"Horizons": Trumpeter Alex Sipiagin's Musical Message About A New Start

Alex Sipiagin: Horizons; Blue Room Music

For years the trumpeter Alex Sipiagin has become a first-call session and section player in the world of modern jazz and pop music. Spiagin was born in Yaroslav, Russia a town approximately 160 miles north- east of Moscow. He attended trumpet lessons at the age of twelve and studied at the Moscow Music Institute and the Gnessin Conservatory where he received his baccalaureate degree. At the age of twenty-three, Sipiagin came to the U.S. in 1990 competing in the International Louis Armstrong contest sponsored by the Thelonious Monk Institute and received top honors. Despite the honors, the young man  wanted to establish his creditability to himself and others. That same year he relocated to New York City, the cauldron of competitiveness, and found his first employment in the orchestra of prestigious composer/arranger Gil Evans.  It didn't take long for his inherent talents to get him to become part of Gil Goldstein's Zebra Coast Orchestra, George Grunz's Jazz Band, drummer Bob Moses' Mozamba, the Charles Mingus Big Band, the Mingus Dynasty and Mingus Orchestra groups as well as bassist Dave Holland's Big Band, Sextet and Octet groups to name a few.

This prolific trumpeter was making a name for himself as one of the most accomplished, tasteful, and fiery players on the scene. In 2003, he started a relationship with the saxophonist Michael Brecker, recording and touring with Brecker's Dectet -which won a Grammy for the album Wide Angles-and  with Brecker's Sextet. Alex's first recording as a leader was made in 1996 and released in 1997. Titled Images,  it is an auspicious debut with an eclectic group of up and coming musicians including altoist David Binny, bassist Scott Colley, pianist Gil Goldstein, guitarist Adam Rogers, percussionist Kenny Wollesen and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter. Many of these musicians would grow together and often collaborate over the years. Sipiagin's in demand trumpet sound was also used in recordings by pop artists Eric Clapton, Michael Franks, Elvis Costello and Dr. John. Sipiagin is also a founding member of the group Opus 5 which features saxophonist Seamus Blake, pianist Dave Kikoski, bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer  Donald Edwards and has released five records on the Criss Cross label.

Alex Sipiagin photo credit Vladimir Korobitsyn

I've seen Sipiagin perform as an important trumpet voice of the Mingus Big Band at the Jazz Standard and have been delighted by his work as a vibrant session and solo player for Conrad Herwig's Latin Side albums. His own releases,  particularly his two Positone releases Upstream  which made my Notes on Jazz Best of 2021 list and Ascent to the Blues have both shown an ever ascending artist who never ceases to push the boundaries of the music as a  musician/composer. 

Sipiagin's latest release is titled Horizons and was released in May of this year on Blue Room Music label. Alex has been in New York for over thirty years and  was a educator at NYU for seven of those years. He and his wife decided it was time for a change and they relocated to northern Italy in 2020 to the town of Sandrigo, in the province Vincenzo, Veneto.  The album carries a theme inspired by Sipiagin's  move to Italy, the disruption of uprooting yourself,  reflections of things accomplished, and the expectations of new horizons, of what is to come.

On Horizons, Alex has enlisted some of the familiar faces from his past records. The tenor sax flame thrower Chris Potter joins with his energized tenor and sinewy soprano saxophone. John Escreet brings his piano chops, his Rhodes sensitivity and deft synthesizer talents.  Bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Eric Harland together create a formidable rhythm section as well as two versatile solo artists in their own right.

The album features two songs penned by guitarist virtuoso Pat Metheny and six Sipiagin compositions. The opener is Metheny's smoker "While You Were Looking" which the guitarist offered with the intent of making this one a  technical challenge. The serpentine opening finds Sipiagin's penetrating trumpet in sync with Potter's tart tenor, matching impossibly complicated lines with sterling aplomb and accuracy before the two trade solos all driven by Brewer and Harland's syncopated drive. Sipiagin soars over Escreet's airy-like synth touches as he rises to heights that seem to fly up to the stratosphere. Potter offers a rhythmically fragmented solo that shrieks and simmers in unexpected ways as Escreet's flowing piano work adds depth to the mix. This one has a fusion-era like feel that reaches back but at the same time forging forward into new territory. 

"Overseen" is a gorgeous Sipiagin ballad that features Escreet on Rhodes and Potter on soprano.  Alex is on his flugelhorn here and his interplay with Potter is a real treat. These two have a telepathic connection when they play in unison. Potter has a Shorter-like feel here and Harland's distinct drum work accentuates and Brewers bass compliments the music with wisdom and style. You can just feel yourself getting drawn into a blanket of sumptuousness. There is some notable Rhodes work by Escreet with the rhythm section to the coda.

"Clean Cut," a reference to Sipiagin's move to Italy, finds the trumpeter, Potter and Escreet on his synth following each other in another circuitous route of music that never ceases to have surprises. Just like one might experience in a major life move. Potter's tenor is jagged, muscular and adventurous, Escreet's piano work flows with speed and artistry, Brewer's bass is like an anchoring force that moves with the flow but never leaves you stranded. At about the five minutes mark Alex's trumpet offers a superb solo with unlimited range, flawless execution and unquenchable creative artistry. This man can play. Harland is featured on an explosive solo that erupts with power and rhythmic inventiveness. 

Another Sipiagin composition, "Jumping Ahead," is reportedly inspired by Brazilian composer/ multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascal whose penchant for repetitive melodies and harmonies are deployed here. The group spells out the recurring lines led by the front line and accentuated with Brewer's buoyant bass solo. Alex's trumpet negotiates the ostinato with a flowing solo that percolates with excitement and promise. Its  anxious but invigorating to be moving forward with a new path in your life. Potter adds some flute lines at the coda over Harland's bubbling drum work.

"When Is It Now?" is the second Metheny composition on this album. The ballad finds Sipiagin on his emotive flugelhorn, Potter on tenor and Escreet on  piano all weaving their instruments into a tapestry of contemplation and reflection. 

"Lost" is another Sipiagin composition that is representative of some of Alex's feeling s that he experienced in his move to Italy. Sipiagin's trumpet wanders over the syncopated rhythm as he is finding his way in a new land with new surroundings, leaving some of his long established relationships back in N.Y. and trying to find a new equilibrium in his new home. The rhythm section bubbles like a simmering crucible, Potter's tenor pleads and cries. Eventually, Escreet's crystalline Rhodes work lends the music a dream-like feel to this journey.

Sipiagin offers a three piece suite of songs titled "Horizons 1," Horizons 2," and "Horizons 3." The three explore tones, color, freedom, expansion and expression. "Horizon 1" is free and loose. "Horizon 2" is a space-like experience of sounds led by Escreet's  synth atmospheric sounds, Sipiagin's muted trumpet cries and Potter's soprano has a avian feel as Brewer and Harland provide the percussive sound effects. "Horizon 3" has a rhythmic drive over which Potter and Sipiagin intertwine there sounds as Escreet adds effects. There is an expression of relief here, a release from angst and an acceptance of the possibilities of an untethered future.

The final composition is titled AIVA-tion, a reference to a local bar/cafe that Sipiagin found in his new hometown of Sandrigo. The crowd sound opens and is happy, the feeling is inviting and the future looks bright. The piece has a laid back hip, cosmopolitan sound that exudes a feeling of cool contentment. Escreet's Rhodes leads the path with a glimmering sound, Sipiagin's trumpet flies like a free bird, Potter's tenor responds in like as Brewer's bass and Harland's drums lay down the groove. Italy should be a blast!

Mike Holober and The Gotham Jazz Orchestra "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters": A Magical Piece of Music

Mike Holber and The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

The pianist/composer/arranger/educator Mike Holober is a musician whose talents deserve to be more widely known and appreciated. I first heard Holober, the then under-the-radar musical director of the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, at a performance that I caught in Irvington, NY in 2011. It was obvious then that he had an impressive command of the composing and arranging skills necessary to make the disparate seventeen pieces of the WJO work their sounds both in splendid accord and to great effect. I later got a chance to witness Mike's impressive pianistic acumen when he played in a moving duo set with the superb trumpeter Marvin Stamm at the Carnegie Room of the Nyack Library in Rockland County in 2013. This was a musician whose career trajectory was clearly worth following. 

Holober's early career included a stint with baritone saxophone ace Nick Brignola in the late 1990's. He later formed The Mike Holober Quintet and recorded two albums with saxophonist Tim Ries, guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, bassists John Patitucci and Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade in the early 2000's. Holober was the musical director for the non-profit Westchester Jazz Orchestra from 2007-2013, where his prowess attracted an array of top-tier soloists like Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, and John Scofield to name just a few. He guest arranged and conducted for two prestigious European jazz bands, the WDR Big Band from Cologne, Germany in 2014, and the HR Big Band of Frankfurt, Germany in 2011 and 2015 amongst others. These projects featured its own stellar list of accomplished artists too numerous to list. In 2015 Holober and his octet Balancing Act featured his original compositions (both music and lyrics) and the vocalist Kate McGary, saxophonists Dick Oatts and Jason Rigby, trumpeter Stamm, trombonist Mark Patterson, bassist John Hébert and drummer Blade. 

Since the first release in 2004 of Thought Trains, from his big band The Gotham Jazz Orchestra, Holober's creative composing voice has been increasingly blooming. The band's second release Hiding Out, was issued on Zoho Records in 2019 and received multiple accolades from the critics as one of the year's best releases. The album was rightfully recognized for a Grammy nomination in the Best Large Ensemble category in 2020. 

Mike Holober: photo credit Matthew Cylinder

With such a successful history, there is no surprise that Mike Holober and The Gotham Jazz Orchestra's latest release This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, released on June 14, 2024, may easily be one of his greatest musical achievements to date. The album is a two-disc meditation whose music and lyrics focus on Holober's love and respect for nature, its majesty, and beauty. As an avid appreciator, he also expresses, both in music and words, his concern that the planet and its treasures may be in danger of being irreversibly damaged by climate change and our own thoughtless actions. Anyone who has followed Holober and his wife Melissa on his social media posts from some of nature's most imposing wonders and gorgeous vistas, can see that he lives his non-musical life immersed in nature hiking, biking, kayaking, and appreciating the great outdoors. There is authenticity here and it shows.

He adroitly includes a series of eight Imaginary Letters, statements that he composes and performs as if to converse with some of his own environmental and social inspirations on the issues at hand.  Letters to iconic nature photographer of the West, Ansel Adams, to renowned marine biologist and writer Rachel Carson, to conservationist Sigurd Olson and activist Terry Tempest Williams, to poet and essayist Wendell Berry, and to Native American scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer. 

These eight paeons talk of "sharing this home," of waiting for summer and lamenting the potential loss of another summer if our actions leave the earth "broken beyond all repair." These letters revel in the "...swaying pines upon a snowy hill" as Ansel Adams did in his poem to his wife Virginia. They imagine a monolithic rock formation, Castleton Tower in Utah, woefully speaking as a harbinger whose continued existence may be only preserved by the written word and action. They recall the love of "pristine snow in silent, longing, beauty" and a conversation with a tree that "...fears of what may come of me? " who cautions that "...to love life you must know a tree". Finally a letter/poem to a child that speaks to the pulse and breath of the Rock We're On and the love that it requires for its sustenance and ultimately for our own survival. These are profound expressions of awe, respect, sensitivity, love, and action and they are brilliantly incorporated into Holober's moving suite.

As for this music, it is simply splendid in both conception and execution. The opener "Lay of the Land"  organically emerges with Holober's sensitive piano entry sprouting like new life on fertile soil. Gentle cymbal splashes by Jared Schonig and probing ostinato bass lines by John Patitucci set the aural landscape before the horn and reed sections lay out pulsing layers of sound that throb with life. The tenor saxophonist Chris Potter enters like a siren with his distinctive wail. Holober is a master of coloring with an almost limitless array of hues that his orchestra adds to his musical palette. The Herculean Potter, at the top of his game, never ceases to amaze with his seemingly endless ability to percolate with flawless creativity and majestic power. This is particularly evident as Holober sends his group into an ascending apex. The orchestra is musically climbing a mountainous peak, with the sections roaring, Schonig and Patitucci boiling over, and Potter is soaring above it all like a cruising eagle on the hunt. Breathtaking!

The first of the Imaginary Letters, "On This Rock" is to environmentalist Wendell Berry, and finds a chamber music-like feel that features Holober's delicate piano,  Mark Patterson's burnished trombone work, and the crystalline voice of Jamile Staevie Ayres. 

"Dirt Lover's Almanac" has an opening featuring some gorgeous cello work by Jody Redhage Ferber accompanied by an attentive Holober on piano. As the music opens into a more traditional big band piece we are treated to excellent section work of the repeating theme. Bassist Patitucci offers a probing and facile bass solo that throbs before Charles Pillow presents his own vision of interpretation on a fine alto solo. The group roars with splendid unanimity.

The remainder of the album is equally as impressive."Tides" features cellist Ferber and Jason Rigby's tenor saxophone. "Dear Virginia," one of my favorites, features some stellar alternating duo work, first with Holober's piano and Marvin Stamm's superb trumpet and then with Virgina Mayhew's sensitive tenor to great effect.

"Domes" offers the circuitous alto saxophone work of Ben Kono, some effervescent vibes work of James Shipp, a clarion trumpeter solo by Scott Wendholt, and roiling drum work by Schonig. "Refuge" creates poignancy with the trio of Ferber's evocative cello, Ayre's charged voice, and Holober's moving piano.

"Tower Pulse" has an organic, throbbing vibe, a cardiac-like pulse that carries you like a life force. Nir Felder's spidery guitar lines are quite well-matched with Felder's repeating acro cello lines in a call-and-response sort of section. Potter's dynamic saxophone bursts of kineticism as Holober's orchestra carries the music's drive in what sounds like a Native American-like inspired ostinato. There is majesty to this music and it is inspired. "Soil Erosion," a slow shuffle that features Shipp's vibraphone accents, Kono and Pillow's flutes touches, and Nir Felder's fine, expansive guitar solo as the rhythm section and orchestra maintain the heartbeat of the tune. "Three Words for Snow" has a classical-chamber music feel to it with Ferber's cello, Kono's delightful flute, Holober's piano, and Ayres' voice making this a very special and moving addition to the suite. "Boundary Waters" has a Latin feel that finds the composer letting the orchestra ebb and flow as he has his most extended solo on the album. It's nice to hear him let loose here a bit and get a chance to express himself outside of the restraints of being the leader. The album continues with "Noetry" a vocal that imagines a letter from a tree. "SkyWoman Falling" opens with a cello feature by Ferber that morphs into a Native American vibe. The orchestra expands with aplomb. Expanding his color palette, Holober has Charles Pillow featured on a very willowy bass clarinet and Marvin Stamm is paired to this sound with his own warm Flugelhorn response. The music has an organic feel, a symbiosis with the Earth that seems to have its own spirit that as a listener we can only marvel at its pure authenticity.  The final piece is titled "This Rock We're On" and is an imaginary letter to a child. It leaves us all with the realization that we all have a responsibility to preserve what we can still enjoy and leave this beautiful and important legacy to the next generations. There a moving vocals by Ronan Rigby, James Shipp, and Jamile Straevie Ayres and a nice baritone saxophone feature by Carl Maraghi.

Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, is a magical piece of music. His astute composing, orchestration, and arrangement of his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, the voices he chose and lyrics he created, and the soloists that he selected all make this inspired suite of meditation on a theme a modern masterpiece.