Bassist Dmitri Kolesnik at Cleopatra's Needle, New York

Simon Jay Harper

since 2008

Simon Jay Harper is a New York-based writer and journalist, and musician and composer.

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Published: August 22, 2008

The next piece was Kolesnik's "Wild East Blues" (get it?), a melodic piece divided into different sections. There was, for example, an interesting musical shift by the tenor player before the drum solo arrived. Watanabe turned in some classic pianism, after a funky '70s-like introduction. A brilliant and catchy riff ended the tune: a girl in the back of the room was whistling it after the tune had finished. This is surely what a composer wants to see!

Kolesnik's tune "Giving Rise To Doubt," from his first album Blues For Dad (Boheme Music, 2001) ended with an emerging section that echoed the title. There was however no "doubt" about the following tracks, "Russianality" and "One Day At A Time." They continued the flow of compositional strength and tastful playing. Indeed, "One Day At A Time" began with a Latin-like introduction and was in several time signatures, each one rapidly succeeding the other.

Needless to say, the musicians were again reading the music closely.

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