Abstract: The subject of the research is the work of jazz pianist and composer Nikolai Yakovlevich Levinovsky, the creator and leader of one of the most popular jazz ensembles in the 1980s, "Allegro", a representative of Russian jazz. His performing and composing activities during the 1970s and 1980s are considered in the socio-cultural context that determines the transformation of ideological and cultural norms. The author evaluates the activity of the Philharmonic chamber jazz ensemble "Allegro" by N. Y. Levinovsky as an important factor in activating the process of institutionalization of jazz in the Soviet cultural space. The evolution of N. Levinovsky's compositional thinking, which turned in the 1980s to experiments contributing to the formation of the autoimage of Soviet jazz, is considered. The author reveals the peculiarity of N. Ya. Levinovsky's compositional thinking, the stylistic relief of whose compositions was formed by a system of interpenetration of jazz music techniques and lado-intonation structures of national cultures. Based on the analysis of concert performances and studio recordings of the Allegro jazz ensemble, the specificity of the ensemble sound is revealed, the novelty of N. Y. Levinovsky's approach to the embodiment of the stylistics of swing or jazz-rock compositions is determined. The conclusion is made that N.Y. Levinovsky's compositional work is planned to bring jazz music techniques closer to national musical traditions, which contributes to the further development of jazz art, the expansion of the geography of its popularization and productive assimilation.

Keywords: big band, rock music, jazz rock, jazz piano player, jazz composer, Russian jazz, Soviet jazz, Allegro jazz ensemble, Nikolay Yakovlevich Levinovsky, jazz festival