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Leo Volskiy: Good News Blues

By Chris Mosey
November 10, 2012
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Saint Petersburg is Russia's jazz capital, home to Igor Butman-Bill Clinton's favorite living saxophonist, and chosen for his musical debut by none other than Vladimir "Fats" Putin. Pianist Leo Volskiy also hails from the city, but no longer lives there. After studying at the Mussorgsky College of Music and listening to local musicians at such clubs as the Jazz Philharmonic Hall and the Red Fox Jazz Cafe, Volskiy left in 2004 to live and work in Hamburg. From here he journeyed to New York to cut his debut album.

It's a solid, well-grounded, no-nonsense affair in which the young Russian pays tribute to the greats of the bop and post-bop eras-men like

Bud Powell

piano
1924 - 1966

" data-original-title="" title="">Bud Powell,

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk,

Elmo Hope

piano
1923 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Elmo Hope,

Tommy Flanagan

piano
1930 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Tommy Flanagan,

Hank Jones

piano
1918 - 2010

" data-original-title="" title="">Hank Jones and

Barry Harris

piano
1929 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Barry Harris-backed by one of best rhythm sections in the Big Apple-

John Webber

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">John Webber on bass and drummer

Joe Farnsworth

drums
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Farnsworth.

There are two Bud Powell compositions, interestingly neither among his best known works. "Webb City" is a tribute to pre-bop trumpeter

Freddie Webster

trumpet
1916 - 1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Freddie Webster, who

Dizzy Gillespie

trumpet
1917 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Dizzy Gillespie said had "the best sound on trumpet since the trumpet was invented" but who, alas, died from a heroin overdose in 1947. Then there's "In The Mood For A Classic," written by Powell "for France in general," in the Boullemont Sanitorium near Paris, while he was recuperating from tuberculosis in 1963.

Volskiy has performed a great service in resurrecting these largely forgotten masterpieces by the father of modern jazz piano.

He also includes two of his own compositions. "Good News Blues" is actually bop and very much in the Powell tradition, busy and percussive. There's a nice solo from Webber that evokes the work of the great

Oscar Pettiford

bass
1922 - 1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Oscar Pettiford. "Park Campus" has more air through it and some nice melodies that hark back on occasion to the swing era.

Volskiy saves his party piece for last: a lovely, lilting solo piano treatment of "Moonlight In Vermont" in which he rarely strays too far from the melody, yet still manages to put his own stamp on the old ballad.

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Track Listing

My Heart Stood Still; In The Mood For A Classic; Good News Blues; Heart And Soul; Alone Together; Conception; Park Campus; Webb City; Moonlight In Vermont.

Personnel

Leo Volskiy

Leo Volskiy: piano; John Webber: bass; Joe Farnsworth: drums.

Album information

Title: Good News Blues | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: Jazzing Music

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