Lazarev Project Group - Groove Journey (2023)

The Lazarev Project Group is back with a fantastic studio album: On GROOVE JOURNEY, 14 musicians play the instrumental songs of the virtuoso guitarist Igor Lazarev - beautifully recorded, cleverly arranged, rhythmically infectious FunkLatinJazzrockPop!
After the successful 2017 CD debut "SHINE YOUR LIGHT" was recorded as a classic jazz rock trio (guitar, bass, drums) and the group has also performed live as a threesome for many years, GROOVE JOURNEY expands the tonal spectrum to include wind instruments and keyboards and the voice of Lisa Lazarev, a daughter of the bandleader. And that's a good thing: Because these new elements are never just accessories, they always have something to contribute musically to the compositions, which are complex but accessible and - as promised - really groove.
"The songs asked for it"
Igor Lazarev has always gone straight ahead: through personal crises such as the death of his mother, to whom he wrote "It's Not Over", through phases of finding new roles after all the children have left the house ("Night Talk"), and through the well-known difficulties of the in recent years mainly for live musicians. The release of the organic-sounding and optimistic work GROOVE JOURNEY is all the more remarkable: Lazarev has something to say - without any lyrics.
The Lazarev Project Group had had many of the songs in their program for years, and so it became clear to Igor how best to arrange and record them. The result is fascinating and justifies the choice of instrumentation across the board, or as Igor says: "The songs asked for it."
Hearing it once is not enough: the pieces tell a story, paint pictures and open up spaces. The grandiose six strings are always there, but they sing and carry, unpretentious and essential, so that GROOVE JOURNEY has become a musical journey around the world that not only takes guitar fans, but everyone.
With Igor Lazarev (g) are: Mike Haarman (dr), Christian Kussmann (b),Wim de Vries (dr), Antoine Colin (tr), James Morgan (b), Waldemar Leczkowski (sax), Claus Schulte (dr), Danh Thai (sax), Oleg Jakushov (sax), Daniel Koegel (keys),Fritz Roppel (b), Stephan Schöpe (dr) and Lisa Lazarev (voc) - a truly international tour group!