SLAMCD277 Nick Vintskevich, Leonid Vintskevich, Steve Kershaw & Peter Svärd – Songs from the Black Earth

This Anglo-Russo-Swedish quartet first met in Finland in 2000, jammed, gelled, formed a band, then recorded this album of European jazz in three sessions (two of them live) in Oxford between 2005 and 2007. The title comes from an Osip Mandelstam poem, and their chief inspiration from the same source as Mandelstam’s: Russia’s fertile and beautiful black earth region, centred on Voronezh.

Nick Vintskevitch: soprano saxophone and alto saxophone
Leonid Vintskevitch: piano
Steve Kershaw: double bass
Petter Svärd: drums

“Saxophonist Nick Vintskevitch wrote most of the material, quiet, folk-inflected, elegant music thoughtfully addressed by a tastefully restrained band that probably prides itself more on purity of tone than on jazz-based propulsiveness, emphasising the beauty and shape of the pieces’ affecting melodies rather than their various rhythmic possibilities. This is not to say that there are no passages of robust intensity or even fierce interplay in compositions such as the plangent opener ‘Alone’, or the quartet’s intriguing visit to the traditional New Orleans staple ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’, just that to considerable effect the band’s priorities lie elsewhere, the Vintskevitches (Nick the flawless saxophonist, Leonid the versatile pianist), UK bassist Steve Kershaw and Swedish drummer Petter Svärd concentrating, above all else, on sheer sonic seductiveness.” – Chris Parker, The Vortex

All tracks composed by Nick Vintskevitch except Village Music (Leonid Vintskevitch) and When the Saints Go Marching In (Traditional)
Tracks 1-4, 6 & 7 recorded at the Jacqueline du Pré MusicBuilding, Oxford on 5th July 2005.
Engineered, mixed & mastered by Gerry O’ Riordan at Spatial Audio, Pinewood Film Studios, England.
Track 8 recorded live at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, Oxford on 25th June 2006.
Engineered, mixed & mastered by Eric Smith at BullpenStudio, Oxfordshire.
Track 5 recorded live at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford on 2nd December 2007.
Engineered, mixed & mastered by Eric Smith at BullpenStudio, Oxfordshire.

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