Home » Member Page

Aleksei Saks

Trumpet and rarely used corno da caccia player from Estonia.

About Me

Aleksei Saks (1971) started his music studies with the band leader and trumpet player Miron Litvak in Pskov (Russia). After moving with his family to Estonia, he received his academic degrees in classical trumpet from the Georg Ots Tallinn Music College and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. He has wide experience playing classical and baroque music with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Brass and the Latvian Chamber Orchestra.

During the period 1998-2008 he was active as both manager and member of the Estonian Dream Big Band, collaborating with such jazz music stars as the New York Voices, Dennis Rowland, Randy Brecker, Ray Anderson, Freddy Cole and others. Since the middle of the 1990s Alexei collaborated and recorded with many Estonian musicians and bands including Hedvig Hanson, Uno Loop, Tõnu Raadik, Ivo Linna, Dave Benton, Genialistid, Smilers and Modern Fox. His activity in pop-music as lead trumpet player included the legendary dance group “2 Quick Start“ and the band of Latvian-Russian pop-star Laima Vaikule.

Taking some lessons from the notable Finnish trumpet player Esko Heikkinen at the end of 1990s, he started to develop a flexible playing style, maintaining a fine sound and endurance using the full range of the instrument. At the same time Aleksei was the distributor of ECM Records in Estonia, and was able to study the sounds of Scandinavian jazz trumpet players and different ways of mixing a classical music background with the art of improvisation.

His solo record O Grande Amor, played on fluegelhorn and featuring a jazz quartet and string orchestra, was nominated for the Estonian Music Awards in 2003.

Together with Robert Jürjendal he founded the duo called UMA in 2007, as an attempt to create a new combination of electro-acoustic guitar and horn sounds. During the period 2008-2013 UMA released 4 records featuring various artists (Markus Reuter, Robert Rich, Andi Pupato, Tim Bowness, Guido Kangur, Iris Oja etc.). In this duo Aleksei plays trumpet and the very rarely used corno da caccia (hunting horn). UMA performed at numerous festivals and venues all across Europe. Since 2010 Aleksei worked in several projects with musicians of different backgrounds: Slow Electric (with Tim Bowness, Peter Chilvers and Robert Jürjendal), Memories of Machines (with Tim Bowness and Giancarlo Erra), Five Seasons (with Robert Jürjendal, Volkmar Zimmermann, Sara Fiil and Madis Metsamart) and Jon Durant.

Aleksei Saks plays trumpet by Yamaha (custom Xeno, New York model), corno da caccia by Thein, and fluegelhorn by Amrein.

Contact Me

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.