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Igor Zakus
 Igor Zakus is one of the best jazz bass-guitarists in Ukraine. He is also a composer, bandleader, teacher, and co-founder of JazzKolo Project. Igor was born and grown up in Chervonograd near Lviv, Ukraine. He graduated from Music College and Music Academy of Lviv as an oboe player, though all this time he messed around with a bass guitar once in a while. And it was the biggest mistake he ever made for sure. )) His bass guitar got him into a trouble of jazz, fusion, funk and other genres that you come across further on... Igor is mostly into a melodic thing, not into the funky groove, though most of his colleagues rely on him as a source of drive, furious slap, and stability in a band. Igor founded his first band Fest way back when he lived in Lviv. This band released only one album "Best Friends Around (U Koli Druziv)" in 1999, with different personnel, and keyboardist Yury Shepeta, only after Igor moved to Kyiv. Each of next two albums by Zakus ("Dedications", 2003 and "Zakus Was Here", 2006) turned out to be a kind of breakthrough in terms of craftsmanship, better recording, and new tunes, which determined Igor’s own style. The latest project by Zakus is "Kolomyiky" (2008). This is a number of traditional Ukrainian songs put into paradigm of contemporary jazz fusion. Being arguably the most wanted jazz bass-guitarist in Ukraine for 10 years, Igor made living mostly by playing with pop stars. Among the most notable are Ukraine’s pop-singer Taisia Povaliy, and ViaGra girls-band, which is mega-popular in Ukraine and Russia now. Igor’s personal responsibility made him a bandleader most of times. And those, who are in the backing band for ViaGra formed Z-Band – Zakus Band, which members presented on most of Igor’s CDs and his projects for several years. Most of jazzmen Zakus plays with are also stand for "Ukrainian jazz elite" among critics and audiences. Despite being too busy and hardworking bassist, Igor can be heard in many, many different projects. For example, he was with a band that played with Michel Legrand in Kyiv, played a gig with Marque Golmore’s Drum FM from Britain, not to mention numerous stage appearances with Ukrainian jazzmen. You can find his name on CDs by Yuliya Roma ("Heartbeats") and Natalia Lebedeva Trio’s highly critically acclaimed "Paints" (2006) and "Medium Cool" (2008) albums. In February 2007 Zakus became an artistic director and co-founder of yet young but already successful JazzKolo project. JazzKolo in known for number of live concerts, CD’s, and DVDs by the best Ukrainian jazz people, and it keeps on doing its so demanded work for Ukrainian jazz scene... information, photo from the official site: http://igorzakus.info/
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Albums:
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You feel that this music sounds not in the usual manner, but because it is composed for close people, with whom you may speak without words (sometimes it is even worth speaking without words).
| Domestic price: 460.60UAH,
International price: $32.90USD
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Listen how soft but bright the instrument sounds in his hands, how much of his sincere heart is given to it – you can hardly mix this handwriting with anything else. I am sure – even if only the bass by Igor Zakus sounded on the disc, it would be a rich, varied jazz album...
| Domestic price: 390.60UAH,
International price: $27.90USD
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This disc is double exclusive. First – as any recording of a live concert, it has fixated instantaneous changes of moods and states of the musicians, fluctuations of temperature in the hall. This is evident. But the main thing – now you have in front of you not just a concert by Igor Zakus with friends, but also a presentation of his absolutely new program, "Kolomyyky".
| Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
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Season 2007 was opened and closed with performances by, actually, Igor Zakus with Z-Band – and the both concerts have now become constituent parts of this series. At closing of the season, an absolutely new program sounded – "Kolomyiky". Well, and the program "Zakus Was Here" sounded during the opening, and it is it that you are going to hear here.
| Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
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This disc is double exclusive. First – as any recording of a live concert, it has fixated instantaneous changes of moods and states of the musicians, fluctuations of temperature in the hall. This is evident. But the main thing – now you have in front of you not just a concert by Igor Zakus with friends, but also a presentation of his absolutely new program, "Kolomyyky".
| Domestic price: 214.20UAH,
International price: $15.30USD
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"Kolomyikas" is a good album with bright pieces that are able to capture the audience as it is, even without associations with the material it derives from. In the end, there was no "weak link" in the team of the album’s creators. That is, probably, the reason why, without regard to the intense structure, there is within the music fabric – freedom, which makes it possible to breathe deeply.
| Domestic price: 306.60UAH,
International price: $21.90USD
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In his time, Igor Zakus became virtually the first jazz bass-player in Ukraine who released a solo album. Thus, the new album by Igor Zakus is what nobody seems to have done before in the Ukrainian jazz. And the word "song" in the title "Ukrainian Bass Song" appears far not by chance. Generally speaking, this is also an album of duets
| Domestic price: 306.60UAH,
International price: $21.90USD
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Songs:
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Colors permanently change, mix up, sometimes in quite strange directions – for some musicians migrate from one team to another, practically never leaving the scene. As a result, there arises absolutely warm, friendly, "private" atmosphere – curiously combining the sense of the large scene and, at the same time, the feeling of an almost family jam in a small club.
| Domestic price: 214.20UAH,
International price: $15.30USD
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This series sets the goal of creating a sort of a reference book of Ukrainian jazz musicians – grouping them by spheres of professionalization. Actually, the first disc of the new series is focused on the bass – both the bass guitar and the contrabass. At that, this time these are already studio, not concert recordings.
| Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
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..this evening interesting and even to some extent unexpected "specialized" combinations popped up unexpectedly – as, for example, the bass guitar plus contrabass, the acoustic bass plus the 8-string one, and so on, to say nothing about the last performance of the concert – a piece performed by all bass musicians involved.
| Domestic price: 390.60UAH,
International price: $27.90USD
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...one of the most interesting jazz compilations released in Ukraine. Here, it is just impossible to expressly favor any compositions forgetting about the rest: too expressive, interesting, deep, and the main thing – diversified pieces sound on the disc. In the end, one could just look at the names, listen to the fragment...
| Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
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..this evening interesting and even to some extent unexpected "specialized" combinations popped up unexpectedly – as, for example, the bass guitar plus contrabass, the acoustic bass plus the 8-string one, and so on, to say nothing about the last performance of the concert – a piece performed by all bass musicians involved.
| Domestic price: 214.20UAH,
International price: $15.30USD
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..Thus, you will discover here the best songs by Viktor Pavlik of the "Anna-Maria" period, and two dozen versions of "I Like You." One can hear even now that it is pop music of a special sort, having its own distinct personality...
| Domestic price: 278.60UAH,
International price: $19.90USD
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