iDrawing: July 2010

This was not just another concert. A riveting, overwhelming flood of energy filled (Le) Poisson Rouge last week, when 5 of my favorite musicians took the stage. The unusual thing about this performance was in the fact that 2 of the 5 musicians were Russian, and the other 3 - American. I have admired them separately for years, went to concerts and sang along to lyrics I knew by heart. And then..somehow, somewhere in the universe, they found out about each other. They met. They clicked. They recorded an album and went on stage to perform together. It was unbelievable. The language barrier was irrelevant - only pure musical symbiosis. They were meant to be and they knew it, and the excitement flowed from stage into the audience and back. I don't remember when was the last time I experienced such powerful, emotional, beautiful immersion. The name of the collaborative album is RAZINRIMILEV, and the participating musicians are Leonid Fedorov (vocals, guitar), Vladimir Volkov (upright bass), John Medeski (piano), Marc Ribot (guitar), and Ches Smith (drums).