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THE EDGE: Swinging Violas
by Alexander Gelfand
Jazziz Magazine (April 2007)

...This past January, the Russian-born, New York City-based violist Ljova and his Vjola Contraband drew a full house at Joe's Pub in Manhattan, forcing fans to stand three-deep at the room's swanky, dimly lit bar. Rarely have I seen so many young, attractive people pay to hear a band with no less than two violists not to mention an accordion player, an acoustic bassist, and a percussionist who bears a striking resemblance to Sideshow Bob. Yet there they were in astonishing numbers, knocking back $10 cocktails and whooping it up at the end of every tune.

Ljova, otherwise known as Lev Zhurbin, was born in Moscow in 1978 and emigrated to the States in 1990 with his parents, the composer Alexander Zhurbin and the writer Irena Ginzburg. He graduated from Juilliard and immediately took off in all directions. He has written music for folk, jazz, and classical ensembles; has arranged world-music material for marquee groups such as the Kronos Quartet and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble; has composed music for film; and, with his fellow composers Ronen Landa and Jonathan Zalben, co-founded Mediant Music, a commercial-music production company that has worked on projects for the likes of Kraft and Coca-Cola.

The music that Ljova performs with his Vjola Contraband is deeply indebted to European folk traditions, though you'd be hard pressed to pinpoint a precise origin. Looking a bit like Maxwell Smart talking into his shoe-phone, the bespectacled 28-year old spoke directly into his instrument's microphone-pickup between tunes. But when he mentioned his "strong bias toward uneven meters," he wasn't just talking. The off-kilter rhythms he favors recall the asymmetrical dance beats of central and southeastern Europe, where time signatures tend to look like hat sizes (7/8, 13/8, 15/16). They tug and pull at you in strange and mysterious ways, as do Ljova's melodies, which have the tuneful, emotive quality of good pop.

Occasionally, he makes direct reference to his source material. One as-yet-unnamed tune was inspired by music Ljova heard in Hungary while traveling with his girlfriend, Inna Barmash, lead singer for the Gypsy-klezmer-funk band Romashka....

Back home, he sought to capture the unique rhythms employed in the Hungarian town of Szek, where the dancers appear to have what he jokingly called "a really organized way of stumbling from side to side." Despite the goofy introduction, the tune itself turned out to be a haunting drone-like lament that made me instantly homesick for my wife and child. Pathetic? Yes. But impressive, too - at least on Ljova's part. Music rarely punches my emotional buttons that way. And it almost never makes me feel anything remotely resembling lonesomeness or longing.

The emotion most often summoned by a Ljova performance, however, is elation. His tunes frequently display the kind of driving punch-drunk intensity that typifies Raymond Scott's music -- especially the "Powerhouse" theme that accompanies all of the assembly-line scenes in those old Warner Bros. cartoons. And Ljova's colleagues take obvious pleasure locking into the tricky grooves and intricate parts evident in so much of the band's repertoire.

Ljova repays the favor with beneficence on the bandstand. Given his own considerable skills, the Vjola Contraband could be just a star vehicle for its leader. But Ljova promotes many compositions by fellow band members. He appears to be equally happy backing a bandmate or creating a scene-stealing solo. On those rare occasions when he does grab the spotlight, his performance displays the same rhythmic and melodic flair as his writing. More typically, however, he simply plays lead on a composition then gracefully steps aside. I especially liked the results on "Tango for Patty," a showpiece for accordionist Patrick Farrell, who occasionally threw in some jazzy dissonance alongside his Eastern-European melodic inflections.

Perhaps Ljova's humility came from years spent playing second fiddle to violinists. Or maybe he already knows something that many musicians - and most people in general - only learn later in life: the more you give, the more you receive.

Watch a video of the Enso String Quartet performing Ljova's Bagel on the Malecon at the Library of Congress!

Click here to view!

For those of you couldn't attend the recent LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND performance at Joe's Pub in New York, or for those who were turned away (it was completely sold out!), here is a wonderful review from the Newsday music critic Justin Davidson - enjoy!

This eclectic violist's music is anything but plain folk
Justin Davidson, NEWSDAY
January 19, 2007

Quick, name a violist, any violist! There are plenty of marvelous ensemble players and two or three who live by the handful of oddball concertos, but nobody quite like the polymath Lev Zhurbin, who likes to be known by his diminutive, Ljova.

Though he was born in the string quarry of Russia and refined in the purifying precincts of Juilliard, Zhurbin turned out to be a lover of gritty hybrids. The music he writes and plays is full of Brahmsian tone, Bartók lines, hiccupping Hungarian rhythms, Klezmer soul and the sexy plaintiveness of tango and the blues.

Zhurbin and the group Vjola Contraband played the late set at Joe's Pub on Wednesday, and the crowded, overheated room was the perfect venue for young musicians still scouting out their own creative terrain. The violist, whose pleasantly geeky stage presence contrasted with the swagger of his sound, described traveling around Hungary and Transylvania in search of the perfect folk tune.

Bartók must have been on his mind, since the Hungarian composer was one of the first and most crucial ethnographers of Eastern Europe's rural traditions. But while Bartók scoured the countryside for the voice of his country's people, Zhurbin's spiritual home is really Queens, that living anthology of ethnic music. It's poetic, really, that a master of the middle-voiced instrument should write a soulful piece named for the neighborhood of Middle Village.

Like many of the most interesting and entrepreneurial musicians of his generation (he was born in 1978), Zhurbin is an avid collector of influences, beginning with his father, Alexander Zhurbin, the composer of a Russian rock-opera version of the Orpheus tale.

The band is likewise a purist's nightmare. The Swiss percussionist Mathias Kunzli sat astride a cajón, a beatable box of Peruvian birth, and tapped out rhythms that commuted between Havana and Sarajevo. The accordionist, Patrick Farrell, hails from Cajun country, and his chameleonic instrument now took on the hues of a Buenos Aires bandoneón, now a gypsy squeezebox.

Of course, you don't get good music just by raking together a pile of ethnic traditions and jumping in. What matters is the personality behind the mix and the technique to extract all the various essences. Ljova's command of the viola extends from the quiet melancholy with which he draws out a slow melody to high-speed flaming licks.

In concert, he mocked his own propensity for limping meters, intricate harmonies and moderate tempos. "I always feel like fast music goes too slowly," he said. I know what he means: When beats click by quickly, music can get simplified, like a car speeding boringly along a straight desert road. So, just to prove himself wrong, Zhurbin and the band batted out a dizzying, up-tempo piece with syncopations so insistent and a downbeat so shifty that it felt like it had reversed direction in mid-measure.

If this sounds like music you wish you hadn't missed, there's always his Ljova's new CD: "Vjola: World on Four Strings." [..and you can buy it here!]

For those of you couldn't attend the recent LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND performance at Joe's Pub in New York, or for those who were turned away (it was completely sold out!), here are two videos, plus a wonderful review from the Newsday music critic Justin Davidson - enjoy!

Friends and fans in the New York area - don't miss your next opportunity to join LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND for their return performance at Joe's Pub, on January 17th at 9:30pm!

We'll be premiering many new pieces, and are splitting the bill with the brilliant gypsy party band ROMASHKA!

==> Full details here.
Hope to see you there!

<!-- begin content -->HEAT ME UP - the most recent track by Ljova - is available as free download!

Grab the track here:
==>HEAT ME UP
...Enjoy!

REMIX IT!
"Heat Me Up" is looking for a new beat! If you'd like to give remixing a try, download all of the raw files at Ljova's page on CCMixter. You can publish your remixes on CCMixter as well.

Ljova's debut CD, VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS has just been featured in the December issue of STRINGS MAGAZINE! Ljova is honored to be featured in this wonderful publication, especially with his frequent co-conspirator Yo-Yo Ma on the cover.

==>Read the story here!

Ljova's debut release, VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS, has just been reviewed by Allan Kozinn in Ljova's hometown newspaper, the NEW YORK TIMES!

[Ljova] is an eclectic, with an ear for texture... strikingly original and soulful.

==>Read the entire review here!
==>Get a copy of Ljova's debut album, here

Ljova's debut release, VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS has just been profiled on NPR's nationally syndicated radio program WEEKEND AMERICA as the World Music Pick!

Any classical musician will tell you the viola is the Rodney Dangerfield of musical instruments. It never gets any respect because it always plays second fiddle to the violin. World Music critic Anastasia Tsioulcas says that's about to change. Her favorite album of the month is "Vjola, The World on Four Strings," by a Russian-born musician named Ljova.

==>Get a copy of Ljova's debut album, here!
==>Listen to a podcast of this story! (mp3)

Ljova has recently completed an original score to a wonderfully zany documentary film called "THE TEAM". Produced by the BBC, and directed by James Marsh and Basia Winograd, it follows the triumphs and failures of a group of homeless New Yorkers, who are recruited to compete at the Homeless Soccer World Cup in Graz, Austria. The soundtrack features "Plume" from Ljova's debut CD, as well as music written especially for the film.

==> Check out the trailer at MySpace!

==> More info at the IMDb!

==> For more of Ljova's film music, visit the demos page.

Ljova has recently collaborated with the Kronos Quartet and Matmos on the string arrangement to Matmos' new track "SOLO BUTTONS FOR JOE MEEK", from their new album "THE ROSE HAS TEETH IN THE MOUTH OF A BEAST".

Find out more and get your copy:
==> Visit Ljova's discography page!

Friends and users of the wonderful interactive music service last.fm - rejoice!

You can now preview Ljova's debut album, add his music to your playlists, enjoy Ljova's raio + more.

==> Visit Ljova on last.fm

Ljova's track "Bagel on the Malecon" is currently being featured in Episode 009 of Bowed Radio's podcast, devoted to innovative string music.

Also on the program - the Virus String Quartet, String Theory, L. Subramaniam & Jiebing Chen, Lindsay Mac, Stephen Katz and The Plug

More at bowed.org

(Bowed wedding dress, courtesy of uglydress.com)

Ljova was one of sixteen fellows (and the only violist) who took part in the "Porous Borders of Music" Workshop at Carnegie Hall, featuring the brilliant double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer.

As part of the workshop, two of Ljova's compositions -- PLUME and ORI'S FEARFUL SYMMETRY - were performed at Zankel Hall by an ensemble, featuring:
Darren Moloney (banjo), Josh Pinkham (mandolin), Jeremy Kittel and Katie Hyun (violins), Ljova (viola), Hamilton Berry (cello) and Edgar Meyer himself on bass!

Listen up! You can now preview my entire upcoming CD in under 35 seconds -- a publicist's dream!(?)

>> Get the mp3 below:
LJOVA - VJOLA in under 35 seconds

Does the album actually sound like this? Well - if you listen really fast, maybe!
To hear complete tracks, please visit the demos page.

Enjoy -- and please let me know if you wish to be notified once the album is released!

[Credit Due: created in Jason Freeman's lovely iTunes Signature Maker. Try it!]

Let's face it - sleep is over-rated. But it's nice to dream.

Ljova spent much of January and February preparing new arrangements for upcoming tours by both the Kronos Quartet and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble.

Among them are arrangements of musics of China, India, Iran and Iraq, as well as collaborations with Chinese Pipa performer Wu Man, the Iranian Kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, and the Tanzanian-born sound artist Walter Kitundu.

Details of relevant Kronos Quartet shows can be found here;
Details of upcoming Yo-Yo Ma and Silk Road Ensemble shows can be found here.

Enjoy the music!

While not as adorable as the Marimba Ponies, I humbly present for your consumption the "Sabre Dance" by Khachaturian, as arranged by Ljova and orchestrated in collaboration with Matthew van Brink. Here performed with deviant ferociousness by the Canadian group Bowfire, and featuring Lara St. John as the lead violin.

Grab the MP3 here and Enjoy!
Sabre Dance

A few weeks ago, Romashka spent a beautiful afternon horsing around, styling each other's hair, and playing their hearts out in a studio in Williamsburg. The video was filmed and directed by Trevor Bayack, the creator of the groundbreaking music video community site, the New Pop Sensation. Press "click to play" below!

In early January, Ljova made string arrangements and performed with the soulful singer-songwriter R. Star. Dana Leong and Gil
Selinger (both on cello) joined Ljova and R. Star.