About

Alexey Popov is the Russian musician from St. Petersburg, saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is one of the leading jazz saxophonists in Russia, as well as the leader of the bands Doo-Bop Sound, Lera Gehner Band, Lera Gehner — Alexey Popov project, SPb Funk Alliance feat. Pyotr Ivshin, Four & More, Alexey Popov Quartet.

Popov is the winner of the 42^nd Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland, 2008) with the band Doo-Bop Sound, the winner of jazz festivals in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Estonia, as well as a number of Russian festivals.

Born on September 8^th, 1970 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg nowadays), he graduated from Children’s Musical School in the clarinet class and Leningrad Music School named after Mussorgsky in the saxophone class (1993, class of Master G. L. Holstein). With the New Band he worked for a year on the American cruise liner Commodore Hotel, which was located in St. Petersburg as a hotel. Since 1994 he began playing in various jazz bands of St. Petersburg. From 1994 to 1996 he collaborated with Natalia Platitsina and the band 07. In 1996 he played in the punk rock band NOM, participated in the recording of the CD called Vo Imya Razuma (In the Name of the Reason) and had a two-month European tour.

The first acid jazz band Flip Fantasia was organized by Popov in 1995 together with bass guitarist and his like-minded musician Boris Mazhorov. In 1997 Alexey Popov organized the acid funk band Doo-Bop Sound, which he toured many Russian and foreign jazz festivals with, in particular Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland. In the period from 2000 to 2007, 4 CDs were recorded with this band.

In 1998-2003 he studied at St. Petersburg University of Culture and Arts which he also graduated from. He worked at this university as a saxophone teacher from 2005 to 2019.

In 2002, together with singer Lera Gehner, he created the project Lera Gehner Band (Popov was the author of all original arrangements of the album), with which he also toured many festivals in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, as well as in Hungary and Finland. The first CD Today I'm Part of You, Dear… (2004) had a great response from the audience.

In 2003 Alexey Popov created the mainstream jazz project Four & More and began performing with it at club venues of St. Petersburg and Moscow.

In 2004 the first CD of Alexey Popov and Four & More was released, and in 2007 it was the time for the DVD Live In Surgut from the Surgut Jazz Festival.

He participated in D. Kramer's (Russian jazz keyboardist and composer) project Snezhny Jazz (Snow Jazz) in 2006. The following year he participated in a tour with Lera Gehner Blues Band in Siberia.

In 2008, at the invitation of keyboardist Alexey Podymkin, he took part in the Russian-American project Band Burrage of American drummer Ronnie Barrasch and participated in a tour of Russia.

At the invitation of Claude Nobs, on July 4^th and 5^th, 2008 he participated with the Doo-Bop Sound band in the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland).

In 2009  produced and writen all  music and arrangements for the new CD Flora & Fauna of St. Petersburg singer Lera Gehner.

Alexey Popov repeatedly participated as a soloist in A. Kalvarsky's symphonic jazz projects (2007, 2009, 2011), performed on a Russian club tour with the Dutch-American blues project Mama's Bad Boys.

In 2010-2011 he recorded a solo album All Inclusive, which includes his original compositions from many years.

In 2010 Popov played with Randy Brecker in the project of A. Kondakov at the Hermitage Festival in St. Petersburg.

In May 2010 the last tour of the Doo-Bop Sound band took place in Murmansk.

In 2011 he took part in the organization of the jazz part of the celebration of St. Petersburg Anniversary, performed with the American trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.

In July 2011 Alexey participated with Lera Gehner in the Black Sea Jazz international jazz festival in Batumi (Georgia), where he performed on the same stage with Macy Gray, Yellowjackets and DJ Logic.

In 2013 at the invitation of Leonid Vintskevich (Russian jazz keyboardist and composer), together with Lera Gehner, he took part in the Ural tour of closed cities Jazz Territory.

In 2014 he began working on Lera Gehner's original album Look Into My Soul, in which he wrote the music and arrangements. The album was released in 2017.

In 2015 together with Lera Gehner he was invited to the Saaremäe Opera Festival (Estonia), where he took part as a member of the Dream Big Band.

                 Velikiy Novgorod Jazz Festival  (august)

In 2018 and 2019 there were presentations of the “Look Into My Soul” programme at the" Alexey Kozlov" club and "Forte" club in Moscow, as well as a performance at the festival Usadba. Jazz 

               “Usadba Jazz” in St. Petersburg.

In 2019 Alexey Popov created the arrangements of Russian Civil War songs Krasnye Ritmy (Red Rhythms). In 2021 the Moscow company Art-Beat releases Alexey Popov's CD "Proletarian Jazz Orchestra "Red Rhythms".

                 In July 2019 he performed as a member of a trio at the "Jazz at the Old Fortress" - festival in Novokuznetsk.  

              “ Rostov- on- Don jazz Festival ” (september)

2021 - New CD release - "Red Rhythms" from "Art Beat Music"

2022 - New 2CD Release - "Doo Bop Sound - Live at Montreux jazz Festival"

2022 - New CD release - "Affordable Luxury"

2022 - Yaroslavl Jazz Festival

2022 - Sochi Jazz Festival

2023 - Jazz festival (Velikiy Novgorod)