RHYME and REASON: Oleg Kireyev and Keith Javors

RHYME and REASON

Oleg Kireyev and Keith Javors

Oleg Kireyev, tenor saxophone
Keith Javors, piano
Boris Kozlov, bass
E.J. Strickland, drums

This extraordinary new CD features Russian saxophone player Oleg Kireyev and American pianist Keith Javors along with bassist Boris Kozlov (Charles Mingus Big Band) and drummer E. J. Strickland (Ravi Coltrane Band).

In September 2008, after a debut performance at the legendary “Blues Alley” in Washington D.C., Oleg and Keith formed a partnership that quickly inspired two American and two European tours. In addition to performances at numerous East Coast venues including “Chris Jazz Café” in Philadelphia and the “Iridium” in New York, their project was successfully presented at the International House of Music, one of the premiere concert venues in Russia. Kireyev and Javors also headlined the Jazz Festival in the historic Russian city of Yaroslavl as well as performing in countless towns in Poland. Even though their musical and symbiotic relationship has been brief in time, it has been deep in spirit.

This all-original music is played by a fully integrated, forward thinking, democratic collective. Balance and an even-keeled approach are the norm here. While Kireyev's clean and lean tenor sax is the lead instrument on the cool Getz-like mainstream themes of the title selection and “Sierra Nicole's Bossa,” he shows versatility stretching out in free form for the first half of “Springtime,” while at other times recalling the more exploratory side of Joe Henderson. Generally, parts are proportioned equally between the co-leaders and their formidable, well-heeled band mates, and this is particularly true for extended cuts like the bluesy “What Is Love” and hip, funky “Chinatown.” Kozlov and Strickland have played on several potent landmark sessions during their careers, and here they truly work together as one.

Then there's Keith Javors, whose recent critically-acclaimed projects have included “Coming Together” (a tribute to the late composer Brendan Romaneck) and the American Music Project’s “On the Bright Side.” You hear him in full bloom during the beautiful trio track “Happenstance,” with a personal voice of depth, substance and wit. Javors can expertly comp on chords, play dazzling arpeggiated lines, or flawlessly mesh with Kireyev on silvery unison melodies that refract in mirror-like reflections of prismatic color. As Scott Yanow says in his liner notes, it’s “a memorable modern mainstream jazz set… the type of forward-looking recording that grows in interest with each listen and is a perfect example of 21st century jazz.”

“Oleg Kireyev, Keith Javors, Boris Kozlov, and E.J. Strickland have created a memorable modern mainstream jazz set that also mixes together aspects of Oleg’s Russian heritage, many adventurous moments, and subtle unpredictability. It is this type of forward-looking recording that grows in interest with each listen and is a perfect example of 21st century jazz.”
Scott Yanow, Author and Journalist