Sasha Date

Sasha Miller is the pseudonym of American fantasy writer Georgia Myrle Miller (born October 15, 1933 in Erick, Oklahoma). She has also written under the names Georgia Sallaska, Myrle Benedict, and G. S. Madden.

One Russian equivalent of “outside the box”, as 41-year-old Moscow-based drummer Alexander “Sasha” Mashin titles his debut leader recording, is the phrase мыслить нетрадиционно (myslit' netraditsionno-“think unconventionally”). Both the literal and metaphorical usages apply to Mashin’s intentions on this kinetic date, on which he and his pianist and bassist of choice propel the flow for separate sets of original music by two of Russia’s most distinguished jazz exports — New York-based trumpeter Alexander Sipiagin and London-based alto saxophonist Evegeny “Zhenya” Strigalev. Call it global jazz with a Russian attitude.

While Sasha's mother is dreaming of her son's great career as a pianist, Sasha is left speechless for other reasons: his beloved piano teacher Mr. Weber tells him, he is leaving town forever. Sasha is heartbroken, and the only person in whom he can confide his feelings, is his best friend, Jiao. As a son of an Ex-Yugoslav family even in Germany one rarely lives outside the closet, and Sasha is grateful that his homophobic father believes Jiao is his girlfriend. But what begins as a useful lie becomes a large and complicated one, when Sasha's younger brother, begins an affair with Jiao. All lies get exposed and what appears to be a catastrophe is in fact the revelation of new possibilities in the lives of Sasha's family.