Fans of Chicago, BS&T, EW&F, Vehicle, Brecker Brothers and Deep Purple(?)

[jluetjen]

It's been a couple of decades since I last wandered over into the "Off Topic Forums"

For any fans of the bands listed above, I just figured that I'd share a shameless (and uncompensated) plug for Leonid and Friends who are kicking off a tour of the US. I saw them at the ocean-side "Blue Ocean Music Hall" back in the pre-covid era and their musicianship and sound is spot-on in live performances.

They have an interesting backstory with the founder (Leonid; producer and bass player) became a huge fan of Chicago in the 70's and 80's when their music wasn't available behind the Iron Curtain. He also has a cool story of stripping payphones in Siberia for parts to build his first electric guitar from scratch. jump forward 35 years and he and a group of friends got together as a birthday gift to himself to record some covers of Chicago tunes for fun. Of course arrangements don't exist, so he's basically done all of the arrangements by ear from original Chicago recordings. Original members of Chicago have since endorsed the band and Danny Seraphone actually sat in with Leonid and Friends when they played in the Illinois area (Danny is buried in the back left on the white drum set).

Since then they have expanded their repertoire wtih other Jazz-Rock fusion classics like Blood Sweat and Tears, Vehicle by the Ides of March, September and Got to Get You Into My Life by Earth, Wind and Fire, and incredibly tight rendition of the Brecker Brother's East River and even Stormbringer by Deep Purple!

They also have an original piece titled "The Speck of Dust" that features Overtone Singing.

It's cool to see the unabashed joy of the band when they play. Most of them can hardly speak English -- although they have been working on that.

If you were to ask me for a highlight -- it would be hard to say. All of the members seem to be session musicans back in Russia and Georgia, and many have separate YouTube channels with their own material. Of note to me?

- As a drummer 'in remission" I can safely say that Igor Dzhavad-Zade is a monster! Always "in the pocket" and with excellent chops and feel.
- Sergey Kashirin is killer on the guitar!
- Leonid Vorobyev's arrangements and production is absolutely top shelf!

I could go on and on. The vocalists are all excellent (with only a slight Russian accent on the part of one of them). The horns are super tight even if a touch goofy. The keyboard players are always right there.

If you have a chance to seem them on this year's tour, I encourage you to do so. There are so very few "big bands" still around doing full arrangements with horns, they are a treat not to be missed.