"Having visited the international festival of youth and students in Moscow (1957), Igor Khoma got inspired with the idea of organizing his own jazz band. Together with his brother Oleh, they created a family duet. Actually, there were neither premises, nor professional equipment. But the obsessed brothers had so much enthusiasm that other fans of jazz music got attracted by them. This is how the first after World War II Ukrainian jazz band "Rhythm" (1958-1960) appeared in Lviv. Igor Khoma set a clear task – to raise his band to the orbit of international jazz. And already in 1960, "Rhythm" was the first to represented Ukrainian jazz in Tartu (Estonia) at the 4
th Jazz Music Festival.
"...Already then, at the beginning, we undertook application for jazz interpretation of some Ukrainian folk songs and dances. For example, already in 1959, we performed the sheer instrumental piece "I Would Take the Bandura" with two saxophones and the rhythm section. So, this band started sounding absolutely unusual from the very beginnign..." Igor Khoma (1980)"
(quoted from the release's polygraph)