Misha's Friends
Misha's Friends, it is under this name that Misha has been performing with various musicians in Moscow for several years. In the last couple of years, however, Vladimir Nesterenko has been a frequent pianist with her.The arranger and composer is an exceptional among Russia's young jazz musicians. While his focus is on modern jazz, he confidently moves in-between styles and doesn't shy away from fusing different musical directions. The program ,"Songs deutscher Ladies", that he and Misha have put together contains a colorful bouquet of well-known German songs of the 1930's and 70's. With Titles, such as "Lili Marlen", "Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind", "Waldemar" and "Für mich soll's rote Rosen regnen", they pay tribute to famous German interpreters like Marlene Dietrich, Zarah Leander, Hildegard Knef and Ilse Werner. They go beyond merely copying the songs,
they breathe new life into those charming, humorous gems of German music history and, together with Makar Novikov on contra bass and Alex Zinger, on drums, turn them into jazzy delicacies. (Past tours include the Deutsche Tage, Uljanowsk, Samara, Saratov and Wolgograd, followed by performances in Twer, Tula and Tomsk). Misha's collaboration with Vladimir has also brought out the latest CD "Christmas Jazz – Vom Leuchten der Sterne", which, in a remarkable way, shows the class of Misha's musicians. Needless to say, in addition to the German-language program Misha's Friends has in its repertoire a selection of re-arranged jazz standards.
