PROSPECT HEIGHTS, Brooklyn — It’s an all-American story that could only be carried out by residents of Moscow, Russia, in New York, by way of Chicago and L.A. It may sound confusing at first, but, in ...

Finding capable Russian horn players in Moscow in the 1970s who could play “25 or 6 to 4,” “Make Me Smile” and other brassy rock songs by the American band Chicago proved daunting for Leonid Vorobyev.

American music has always been admired and appreciated throughout the world. As unlikely as it may once have seemed, country and bluegrass became popular in Japan, jazz was adopted by the French and ...