I have visited Washington DC -- it was my first visit to the federal capital, though my 13th U.S. trip.
Three photo stories and one sound document (that of me being part of Larry Appelbaum's Sound of Surprise on WFPW) in my Russian blog:
one
two
three
four Just the sound recording from WFPW (in English, of course): PART 1 (wma, 25.7 Mb, 1:13:47) PART 2 (wma, 14.2 Mb, 0:40:47)

I am going to be in NYC from June 13 (late afternoon) to June 17 (early afternoon.)

A great new jazz trio from Moscow, the Second Approach, is going to perform at Brooklyn's Ibeam (168 7th Street Brooklyn) on June 12, 2009. Yes, they are friends of mine, but that is not the point. The point is, they are great musicians; they are not exactly straight-ahead jazz, but [still] thoroughly enjoyable, and their only NYC performance is not to be missed (they also play Rochester Jazz Festival on June 15 and 16.) If you can come and see them, do it: it's worth it. If you can help spread a word about it, please do so: we need to bring in as many people able to understand their values as possible. Yes, Russia does have a new jazz scene, however small; and those musicians do not imitate anybody - they follow their own patterns. It's quite difficult to put the Second Approach on a narrow genre shelf. It's jazz, modern classical, and post-modern ethno/jazz crossover at the same time, rooted in native Russian music rather than in anything else.
The performance will take place at Ibeam (168 7th Street Brooklyn) on June 12. For a few tunes the trio (Andrey Razin, the piano player and composer; Tatiana Komova, the singer; and Igor Ivanushkin, the bass player) will be joined by the great Roswell Rudd, the trombone player. Roswell is featured on the Second Approach's new CD, The Light (SoLyd Records, 2009); this picture of Roswell and Tatiana, the Second Approach singer, is taken by me during their 2007 performance in Moscow.

There is a $10 donation at the door; music journalists can contact the band via Cyril Moshkow of Moscow JJA to be on the list.

Ibeam
Directions (how to get there)
The Second Approach

The Planet of Music publishers (St. Petersburg, Russia) just sent me a PDF file with The Jazz Greats, our next jazz book. I already have one published (The Jazz Industry In America, Planet of Music, 2008,) but the new one is a different story. The Jazz Greats is a collection of exclusive original feature articles, interviews, historical aricles and (alas) obituaries on 89 great jazz musicians, published in in Russian language by Jazz.Ru magazine, both online and in print, from 2001 to 2008. I am one of the writing autors (one of 12, to be exact,) compilation editor, and compilation author. After we proofread the layout, the book is going to be sent to print, due out by May, 2009.

Today we send the #1-09 Jazz.Ru, Russia's jazz magazine, to print.
Here's the cover: