Two expats from the United Kingdom living in Kyiv have recently decided that there is something missing on the music scene here.
This is how Kiev Big Band was born, a 17-piece swing band the likes of which the capital has not seen since the 1960s.
The band debuted in January, selling out a concert in Master Klass. The small but vibrant jazz community in Kyiv buzzed for weeks with excitement.
The two English managers of the band, Peter Davis and Mick Lake, are known in the expat community: the former has been around for decades, while the latter arrived a few years ago as a member of the Death Valley Screamers, the band of Zhenya Tymoshenko’s ex-husband Sean Carr.
The band and its leader are gone, but Lake remains.
The English duo are boasting that their new crew of musicians are “arguably some of the most promising instrumentalists in the world.”
They are promising a wide repertoire of old and new jazz tunes, plenty of improvisations on stage and two fantastic singers thrown in the mix.
Kiev Big Band. Sullivan Room. March 16. 8:30 p.m. Hr 80-100
