The Lazaroffs, both Parkway Central High School products, are warm and intelligent men, hovering around age 50, raising families, making music and planning special Brothers Lazaroff events as one of St. Louis' best and most-productive bands over the last 20 years. Their studio is lined with instruments — guitars, basses, keyboards, a screen-enshrined drum kit — as well as rock artifacts such as a framed photo of Jerry Garcia sitting in with Bob Dylan and his band.
The Lazaroffs got serious about making music together around the time younger brother David was living in Austin after attending the University of Texas and immersing himself in the local music scene as a side guitarist and steel guitar player. As the brothers started writing and recording together, they gigged around on Midwest mini tours, picking up musical collaborations from Austin to St. Louis to Chicago.
Eventually, David settled back in St. Louis, and he and Jeff solidified a core group of musicians, caught the attention of the local scene with their rootsy 2009 album American Artifact and established a monthly residency at Pop's Blue Moon. On naming the band, David says, "We hated the sound of 'the Lazaroff Brothers.' One night, one of my friends started yelling, 'Brothers Lazaroff!' and we were like, 'OK, we like that better.'" Jeff chimes in to note playfully that they were always careful to keep the article "the" out of the band's name.
While the brothers occasionally play as a duo, they consider Brothers Lazaroff to be a six-piece collective, which includes some of the most talented players on the scene. The brothers know how to pick them: Bass guru Teddy Brookins has been with the band for 17 years, forming a colossal rhythm section with the masterful drumming of Freddy Spencer (replacing longtime drummer Grover Stewart). Violin hotshot Mark Hochberg and keyboardist Sam Golden round out the core Brothers Lazaroff members, but the brothers maintain a bullpen of musicians — including Funky Butt Brass Band's Adam Hucke (trumpet), Ben Reece (sax/flute) and others — who can augment the band into 10 or more pieces.
Jeff says such excellent supporting players have helped bring out the best in the Lazaroffs' writing: "All of a sudden, they created a new way to play our Americana singer-songwriter stuff."
"All the ways you always wanted to hear it — they were able to play all the deep-pocket stuff," David adds.
Of course, the success of the band's records — from 2010's shape-shifting Give 'Em What They Need to the folk-inflected Science Won to the loose, rocking Day and Night to 2016's jazzy, politically informed Dangerous Times — comes down to the siblings' songwriting, something the duo is constantly working on.
"It happens in all kinds of different ways," Jeff says as his brother pulls out a fat binder filled with what looks like hundreds of the band's songs — lyrics and chords — arranged alphabetically. "And this is about three albums behind," David says with a laugh.
All of the compositions are officially co-written by Jeff and David. So are the brothers able to be honest when it comes to criticizing each other's writing? "Oh, yeah," Jeff says, laughing. "Usually it's the opposite," David says. "He'll be like, 'Eh, I don't like it,' and I say, 'No, it's awesome!'"
The Lazaroffs' forward momentum has the two of them continually looking for new ideas. Years ago, the brothers, who are Jewish, noticed that some of their peers in the local music scene were establishing Christmas traditions, such as Rough Shop's annual Holiday Extravaganza and Funky Butt Brass Band's Brasstravaganza. "All the Hanukkah shows were in the lamest places, like these community centers," Jeff jokes. "We thought, 'Why isn't there a rock & roll Hanukkah show?'"
So Brothers Lazaroff started one: The Hanukkah Hullabaloo, which often features the Lazaroffs' wives frying latkes on stage and the mystical poetry of Rabbi James Stone Goodman, is now 12 years strong. This year, it will expand to two nights.
On the subject of Judaism, the brothers say that while some traditional teachings might seep in, they don't write faith songs and that their trademark beards aren't related to their faith. After all, these guys were beardy before beardy was cool. "We're not that kind of observant," David says. Jeff adds, "My mother-in-law likes the beard! So if your mother-in-law tells you not to shave. ..."
Lately, the brothers have been on a roll creating amazing opportunities. Hardcore Dylanolgists, they drove to Memphis last year to see Bob Dylan perform and took a tour of the legendary Sun Studio. Discovering that the recording studio is rentable in the evenings, the Lazaroffs seized the opportunity, choosing a serendipitous date: Dylan's birthday, May 24.
Those sessions resulted in an album, Memphis, recorded live during one night at Sun Studio and released earlier this year. An accompanying short documentary of the same name helps capture the experience for posterity. Beyond the raw, immediate feel of the album, the record features the expanded Brothers Lazaroff band with the full horn section and the poetry of Rabbi Goodman, around which many of the songs are structured. One of the album's highlights is "The Great American Invention," Goodman's deep, intoxicating tribute to St. Louis, jazz, rock & roll, automobiles, the river and beyond.
Always eager to move on to the next project, the brothers are now focused on July's inaugural Laz Jazz Fest, an extension of the band's previous Laz Jazz shows (and live album), which had been staging at Jazz at the Bistro since 2016.
"We knew our songs could bend in a lot of ways," Jeff says. "So we wanted to take our songs and move them in jazz directions."
For this year's Laz Jazz Fest, which takes place at the Grandel and the Dark Room on July 15, the brothers have curated a three-stage festival that will see sets from artists as diverse as funk/soul ambassador Blvck Spvde and the Cosmos, soulstress and frequent collaborator Anita Jackson, local piano legend and former Brothers Lazaroff member Mo Egeston, local jazz supergroup KBA (Kaleb Kirby, Bob DeBoo, Adam Maness) and a long list of hip-hop, jazz, DJ and singer-songwriter performers. There will also be a youth stage for kids performing as part of the Heal Center for the Arts Jazz Camp. Proceeds from the festival will benefit the St. Louis Art Place Initiative, which supports homeownership for low-income artists.
Even with all of the event planning going on, and hot on the heels of this year's Memphis album, the brothers can't wait to tell me about an even newer album ("It's another departure!" David promises) in the works, which they hope to get out later this year. In fact, they play a couple of the new tracks for me, including a groovy number filled with electronic elements and Eastern European vibes, and a robust anthem with Tom Petty and Springsteen inflections.
It's an impressive, relentless pace of production, and I wonder what drives them.
"It's important to continue to stay relevant even if it's only to yourself," Jeff says.
"There's real value in creating new things and pushing each other," Dave agrees. "Sometimes it is just doing it. The making of the thing is the thing."
Catch the Brothers Lazaroff at the Laz Jazz Fest at 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 15, at the Grandel (3610 Grandel Square). Tickets are $30.
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