Jazz & Blues Showcase: The Ilya Lushtak Quartet

The Jazz & Blues series’ next spring show is on Sunday afternoon, May 19. It features the playing & vocal stylings of renowned jazz guitarist ILYA LUSHTAK. His N.Y. quartet includes pianist OSCAR WILLIAMS II, bassist KYLE COLINA & drummer O.C. DAVIS.

Russian born ILYA LUSHTAK moved with his family to San Francisco as a child. He grew up there, as did his interest in a music career. As an adult in the 1990s, he began getting opportunities to showcase the jazz “chops” he’d developed by getting gigs with some established & noted San Francisco jazz artists. Important among them were pianist Larry Vuckovich & saxophonist Noel Jewkes.

With these experiences & a newfound confidence in a jazz career, Lushtak was motivated to move & follow his career dreams in New York City. By the early 2000s, that paid off as he began finding performance & recording work with a long list of veteran jazz luminaries. Beginning with Frank Wess & Hank Jones, it also included Barry Harris, Jimmy Cobb, Cedar Walton, Louis Hayes, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Charles Earland, Mel Rhyne & Jimmy Lovelace. Along with his more recent work with contemporaries David Hazeltine, Joe Magnarelli & Grant Stewart, Lushtak continues to record & to delight jazz audiences in performance across the U.S. & abroad.