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Alex Sipiagin: Generations
by Dan Bilawsky
In many ways, Woody Shaw was the dominant voice on the trumpet between Freddie Hubbard and the rise of Wynton Marsalis. Like Hubbard, Shaw could be an aggressive force, but his writing style, tone and angular soloing set him apart. His tragic and untimely death put him in the same category as fellow Blakey trumpeters Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan but, unlike those two men, Shaw's music and legacy is woefully neglected in today's jazz world. Trumpeter ...
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by Mark F. Turner
Alex Sipiagin pays it forward with his eighth Criss Cross release, Generations, dedicated to the late Woody Shaw, a lesser celebrated but brilliant trumpeter who performed with artists including Anthony Braxton, Chick Corea, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill. A fiery stylist with perfect pitch and lyricism, Shaw was admired by peers and emulated by up-and-comers as Sipiagin confirms, “Even now, many years later, every time I listen to Woody, I always find something new and inspiring." Sipiagin is ...
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by Terrell Kent Holmes
Woody Shaw was highly regarded as one of the finest trumpeters and composers of his era at the time of his tragic death in 1989, at the age of 44. Alex Sipiagin, an exciting young trumpeter, pays an eloquent tribute to Shaw with Generations, a blend of a few Shaw compositions with some of his own writing.From his first original tune, “Greenwood I," Sipiagin's skill and intelligence are evident. Sipiagin works the melody like a surgeon, to build ...
Continue ReadingAlex Sipiagin: Mirages
by John Kelman
With little muss or fuss, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin has been gradually building a first-call reputation. Since emigrating from Russia in the early '90s, he has played with everyone from the late Michael Brecker and James Moody to David Binney and the Mingus Big Band. But it's his association with Dave Holland that's garnered him the greatest name recognition. He's a charter member of the bassist's Big Band, he's gigged with Holland's as-yet-unrecorded Octet, and toured extensively with the Sextet responsible ...
Continue ReadingAlex Sipiagin: Burning For Jazz
by R.J. DeLuke
The 1980s in the Soviet Union was a time when the role and rule of the Communist Party were being questioned and unmasked by the policy of “glasnost"--less censorship and greater freedom of information--that was emerging. Before glasnost fully took hold, and before U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously told Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall" and dismantle the Communist symbol that separated East and West Berlin, jazz music was still hard to come by.
Some ...
Continue ReadingAlex Sipiagin: Out of the Circle
by Mark F. Turner
Out of the Circle by trumpeter/flugelhornist, Alex “Sasha" Sipiagin, provides modern jazz that is evenly vitalizing and cerebral. The recording's smooth style matches the lush sound of its leader's horns. But this is by no means tepid music, especially with some resourceful charts and stellar contributions from saxophonist Donny McCaslin, trombonist Robin Eubanks, guitarist Adam Rogers, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Antonio Sanchez, among others. With a number of recordings under the Criss Cross label, Russian-born Sipiagin is ...
Continue ReadingAlex Sipiagin: Out of the Circle
by John Kelman
Over the course of seven years and six albums for Criss Cross, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin has been evolving as a player, writer and bandleader, with Prints (2007) his most fully realized effort to date. Still, the Dutch record label's insistence on short sessions--usually only a single day--imposes practical limitations on what its artists can accomplish on a larger scale. While Sipiagin continues to record for Criss Cross, the larger ensemble and more ambitious compositional scope of Out of the Circle--his ...
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