The Stevee Band has added bassist Igor Fedorov to the line-up. Igor (Uncle Fydor) is a real veteran, having started his first band, The Black Guitars, way back in the 1970s. In the late 1990s he played with Russian star Larisa Dolina and virtuoso guitarist Viktor Zinchuk (the golden guitar of Russia). Igor’s also involved with Moscow’s oldest group, Alexey Belov’s Successful Acquisition.

Before Igor arrived, Pavel Mikaelyan performed the tricky task of playing bass and keyboard parts at the same time, like Ray Manzerak of The Doors. He did great but the band’s sound has definitely improved with the addition of Igor’s thudding Fender Precision Bass. We’ve got one gig under our belt to prove it, at Rhythm & Blues Cafe in Moscow on 16-2-20. The main picture for this blog was taken just after the concert. So everyone’s happy. Drummers like having bass players and Pavel’s left hand can now concentrate on other keyboard duties.

Of course, as a new band with just a handful of gigs under our belts, we are still finding our sound and working on tightening up sloppy areas. It’s like having a nice car in the workshop: you have to tune up the engine and polish the fenders before you can present a shiny, perfectly-operating machine. It takes time! And practice makes perfect. Here we are doing it!

Igor joins: Stevee (Steve Elliott), bandleader and British singer-songwriter who has been living and working in Moscow since 2007; Pavel Mikaelyan, a talented pianist and composer currently studying at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory; Eugeny Kuznetsov, charismatic drummer and owner of Gigant Records, and Vladimir Tyron, who plays sax and many other instruments. Vladimir also plays with Russian star Garik Sukachev.

You can catch The Stevee Band in Moscow on 29 Feb at San Diego and then in March at Jam Club Makarevicha. Rock on!