Misha Tsiganov Quintet - The Artistry of the Standard (2014)

For his Criss Cross debut, pianist Misha Tsiganov presents a program of ten reimagined songs culled from both the Great American Songbook and the lexicon of post-bop hardcore jazz. Born in St. Petersburg in the former USSR, and a New Yorker since the mid-'90s,Tsiganov convenes a unit of virtuosos to animate his stimulating charts – trumpeter Alex Sipiagin (himself the leader of 10 Criss Cross dates and a participant on two by the collective group Opus 5) and bassist Boris Kozlov, both fellow sons of Russia,A-list tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, and the kinetic drummer Donald Edwards.