Igor Kogan - In a Big City (2020)

Igor was born in Russia, in Nizhny Novgorod. At the age of seven, he began playing the violin. At the age of 15, Kogan emigrated with his family to Israel, where his interest in music did not disappear, but he took a different direction: Igor became a bass player. Then he moved to the USA and entered The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, which Igor successfully graduated from and worked in New York for some time. In 2014, he moved to Los Angeles, where he still works - and very successfully. He is a sought-after session musician, author of numerous compositions and arrangements, and a participant in many festivals in the USA, Europe and Israel, and the leader of his own quintet, as well as a large group called the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra.

In a Big City is Kogan the composer's reflection on the theme of life in big cities, with which his whole life is connected. It resulted in a program of nine author's compositions performed by Igor's quintet, forming in a certain sense a suite. Formally, the plays are not related to each other, but together they paint a panorama of life situations, joys and problems that a resident of a big city faces. I would venture to suggest that here the author relied on his own life experience. The opening Takeoff and the final title composition, the largest in volume, echo each other with a parade of all members of the quintet, where each gets his own solo part. The bassist Kogan also performed the Bass Introduction for two and a half minutes without accompaniment, which turned into the original, which is not at all canonical in terms of the New York Blues sizes used. And of course, one cannot fail to mention Vocalise, where the eminent guest of the project, vocalist Tierney Sutton, shines in a spectacular duet with flugelhorn. Stylistically, Igor Kogan's music is close to the mainstream in the broad sense of this term, and in general, In a Big City is not much like the debutant's album - it is a mature and interesting work done by an experienced and talented person, which is Igor Kogan.