The Russian Jazz Quartet

The Russian Jazz Quartet was a modern jazz ensemble founded in 1964 by saxophonist/clarinetist Boris Midney and bass player Igor Berukshtis, who made a break from their Soviet music hall orchestra on tour to defect to the United States via the American Embassy in Tokyo the same year.

The incident attracted much attention from the Soviet press at the time, they were amongst the first musical artists to defect from the USSR in the 1960s.[citation needed] After requesting political asylum the two were flown to Copenhagen and then transferred to West Germany before moving to New York to pursue their careers in jazz. There they teamed up with Roger Kellaway on piano, George Ricci on cello/viola and Grady Tate on drums to record the group's only studio album, Happiness, which was released on the ABC-owned Impulse! label in 1965.