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Saturday, March 8, 2008
Ljova and the Kontraband at Barbes with Rob Kendt
Start: 8:00 pm
End: 9:30 pm

LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND with ROB KENDT

March 8, 2008 at 8pm
Barbès, Brooklyn NY
376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave.)
F train to 7th avenue.
Door: $10

Celebrate March 8th - Russia's equivalent of Valentine's Day, and elsewhere recognized as "International Women's Day" - by bringing your favorite International Woman and joining us at Barbès for our second annual special program of originals and covers to honor and romance the bewitching sex.

This year, swooning with us, will be the wonderful singer-songwriter ROB KENDT (website, MySpace), who himself got engaged just a few weeks ago at Inna & Ljova's apartment.

LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND (formerly Ljova & the Vjola Contraband) -- is chamber-jam music for the "remix generation". As if by alchemy, Eastern-European and Gypsy melodies, Latin rhythms, Jazz-inspired improvisations, and deeply rooted Classical forms are given new meanings. Founded by the maverick film composer, arranger, and violist Lev 'LJOVA' Zhurbin --- hailed by Billboard magazine as "one of New York's fastest rising composers and instrumentalists" -- the ensemble features two violas, accordion, bass, and percussion. Inspired by his collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Osvaldo Golijov, the Kronos Quartet, the rapper Jay-Z and others, Ljova's compositions dazzle with intricate textures, odd rhythms and lilting melodies, creating music that is both fresh and timeless..

Ljova, viola
Inna Barmash, vocal
Patrick Farrell, accordion
Mike Savino, bass
Special Guest: Rich Stein, percussion

Watch videos of Ljova and the Kontraband on YouTube!
Ljova and the Kontraband reviewed by Justin Davidson in NEWSDAY

View Rob Kendt's excellent videos on Youtube!

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Reviews

This self-released debut recording from 27-year-old Russian-born Lev Zhurbin (aka Ljova), one of New York's fastest-rising composers and instrumentalists, is something special... Ljova continually delights
---Anastasia Tsioulcas, Billboard

Rustic dances and evocative soundscapes, all crafted from ... the gorgeously grainy purr of his fiddle.
---Steve Smith, Time Out New York

Eclectic with an ear for texture...Throaty melodies supported by pizzicato rhythms, lush chordal figures and counterpoint.
---Allan Kozinn, New York Times

Though he was born in the string quarry of Russia and refined in the purifying precincts of Juilliard, Zhurbin turned out to be a lover of gritty hybrids. The music he writes and plays is full of Brahmsian tone, Bartók lines, hiccupping Hungarian rhythms, Klezmer soul and the sexy plaintiveness of tango and the blues.
---Justin Davidson, Newsday

Best of June 2006 New Releases
---John Schaefer, host of WNYC's New Sounds and Soundcheck

Like many younger musicians, this leader has absorbed a panoply of music and gleefully undermines rigid notions of genre.
---Sean Patrick Fitzell, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

From the poignant to the jolly... a superb player and composer, a Brilliant Debut. (Top 10 Jewish Records of 2006)
---George Robinson, THE JEWISH WEEK

No barriers...Fluid stylistic grace...
---Ken Smith, GRAMOPHONE Magazine

The off-kilter rhythms he favors ... tug and pull at you in strange and mysterious ways, as do Ljova's melodies, which have the tuneful, emotive quality of good pop.
---Alexander Gelfand, JAZZIZ Magazine

Proves that an integration between seemingly different cultures is possible, inevitable, and fruitful
---Osvaldo Golijov, composer