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| Oleg Kireyev and the Feng Shui Jazz Theater in East Coast Premier ![]() Kireyev's sound does not seem completely unprecedented - Mandala, his 2008 release on the NYC-based Jazzheads label, has a New Agey-fusion feel that harkens back to the '70s, with modal melodies and liberal use of digital delay. Bassist Victor Matoukhin (from Ukraine) is in thrall to Jaco Pastorius, while guitarist Valery Panfilov (from Moldova) employs sound processing devices for huge chords a la Jaco's one-time roommate Pat Metheny, though he comps like he came up in grungier garage bands and has some stunning surprises in hand, solo-wise. Drummer Ildar Nafigov (from Tatarstan) pushed the backbeat. 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 Kireyev turned to as an encore, and seems born to blow, dervish-like. Having trouble locating Bashkiria? It's in the Ural mountains, a southwestern region of what used to be the Soviet Union on the border of Europe and Asia, heavily forested, oil and mineral-rich, populated mostly by Turkic Bashkirs, Tatars and Muslims. Kireyev speaks fluent English, and intends to bring his band back to the U.S. in about six months. Why? As he said in an Upper West Side Cuban-Chinese restaurant after the set, he doesn't care for President Bush or our other governmental representatives, but "people are nice everywhere, " so why not? write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |