7th February 2012: Zhenya Strigalev ‘Smiling Organizm’ featuring Larry Grenadier, Eric Harland, Tim Lefebrve, Liam Noble, Vitaly Golovnev, launches June 4th Worldwide

Zhenya Strigalev Smiling Organizm

Launches June 4th, Worldwide

Zhenya Strigalev is a ‘one of a kind’ guy, and anyone who knows him will vouch for that.  The Russian born, London based alto saxophonists is witty, eccentric, quirky, studied and soulful, both in his musicianship and personality.  He’s known on the international jazz scene as the guy who organized (Along with Patsy Craig) some of London’s most unique concerts at a little bar off the beaten path known to locals as ‘Charlie Wright’s,’ over the course of about 5 years, bringing in some of the world’s biggest names while presenting a bumper crop of young talent from the london scene along the way.    As of late, he’s refocused all his creative energy into his upcoming album project, which we here at WWR are ultra-excited about.   Titled ‘Smiling Organizm’ Strigalev has assembled one heck of a cast of players, and very excitedly, not one but TWO of THE prominent bassists in the world today.  With… are you ready for this… Larry Grenadier and Tim Lefebrve sharing the bass duties, the album also features the one and only Eric Harland, one of the true modern heroes of drumming.   If that’s not enough, he’s called on one of the UK’s contemporary improvising giants Liam Noble to hold down the piano chair (who turns out some seriously highlight performances) & featured on trumpet is Strigalev’s compatriot from Russia, Vitaly Golovnev (now living and carving a great name for himself in NYC), who completely rises to the occasion and will no doubt raise some eyebrows as perhaps the unexpected surprise of the record.    But it’s definitely Strigalev’s record date– his compositions are full of raw emotion, eccentricity, intelligence and humor, and his playing stands to the fore.  The album launches officially on June 4th and we’re excited, if you can’t already tell.   There will be preview tracks available in the next coming weeks and more information on the record certainly to come.  Stay tuned.

Oh, ps… This is our 100th news post! (if anyone was keeping track…)