Evgeny Sivtsov - Zoo (2019)

The new release of the St. Petersburg label Rainy Day Records presents an album by Moscow pianist and composer Evgeny Sivtsov called Zoo. However, at the time of recording this album (2017), Eugene could be considered a New York musician and he carried out this project with the support of his American colleagues - bassist Dan Shmelinsky and drummer Sean Baltazor. A native Muscovite, Eugene Sivtsov graduated from the Academy of Music. Gnesins, where his main teacher was Igor Bril, and later continued his education in the Netherlands. As a student, Sivtsov began performing with JVL Big Band Viktor Livshits, and later played with leading Russian jazz masters - Anatoly Kroll, Igor Butman, Georgy Garanyan, German Lukyanov, won prizes at prestigious competitions in Moscow and Amsterdam, and in 2009 he moved to New York, where he spent almost ten years. There he studied a wide variety of music, led, in particular, the choir of the St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Manhattan, but, of course, played with many prominent representatives of the jazz scene of the Big Apple. The crown of the American stage of his life was the recording of Zoo, made shortly before Sivtsov's return to Moscow. The record itself, as mentioned above, turned into an album under the logo of the St. Petersburg label.

Six original compositions by Sivtsov entered Zoo. According to Eugene, he tried to give his own, special look to each of the compositions, but at the same time play differently than most modern musicians. Well, after listening to the album, I think that he achieved his goal. All compositions are not similar to each other, each has its own “highlight”, and perhaps this is precisely what does not allow us to somehow uniquely determine the style of Sivtsov’s music. His six plays are like a walk through the pages of jazz history, during which you can find the subtle lyricism of Bill Evans, the immediacy of the early jazz pianists, the powerful energy of Oscar Peterson, and the dizzying paradox of a la Telonius Monk. And all this diversity, the “musical chameleon” Evgeny Sivtsov builds on a solid foundation, where a solid academic school of play is combined with true jazz creativity. Often, for example, in a play such as Happy Hippo, Eugene begins a composition with a simple theme, which, as it develops, undergoes interesting metamorphoses in order to return to its finals or turn into a bravura march, like in New Anthill.

From start to finish you listen to Zoo with unflagging interest. This album is like a mountain road, where new and new, but invariably breathtaking landscapes appear at every turn. I repeat, I don’t know how to determine the style of Sivtsov’s music, and therefore I’ll hide behind the vague concept of “modern mainstream,” but I’m sure of one thing, at least for myself: with the Zoo album in my personal ranking card, Evgeny Sivtsov is rapidly breaking into to the ranks of the most interesting pianists of contemporary Russian jazz.