Leo Feigin

In 1973, Leo Feigin emigrated from the Soviet Union and in 1974 moved to London to work as a Russian translator at the BBC, where he soon became responsible for music and jazz broadcasts. In October 1979, he moved to New York, where he recorded Amina Claudine Myers Her Song For Mother E and Humanplexity gave an official start to Leo Records.

Staying true to his mission of documenting and exposing post-Soviet new jazz/free improv territories to the international audience, Feigin produced and released albums by numerous other Russian and ex-USSR musicians and bands, such as Anatoly Vapirov, Vladimir Rezitsky, Vitas Pilibavičius and Sainkho amongst others. In 2009, for the label's 30th anniversary, Leo Feigin established an annual Leo Records Festival in Russia, which expanded to seven cities by the third year, and featured several international artists from Leo's roster, such as Simon Nabatov, Frank Gratkowski, Gebhard Ullmann and Gebhard Ullmann, and Yannick Barman.

Leo Feigin wrote several books, including Russian Jazz: New Identity (1985, Quartet Books, London) and All the jazz: Autobiography in anecdotes (2009, [url=https://discogs.com/label/496796]Amphora[/url], Moscow).