The 4th Prague Jazz Festival (1967)
Crescendo (RT) Quintet, Zoubov, Bacholdin, Frumkin, Satanovsky, Goretkin
Excerpt from a Czech newspaper review:
"The RT Quintet's best number is Zoubov's arrangement of the traditional theme "The Old Novgorod Song" with extraordinary solos by Bacholdin (trombone) and Zoubov (tenor sax) in an esctatic climax, after which both musicians with surprising exactness find their way together to a joint ending..."

Old Novgorod Song

Tenor Saxophone clip from Time Remembered with Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, Mick Goodrick.


Time Remembered Tenor Sax Solo

This is a second half of free improvised piece by me (tenor) and Igor Nazaruk (organ).
Full version goes 8+ minutes

The Prayer (Short Version)

This is an excerpt from a concert in Moscow, circa 1978 of our Zoubov-Saulski duo. Our music at these concerts  was basically free, we had some themes, short motifs, patterns that we had in our vocabulary, we planned mostly only emotional lines of development and played each of two sets non-stop.

This joke of a piece wasn't planned or expected at all, I suddenly had an image of something like "Clarinet Polka" in my head and just started playing. I didn't remember the original melody well, neither did  Igor Saulsky, so we just had some fun with it,

Drunken Polka

This is an old live recording, made in Comeback Inn Jazz Club (now extinct) in late 1980's. I and Milcho are playing this tune duo, the rest of the gig was played by Lingua Franca, a kinda weird (in a good sense) trio, with a third member being a fantastic classical and world music guitar player Dusan Bogdanovic.

It was recorded on a cassette that was in storage for at least 20 years.

I Can't Get Started - Duo with Milcho Leviev

Another old live recording from the 80s with my dear friend and partner Milcho Leviev on the piano. Recorded at Vine St Bar & Grill (doesn't exist anymore) as a part of the Lingua Franca trio gig. The third member was an outstanding guitarist Dusan Bogdanovic, not playing on this tune.

As always with Milcho, it was impossible to predict where it would go and when it will end and I was trying to be on the level. We were definitely having fun and hope you will too. 

On The Sunny Side - with Milcho Leviev

A Memory Lane trip. Piece by Igor Saulski, recorded at home studio in Washington DC circa 1980, I'm playing tenor. Igor immigrated to the States a few years before me, ending our inspiring and very creative collaboration in Moscow. 

November Joy - by Igor Saulski

Tenor solo and coda. From "Rejuvenation Project CD. 2006.

Tenor solo, Russian Suite Part3

Recorded live at the LaVeLee Jazz Club, 2006

White Sands by Alexei Zoubov, Introduction

I was born in 1936 in Moscow, Russia into the family of scientists and was supposed to become a scientist too. Following the family tradition I graduated from Moscow University with master’s degree in Physics and was offered a prestigious and exciting job other aspiring physicists would kill for.

But… insidious serpent of jazz had been seducing me since the early 50-ties. Stalin was still alive when I started to spend nights trying to tune to jazz programs of the Voice of America, BBC and other similar stations. In my sophomore year at the University I surrendered to the urge to play jazz and started first on clarinet and then saxophone and joined the early wave of jazz rebirth in the Soviet Union. It is worth mentioning that at this time playing jazz in the Soviet Union was considered not far from committing treason!

So, instead of working in physics, I went on the road with the Oleg Lundstrem big band, then by far the best in Russia. Then followed a 7 year engagement with Vadim Ludvikovsky Radio and Television big band and then until my departure to USA I worked as a studio musician recording and composing music for Studio Melodia and films.

In the late 50’s, 60’s and 70’s jazz music became accepted (or tolerated) in the USSR. In the 60’s Moscow had several jazz clubs, yearly jazz festivals and even started to send jazz musicians to jazz festivals in other countries.

I led and participated in many jazz groups, most famous being my Crescendo quartet, duo with keyboardist Igor Saulski, Barometer quintet, etc.

In 1984 I finally settled in Los Angeles where I live and continue composing and playing. During my 50+ years in music I had the honor and pleasure to share the stage and record with many jazz greats like Gary Burton, Chic Corea, Pete Cristlieb, Paul Gonsalves, Charlie Haden, “Tootie” Heath, Dick Hyman, Keith Jarrett, Milcho Leviev and no less important Russian musicians like Konstantin Bakholdin, Gennady Golshtein, German Lukyanov, Konstantin Nosov, Boris Rychkov and many, many others I can’t list for the lack of space.

alexei-zoubov

Popular tracks