Jazz Articles about Alex Sipiagin

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Alex Sipiagin: Destinations Unknown

by Dan Bilawsky
July 1, 2011

Life on the road can often wear musicians down, but it can also inspire them to great heights. Trumpeter Alex Sipiagin's travels took him to Taiwan, Spain, Italy, France, Japan and Holland in the months preceding the recording session for this album in January, 2011 and each one of those locales helped to stir his creative impulses. This gripping session of heart-pounding jazz, which possesses the edge and attitude delivered by New York modernists, is the end result of a ...

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Alex Sipiagin: Generations

by Dan Bilawsky
September 13, 2010

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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Alex Sipiagin: Generations

by Mark F. Turner
August 31, 2010

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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Alex Sipiagin: Generations

by Terrell Kent Holmes
June 9, 2010

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 ...

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Dave Holland Octet: Pathways

by Alain Londes
June 7, 2010

With bassist Dave Holland setting up the foundation for the band, during the live taping of Pathways at New York's Birdland in 2009, the rest of the octet paves the way for baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan to develop the title track in the similar vein to his earlier big band recording What Goes Around (ECM, 2002).

At first it's possible to imagine listening to the entire big band due to the fullness of the sound. Some of its core musicians ...

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Dave Holland: Pathways

by David Adler
April 12, 2010

Bassist Dave Holland's main creative vehicle has long been the Dave Holland Quintet, but in recent years he's launched a number of other groups, tweaking and expanding instrumentation while preserving something of the quintet's signature sound. On Pathways, recorded live at Birdland in 2009, Holland takes another detour with the Dave Holland Octet, which splits the difference between his quintet and big band in terms of size, texture and orchestrated thrust. Incidentally, Holland switched from ECM Records ...

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Dave Holland Octet: Pathways

by John Kelman
March 16, 2010

Dave Holland Octet Pathways Dare2 Records 2010

It's been nearly four years since bassist Dave Holland has delivered an album based around his enduring quintet of over a decade. Since 2006's Critical Mass (Dare2), he's released Pass It On (Dare2, 2008) and The Monterey Quartet: Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey Jazz Festival Records, 2009), both featuring ensembles where, for the first time in his lengthy career, the bassist collaborated ...