TheJazzBreakfastUK

Oleg Kireyev/Keith Javors: Rhyme & Reason (Inarhyme Records 1003)

http://thejazzbreakfast.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/disc-of-the-day-11-05-10/

When it come to lascivious tenor, the Russian Oleg Kireyev is your man. He doesn’t just whisper in your ear, he says very seductive and rather rude things. Just try his closing statement of the theme on the title track, or his opening on Sierra Nicole’s Bossa. He slides around the instrument in deeply suggestive fashion. It’s hard to resist.

For this disc he is partnered by American pianist Keith Javors, and the band is completed by Boris Koslov on bass and E.J. Strickland on drums, and together they have made a jolly enjoyable mainstream jazz album of all original tunes and with none of the slightly square feeling that is sometimes exuded by mainstream sessions.

The bassist is, of course, a mainstay of the Mingus bands while the drummer plays in the Ravi Coltrane Band. Dr Javors is an educationist as well as a virtuosic player, while Kireyev is much travelled and pulls in influences that go all the way from Bechet to Coltrane. He will be well-remembered by Birmingham and West Midlands jazz fans for his occasional visits here and stints with the Tim Amann band.

A classy session and one which breaks down the barriers between mainstream and modern, especially when you note the contrast between Sierra Nicole’s Bossa and Springtime, which follows it. From the “in” to the “out” in a matter of seconds.