by John Sharpe

„It’s no surprise to learn that pianist Simon Nabatov was a child prodigy. He brings breathtaking finesse to everything he touches. And since leaving the Soviet Union in 1979 at 20, he has touched on a staggering range, equally at home in modern jazz, free improvisation, the canons of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols and Brazilian music. That’s not to mention his own works, which defy easy classification.
[…]
Freely improvised dates are perhaps disproportionately well-represented in Nabatov’s discography. Why is that? “Well, there is a practical aspect to it. There is in Cologne a venue LOFT and I’m in a perfect situation to invite musicians from all over and document it. LOFT is a great place to do that because it has a concert Steinway, it has a good recording studio and it has conditions very much formulated in the interest of the musicians. It costs one tenth of what a studio in New York costs so I have been using it throughout my two decades again and again. And when everything is played and done, quite often we find it may be worthy of publication. Leo Records is really supportive of what I do and that results in a high frequency of releases, which otherwise would hardly be possible in any other label.”

zur Ausgabe „May 2019-Issue 205 – The New York City Jazz Record“ auf nycjazzrecord.com