Oleg Kireyev, traditional jazz, jazz, jazz fest, jazz festival, jazz artists, jazz musicians, jazz band, smooth jazz

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The release of the new album “Rhyme & Reason” on Inarhyme Records label is planned for April 2010 – the musicians are spending considerable time touring Europe and North America to boost sales and connect with their listeners.

Oleg Kireyev, EJ Strickland, Boris Kozlov, Keith Javors

Russian saxophone player Oleg Kireyev and American pianist Keith Javors are debuting their new extraordinary project “Rhyme and Reason”. The project, based on their own compositions, glides effortlessly atop the modern jazz mainstream. The new project of Oleg Kireyev and Keith Javors was conceived just over a year ago, in September 2008. After an initial performance at the legendary “Chris Jazz Café” in Philadelphia, they played many East Coast venues into the Spring of 2009 including “Blues Alley” in Washington and “Iridium” in New York. As it happens, during long rehearsals and stage performances the musicians became close and decided to launch an album and project under the name “Rhyme and Reason”. The new album was recorded at Tony Bennett’s studio in New Jersey, marking the first time Kireyev has recorded in North America. Besides Mr. Kireyev and Mr. Javors, the album features the support of Boris Kozlov from the Charles Mingus Band on bass and E J Strickland from the Ravi Coltrane Band on drums.

Whether you are deciding to buy jazz music in your local store or through a jazz music download site, Oleg Kireyev should be on your shopping list as one of the best Russian saxophone players and composers and currently one of the best jazz music artists, period. Originally from Bashkiria (Russia) near the European/Asian border, he has been influenced by the powerful heritage of bebop and traditional jazz, combined with African rhythms, Latin jazz music and Asian and Moldavian free jazz music. It's no secret that all those music styles have been historically shaped though jazz & blues music.

For Oleg, as for many, getting jazz lessons in the early 70s in the former USSR was simply out of the question. Since both jazz piano and jazz saxophone were not taught, and Mr. Kireyev got bored studying classical compositions, jazz improvisation, first on the piano, and then on the saxophone, were his first attempts at jazz. Prior to this he started improvising melodies that could only be heard in his head, in a style that many years later became known as smooth music jazz. These melodies, once put down on paper, would be later called by crtics “incredibly good and smooth, full of verve, and style, and class”, ranking him as a top Russian jazz musician.

Lovers of the best jazz music take their time to trace the origin of jazz music. What they know about the history of jazz music is a central part of their personal musical experience.

A well-traveled person, Oleg has lived in Poland, England and America. Poland, although an Eastern Bloc country, was famous for its wide array of high-caliber jazz performances and it was there that Kireyev was first noticed there by international jazz aficionados. A scholarship to the Bud Shank jazz saxophonist school pulled him into the international jazz scene, where he is now one of the most well known musicians. After receiving a special award for outstanding performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland he began to garner worldwide respect at jazz festivals and jazz clubs.

After receiving accolades at the London Jazz Festival, New York Jazz Improvisation Festival, and North Sea Jazz Festival, Oleg Kireyev was then invited to New York jazz clubs such as Symphony Space, Iridium Jazz Club, Smoke and Smalls, where he collaborated with famous jazz musicians such as George Cables, Nicolas Bearde, James Weidman, Chris Washburne, Boris Kozlov, Peter King, Dick Pierce, Doug Weiss, Fay Victor, Ray Alexander, Scott Hamilton, Steve Ellington, and Adam Nussbaum. Jazz concerts in London jazz clubs featuring Oleg’s jazz band were played on air at leading jazz radio programs on UK stations including BBC and Radio Saga.

Oleg approaches jazz music projects with energy, creativity and sophistication. He founded the “Orlan” Jazz Band in 1985 and which became a revolutionary music phenomenon for the then-Soviet audience. Fascinated by Bashkir folklore, Oleg was the first in Russia who started to practice an ethnic approach to jazz. Much later “The Feng Shui Jazz Theatre” premiered at New York's Symphony Space in 2008 and exploded onto the jazz scene with his signature style featuring a great diversity of musical influences and instrumentation. With no end in site Oleg has recently launched into the “Rhyme and Reason” project together with The Keith Javors Trio, which debuted in New York in February, 2009.

Oleg Kireyev's jazz CDs number ten and one more is on the way. His 2007 album “Mandala”, released by New York recording label Jazzheads, was a first round Grammy Award nominee for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Oleg’s most recent effort, “Rhyme and Reason”, is planned for release in May 2010, and will be followed by a big Euro–American tour.

Press Quotes

"Oleg's playing is a marvelous combination of styles, incorporating a whole lot of players. I hear echoes of the 1920’s and John Coltrane combined with the unstructured jazz". Bud Shank, musician , USA .

What's cool (to me, at least) about the result is how unabashed the band is in swinging genuinely hard on chestnut exotica like Puerto Rican-born Ellington trombonist Juan Tizol's "Caravan," which Oleg Kireyev turned to as an encore, and seems born to blow, dervish-like. Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz Journalists Association, USA

"A Russian sax player with a reputation for hard swing and high excitement..." The Express Star, GBR.

"The musician performing looked like a priest of a strange music patronizing God. Through all the night his eyes were shining with that fire of a man who totally devoted himself to the deed beloved". OpenMusic magazine, Russia.

"The tenor saxophonist from Ufa in the Urals is establishing a reputation as an entertaining and skilled musician... Revolutionary Russian reedman Oleg Kireyev..." The Evening Mail, GBR.

"The Russian sax player breaks down genre borders". Paul Freeman / Entertainment Writer, USA

"Wow! I said, and settled in to listen to a saxophone performer from Russia! Incredibly good and smooth, full of verve, and style, and class, and that is what Russian saxophonist Oleg Kireyev..." Lee Prosser (JazzReview.com®)

More quotes and reviews

Oleg performed at: Symphony Space (NYC), Iridium Jazz Club (NYC), Yoshi's (CA), Smoke (NYC), Smalls (NYC), Chris Jazz Cafe (PA), Blues Alley (Washington, D.C.), etc.
Jazz Festivals: Montreux Jazz Festival (SH), London Jazz Festival (UK), SXSW (USA), New York Jazz Improv (USA), Malborough Jazz Festival (UK), Liechfild Jazz Festival (UK), Birmingham Jazz Festival (UK), Klaipeda Jaz Festival (LT) and many others.

To see all discography

CD "Mandala" 2008, Jazzheads, was include at Grammy First Round Nominations in category "Best Contemporary Jazz Album CD"