Featured Artist: Misha Tsiganov

CD Title: Always Going West

Year: 2007

Record Label: PowerLight Records

Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic

Musicians: Misha Tsiganov (piano), Alex Sipiagin (trumpet, flugelhorn), Boris Kozlov (bass), Gene Jackson (drums), Samuel Torres (cojon, shakers, caxixi, djembe, congas, udu, EFX).

Review:

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Misha Tsiganov began playing piano at age 6.  He recorded his first album, To My Friends, in 1989.  He was invited to study at the Berklee College of Music in 1991 and moved to New York in 1993 where he went on to work with the likes of Norman Hedman, Chico Freeman, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Dave Valentin, Joe Chambers, and others.  He can also be heard as the featured pianist in Bill Cosby’s Little Bill Cartoon series. 

His compositional skills are strong and this album displays straight-ahead, bebop, and post-bop, with a smattering of Latin stylings.  For the most part, the music is very upbeat, lively, and charged throughout, especially on the opening track, “Anthony,” in which Tsiganov’s piano arrangements charge forward and guide the horns and drums along a winding, whirlwind of swing and bop.

“Another Rainy Day” showcases Tsiganov’s sophisticated and smooth side.  This tune’s Latin flavor flows and cascades in a shower of refreshing percussion and horns.

“Roller Coaster” swings in with horns and drums, mixing it up with rollicking, bouncy piano and a punchy, bopping bass solo.

The Russian folk song “Dark Eyes” is led into by a hypnotic, driving, three-minute percussion solo by Samuel Torres.

The title track starts off with some percussive pounding that leads to an elegantly styled, well-balanced composition with just enough thrust to take the listener all the way through a carefree, westerly excursion.  Tsiganov shines on keys here.

“Say Where You’ve Gone” starts out soft and billowy.  It picks up momentum and features a great solo by Sipiagin on trumpet blasting forward into a cacophonic bebop jaunt.

The closer, “Gone from My Mind,” is another more gently lulling tune, which highlights the more relaxed, softer side of Tsiganov’s compositional skills along with some enchanting trumpeting by Alex Sipiagin. 

Tsiganov proves he is a seasoned and skilled composer and pianist.  With a tight and talented group of band mates backing him up, he achieves a solid, sophisticated, well-structured musical vision with Always Going West.  And with two more recordings scheduled to come out soon, he is surely a musician we will be hearing a lot more of in the future.

Artist's Website: http://www.mishatsiganov.com

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Reviewed by: Veronica Timpanelli

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