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Mel’s Vision, Alex Sipiagin

Jazz Festivals worldwide has seen Alex Sipiagin performing with the likes of Dave Holland, Michael Brecker, the Mingus groups, etc. Born on June 11, 1967 inYaroslavl, Russia, Alex began studying the trumpet at age 12, studying at the Moscow Music Institute and the Gnessin Conservatory in Moscow where hereceived his Baccalaureate. In 1990, Alex participated in the International Louis Armstrong Competition sponsored by the Thelonius Monk Institute in WashingtonD.C. winning top honors and soon after relocated to the jazz mecca of the world, New York City.

Alex soon became a favored player for various bands including the Gil Evans Orchestra, Gil Goldstein's Zebra Coast Orchestra, the George Gruntz ConcertJazz Band, drummer Bob Moses' band Mozamba, Mingus Big Band as well as the Mingus Dynasty and Mingus Orchestra, and the Dave Holland Big Band, Sextetand Octet groups.

In 2003 he recorded with Michael Brecker's Quindectet touringalso with the Michael Brecker Sextet. Alex has also worked with Eric Clapton, Dr.John, Aaron Neville, Elvis Costello, Michael Franks, Dave Sanborn, Deborah Cox, legendary producer Phil Ramone, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, etc., and many of the recordings he has been involved in has been nominated and/or won the Grammy's (Dave Holland Big Band's "What Goes Around," and "Overtime,"Michael Brecker's Qindectet "Wide Angles").

As a soloist, Sipiagin has eleven recordings out to his credit and has toured extensively throughout Europe, U.S., Japan and Russia with his own group. Healso teaches at the Groningen Prince Claus Conservatory, Academy of Music, Basel, Switzerland as well steady professorship at NYU.

Recorded 15 solo albums for one of prestiges jazz label "CrissCrossJazz"
His recent album of his compositions and arrangements "Balance 38-58" features such noted musicians as Eric Harland, David Binney, Adam Rogers and Matt Brewer.

Alex Sipiagin, Mel’s Vision

Since he emigrated to the United States from Russia in 1991, Alex Sipiagin has earned an exalted international reputation as a no-technical-limits improvisor, sustaining a gorgeous sound throughout the trumpet’s registral range, navigating harmonic and rhythmic complexity with precision, passion, and abiding lyricism. Most of Sipiagin’s 12 previous albums for Criss Cross also showcase his contrapuntal, harmonically comprehensive compositions, full of interesting melodic twists and turns. On them, he projects the same voice that he improvises with but written out for more instruments.

For his 13th Criss Cross date, Mel’s Vision, the 55-year-old master – joined by A-listers tenor saxophonist Chris Potter, pianist David Kikoski,, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Johnathan Blake – contributes two wonderful originials. But Alex addresses the session primarily as an opportunity to focus on interpreting music by others – a song by Potter, a Ukrainian folk song and four rarely covered gems from the jazz canon.

The project gestated after the 2016 release of Moments Captured (Criss 1395), when Criss Cross founder Gerry Teekens suggested that Sipiagin record a standards album. Before a contract could be executed, Teekens passed away in 2019. When his son, Jerry Teekens, Jr, reestablished the label, Sipiagin recorded Swing On This (Criss 1406), the fifth Criss Cross date by Opus 5, the cooperative quintet in which he interacts with tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, pianist David Kikoski, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Donald Edwards, all Criss Cross leaders and alumni of the Mingus Big Band. He took advantage of that occasion to remind Teekens fils of the standards project, and received a go-ahead.

Alex Sipiagin (Tp / Flh)

Chris Potter (Ts)
Johnathan Blake (D)
Matt Brewer (B)
David Kikoski (P)

Recorded April 22, 2022 in Astoria, NY, USA by Mike Marciano

Episode #366

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