Editing Valistar Belinski

Born to a Sudanese woman (Nadia) and a Russian Merchant (Pyotr)who escape Khartoum two weeks before the seige begins.  Val is born on the voyage at the beginning of the siege March 13, 1884.  Val was embraced August 1905 in the city of St Louis while playing with W.C. Handy's band.

At a young age he found he was a musical prodigy.  He performed Islamey at the tender age of 10.    He even once had the honor of playing before the great Russian composer Tchaikovsky.  In 1898 he traveled to the states where he fell in love with ragtime.  In 1902 he heard the Blues for the first time at a train station in Mississippi and awed.  In 1903 he met W.C. Handy and joined his band the same year his father and mother died.  Luckily for him, his father had a good business partner who continued to handle the reins.