Rifftides reader Svetlana Ilyicheva writes from Moscow:
Maybe it will interest you (I learned about it about a week ago myself):
In summer 1967 there was an international film festival in Russia. An American actress, Sandy Dennis, came to Moscow escorted by her husband bari saxophonist Gerry Mulligan.* Gerry was immediately taken to the Youth Cafe, a” hotbed” of jazz in Moscow. (BTW, Leonard Feather wrote about
this cafe in his book). A jam session was arranged where Gerry had to play alto, as they hadn’t found a decent baritone and borrowed a brand-new golden Selmer from one of the sax players. If you click the link and scroll the text until you see the photo of Gerry (а dark figure close to Gerry is a popular Russian sax player, Alexei Kozlov. The photo is from his collection). Just above the photo you will see an MP3 of a recording where Gerry played with KM-Quartet. (As the recording belongs to the collection it is not allowed to be downloaded). It had certainly been a glorious moment for the Russian jazzmen of that time.
The recording above the one I described is that of “KM-Quartet” with Vagif Sadikhov at piano, whose 65th birthday is going to be celebrated by the Moscow jazz community and whose talent was appreciated by many a jazzmen ( Benny Green, Johnny Griffin among them).
Here is the link: http://jazzru.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/vagif-sadikhov-65/
The unique recording belongs to the collection of the late Arkady Petrov, musical expert, one of the elders of Russian jazz journalism and the first Soviet Jazz broadcaster.
*(Mulligan and Sandy Dennis were together for more than ten years but never married—DR)