, during the concerts, the audience threw hundreds of different ties onto the stage as a token of gratitude for the songs of the Bravo group.
Valery Syutkin himself shared with reporters that he has a personal collection of ties, and he still collects them. According to many, the "golden composition" of the Bravo team falls on the date of release of the records "Hipsters from Moscow", "Moscow Beat" and "Road to the Clouds".
Group's first anniversary
In 1994, the team celebrated its second major anniversary - the Bravo group celebrated 10 years since the founding of the group. In honor of this event, the group organized a big gala concert.
It is noteworthy that the performance was attended by Zhanna Aguzarova, who, together with Valery Syutkin, performed the good old song "Leningrad Rock and Roll".
Inviting former soloists of the Bravo group to anniversaries soon became a tradition. Confirmation of this will be that not only Aguzarova, but also Syutkin, who by that time was no longer the soloist of the group and was engaged in a solo career, entered the stage on the 15th anniversary.
Under the leadership of the new soloist Robert Lentz, the Bravo group presented the album At the Crossroads of Spring to fans. This album is considered by music critics to be one of the most popular in the "Lenz period".
Havtan said that the album "At the Crossroads of Spring" is his favorite collection. From time to time he listened to all the tracks that were included in the album.
In 1998, the discography was replenished with the album "Hits about Love". However, this collection cannot be called successful. He was not very popular with music lovers.
The disc "Eugenics" was presented by the group "Bravo" to their fans in 2001. This is the first album that sounds new.
The style of the disc is not similar to the previous works of the Russian team. Disco elements appeared in the collection. Most of the tracks of the album "Eugenics" were performed by the head of the group Evgeny Khavtan.
After the presentation of the Eugenics album, the Bravo team did not replenish their discography for 10 years. Musicians every year talked about the release of a new album.
However, the album appeared only in 2011. The new album is called Fashion. The collection was very positively received by music critics and music lovers.
In 2015, the musicians presented the disc "Forever". "Vintage" musical instruments were used to record this collection.
This is the first album in which Yevgeny Khavtan acted as the lead vocalist. Some musical compositions were with female parts, which were performed by Masha Makarova from the rock group "Masha and the Bears" and Yana Blinder.
Group "Bravo": tours and festivals
The Bravo group is an "active" musical group. Musicians record songs, release albums and shoot video clips. In 2017, the group took part in the Invasion music festival.
In 2018, the group celebrated its 35th anniversary. In the same year, the band presented their new album Unrealised to fans of their work.
The genre of this record is difficult to determine. Music critics did not dare to call it another "numbered" one, because the group, which celebrated its 35th anniversary last year, does nothing fundamentally new here, which makes the music lover seriously surprised.
In 2019, the musical group "Bravo" took part in the recording of the collection "Songs about Leningrad. White Night". In addition to the group, the collection contains the voices of Alla Pugacheva, DDT, and others.
Bravo group today
In April 2021, Bravo released a new collection. The LP was topped exclusively by covers of the band's tracks. The novelty of "Bravocover" was warmly received by fans. The musicians published a collection on the official page of the group "VKontakte".
In mid-February 2022, the team pleased with the release of a video for the song "Paris". Note that the premiere of the video is timed to coincide with Valentine's Day. The author of the text was the leader of the Obermaneken team, Anzhey Zaharishchev von Brausch. The video was directed by Maxim Shamota.
