Leonid Chizhik

Chizhik, from a Jewish family, studied at the state school of music in Kharkov from 1954. From the age of 15 he started appearing in bands. He studied at the Gnessin Institute, Moscow composition, musicology and piano at Theodor Gutman. He graduated as a concert pianist. In Moscow, he was connected to the jazz scene of the capital in the jazz café "Molodjoschnoje" ( "Youth"), which was at the time the most prominent, and played in the trio of Georgi Garanjan S Melodija Ensemble, His main occupation, however, was in the state Varietéorchester. After playing for the first time as a classical soloist, he was given the opportunity to play Jazz in public in 1974. He played on the debut album from Melodija. Afterwards he started his own trio, and he gained "..popularity [as] a grandmaster of the concert jazz piano".[1]

P. Frederick Starr describes Chizhik as a "... virtuoso pianist who combines the terrifying speed Art Tatums with the delicate attack Teddy Wilson." Although he plays bebop with phrasing "... the lyrical and romantic element in his play seems everywhere." For Starr he is in the tradition Alexander Tsfasmans; He has also recorded George Gershwins music like this.[2]

• Reminiscences (Reminiscences) (Melodija, 1981)
• Jam Session Moscow (Fusion Records / Bellaphon, 1981) with Hans Kumpf
• In Concert (MFSL, 1986)
• Days Of Wine And Roses (Loft, 1987)
• Lockenhaus Collection: Opus Scherziando (Phillips, 1990)
• Les Pianos de la Nuit (La Roque d'Antheron) (DVD, Ideal Audience, 2002)
• Rag-Gidon-Time (Deutsche Grammophon, 2005)
• TRIBUTE - Leonid Chizhik and Friends (listen2this, 2007)

• S. Frederick Starr: Red and Hot. Jazz in Russia 1917-1990 . Wien, hannibal, 1990. ISBN 3-85445-062-1.

• Web presence
• Portrait (2007) in the Jazzzeitung
• Portrait of Hans Kumpf in Jazzpages