LRK Trio
From Russia with jazz
This years small jazz sensation is LRK, a Russian trio who received the Special Jury Award at "Made in New York Jazz Competition", while the release "If you have a Dream" was awarded by the Russian Music Critic Union as the jazz album of the year.
Wildly successful tours in both Europe and Japan have shown this is a piano trio we'll hear a lot about for years to come. Pianist Evgeny Lebedev has written most of the trio's music. He played folk music on accordion as a child, but at 15 years old he discovered jazz. He began his piano studies, first at the academy in Moscow and then at the University of California in Berkeley in the US.
Among others, the jazz website All About Jazz gave the trio excellent reviews, describing the music as filled with peculiar folk influences, crisp postmodern improvisation and elements from fellow countrymen like Tchaikovsky. They conclude that "Everyone who misses Esbjørn Svensson's trio should give them a listen". London Jazz News is equally overwhelmed. In the review of the trio's last album, they write "A thrilling roller coaster between fast and mellow beats with all the hallmarks of a classic in the making".
Make sure to check out "Plyasovaya" on YouTube – in addition to the brilliant and playful music, you get to see a frog join in on the fun! The frog, unfortunately, fails to join us at Moldejazz, but we are nevertheless proud to be the first festival in Norway to present a band few have heard of, but that's sure to be the talk of the town following their concert.
Evengy Lebedev, piano, accordion / Anton Revnyuk, double bass, electric bass / Ignat Kravtsov, drums.