Anatole Gerasimov has been played on NTS shows including My Ever Changing Moods w/ DJ Lance Rock, with Me And My Rhythm Box first played on 18 July 2017.

Anatole Gerasimov (Russian: Анатолий Герасимов, b. 1945) is a soprano & tenor saxophonist, flautist, shakuhachi player, composer, and arranger.

Born on the 8th October 1945 in Moscow, USSR, Gerasimov taught himself to play saxophones and flutes while in his teens. He played in Russia’s best jazz bands from the mid-1960s. In the early 1970s, the world's best jazz bands started to visit the USSR: the Duke Ellington Orchestra, then the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Toots Thielemans, and others. Gerasimov played with all of them. At that time playing jazz in the Soviet Union became difficult because of the Soviet bureaucracy’s hostile attitude to American music, and many jazz musicians lost their jobs.

Gerasimov left Russia for New York in 1973. His first job was for Duke Ellington, and when Ellington died in 1974, Gerasimov continued to play for the orchestra, now led by Duke’s son Mercer, for some time, and even recorded an album for Fantasy Records as an orchestra member. Over the next two decades, Gerasimov played with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and recorded with John Scofield, Jaco Pastorius, and many others. He also wrote music for television, films, and the theatre.

Gerasimov moved to Paris, France in the early 1990s. He worked there with Carlos Nascimento, Urban Sax, and other World-music bands, as well as making music for film and theatre.

In 1994 he visited Russia for the first time since he'd left, and took part in recording sessions with one of Russia’s most famous alternative rock groups, The Auction. In 1996, Gerasimov moved to his hometown of Moscow, Russia. In the same year he recorded his first Russian CD in the Siberian capital, Novosibirsk, and formed a new group in Moscow. In 1997 he received the Jazz Master of the Year prize from the Moscow Jazz Journalists Association, and recorded an album during three live sessions on the air on a Moscow jazz radio station. His music video “Bloomdido” directed by Gregory Amnuel was shown on the Russian national second television channel (Russia Television).

In 1998 Gerasimov played with his Moscow group in New York City at the second Sergei Kuriokhin International Festival, then took part in Russia’s first moving jazz festival: The Jazz Province (eight cities in Central Russia including Moscow) and in the third Sergei Kuriokhin International Festival in St Petersburg, Russia.

The Anatole Gerasimov group in 1999: Anton Sevidov, Yuri Pogiba (keyboards), Anton Revnyuk (bass guitar) and Dmitri Sevastianov (drums).

On April 25th, 2013 Anatole passed away.

Anatole Gerasimov selected discography:

• Albatross (with Peter Hammill), BASF, 1980 • Liquid Sky (motion picture soundtrack), Cinevista, 1983 • As Time Flies, Nana Records (US), Melodiya (USSR), 1989 • Anatole Live, Nana Records (US), 1990 • Zhilets Vershin (The Mountain Tops Resident) (by The Auction), SNC (Russia), 1996 • Far Away (with Siberian Jazz Project), SJP (Russia), 1997 • Yes!, Boheme Music (Russia), Boheme Music, CD BMR 809015, 1998 • Live RaKurs, ArtBeat (Russia), 2CD, AB-CD-04-2012-017, 2012

Some of his top film works:

• The Solar Energy, a documentary, together with John Scofield (1981); • Liquid Sky (Z Film Cinevista, 1983, Grand Prix of Montreal International Movie Festival) • Summer Echoes (Paul Paulini Films, 1985) • Rita (1986, PBS TV) • Gogol in the Subway (1990, Henry Street Productions)