Bluesmen's World(Music)

The ensemble LA MINOR was founded in summer 2000.
The ensemble performs in the style of street chanson with Russian folk, ska, jazz and Klezmer (Odessa style) influence. Once the style of LA MINOR was named as “Odessa beats”. It s the most precise determination in which LA MINOR live, create and perform.

The music of LA MINOR enriched by bayan (Russian accordion), saxophone, balalayka and tuba brings you back to the atmosphere of 20-40-es Soviet years and reminds the soundtrack to good old films about gangsters, tragic love and great swindlers of that time. Happy and nostalgic in the same time their music will not leave you untouched. Teeming with thieves and policemen, prostitutes and undercover agents, La Minor's Soviet-era street songs about the urban underworld strike an all-too-familiar chord with local art-house fans. But as the St. Petersburg band has learned on its frequent trips abroad, foreign audiences bring their own life experiences to the music.The collective consists of professional musicians.

Right from the outset, the voclaist Slava Shalygin set out to emulate urban folk guru Arkady Severny. Severny's genre, now euphemistically known as Russian chanson, surfaced from the music underground after the Soviet Union's collapse, and has since become ubiquitous in popularized renditions on radio stations, at cafes and in taxicabs. But La Minor returns to the music's roots, with the sophisticated arrangements and deadpan delivery that originally marked the gangster sound.
La Minor is known for its careful choice of material, and for ignoring the standards in place of obscure gems of folk poetry.

01. Aleshka zharil na bajane
02. Kokain
03. Devushka v Plat'e iz Sitca
04. Postoj, Parovo
05. A Ja Hozhu Pohodkoju Pochtennoju
06. Val's
07. Nikolaevskij Tramvaj
08. Murka
09. EvrejSKA
10. Istorija Studenta
11. Bros', Zhalet' ne Stanu
12. Gorod Anapa
13. U Son'ki Imeniny
14. Kakim Ty Menja Jadom Napoila
15. Mama, Mama
16. Konfetki-Prjanichki

Slava Shalygin – vocal
Igor Boytsov – saxophone
Sanja Ezhov – bayan (Russische accordion ), back-vocal
Lyonya Agafonov – double bass
Vova Uspensky - gitara, banjo
Zhenja Bobrov – drums

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