June 20, 2007
Festival St. Denis
Magic Métis
Paris, France
Ljova performs with the legendary two-time Oscar-winning Argentine composer/producer/soulman GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA, in an evening devoted to his compositions. Ensemble also features Tara O'Connor (flute), Michael Ward-Bergeman (accordion), Priscilla Lee (cello) and Mark Dreser (bass).
For ticketing and info, visit the Festival Saint Denis website.
Ljova is a composer, violist and arranger.
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