For the better part of 9 years, founder Leonid Vorobyev (bass guitar, keyboards, piano, synth, backing and lead vocals), Igor Javad-Zade (drums) and an ever-changing batch of uber-talented musicians have been releasing countless YouTube videos to great acclaim.
And while Chicago’s music has been quite popular and viral, they have also garnered an amazing 10 million views for Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” and an astounding 6.5 million views for “Beginnings.” Today, their set list can also include songs by such classic bands as Blood, Sweat & Tears, Steely Dan, Tower Of Power, and more.
For the uninitiated or simply unaware, bandleader Leonid Vorobyev is a multi-instrumentalist, a recording studio sound engineer, and choir conductor who trained initially at the East Siberian Institute of Culture. To date, he and his band have recorded 3 Chicago-themed records simply titled ‘Chicagovich,’ ‘Chicagovich I,’ and ‘Chicagovich II.’ Additionally, they released a 13-song compilation earlier this year called ‘Oldies but Goldies, Part 1’ which features 13 well-known songs by classic acts that are not Chicago including Earth, Wind & Fire, Blood, Sweat & Tears and more.
At present, the touring band is Leonid Vorobyev (bass guitar, keyboards, piano, synth, backing and lead vocals), Igor Javad-Zade (drums, percussion), Vasily Akimov (lead and backing vocals, percussion, occasional rhythm guitar), Ksenia Buzina (backing and lead vocals, percussion), Valery Martynov (trumpet), Oleg Kudryavtsev (tenor and alto saxophones, flute, percussion, backing vocals), Maxim Likhachev (trombone, percussion), Sergey Kurmaev (keyboards, backing vocals), Konstantin Kovachev (lead guitar), Danil Buranov (lead and backing vocals, percussion), and Mikhail Puntov aka Michael Puntov (lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion).
We caught up with the band’s manager and Leonid Vorobyev’s son, Roman Vorobyev, who are in the middle of an ambitious and long-winded US tour that started September 3rd in Wisconsin and takes them up to November 24th in Las Vegas.
Capital Chaos TV: The band had a huge upward trajectory ever since a couple of well-timed YouTube videos went viral. Did you expect this kind of response?
Roman Vorobyev: To be honest, it is still a bit of mystery to us how this happened. We could only imagine this in our wildest dreams so we still have to pinch ourselves sometimes! Any Russian musician has a dream to play for the American audience and we make this dream come true.
Capital Chaos TV: Your US tours have now become a regular thing. I actually booked your first Sacramento show on your first ever US tour at The Crest Theatre back in 2019. Are there other countries you’ve done well aside from your own?
Roman Vorobyev: So far we have successfully played a great festival in Germany (the full recording of that one is actually available on our YouTube channel) and we also played the International Music Festival in Vietnam. And there are many plans ahead since we have a great amount of fans all over the world.
Capital Chaos TV: What is the current line-up and how much has that changed from the beginning?
Roman Vorobyev: The current line-up has many of our original members and a couple others have been with us for a few years – they are all extremely talented musicians and vocalists and are personally hand-picked by Leonid.
Capital Chaos TV: Do you plan to release a record of originals as Leonid & Friends? Any other side projects worth mentioning?
Roman Vorobyev: We had great success with our original song – “The Speck of Dust” – and we definitely plan to produce several more originals between our next tours. Leonid also became a member of the Recording Academy (Grammy) so we plan to do some collaborations with them too.
Capital Chaos TV: How much more expensive is it to tour after COVID? Have your costs for work visas also increased?
Roman Vorobyev: The costs seem to always increase one way or the other. That’s just how the economy works these days. But we strategise better, become more proficient in planning, we research better options for transport, hotels, etc., and so we are able to balance it out. The visas itself have not changed in price so that has not become a problem.
Doors open at 6:30pm and the show starts promptly at 7:30pm. Tickets start at $43.50 and go up to $65.50 and can be purchased at www.crestsacramento.com. The Crest Theatre is located at 1013 K Street in Sacramento, CA.