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Alex Sipiagin's inspired ensemble writing on the seven tracks that comprise Destinations Unknown makes it clear that the 43-year-old trumpet master had ample time to infuse the process with tender loving care. Sipiagin recounts that Gerry Teekens notified him of the January 2011 recording date the previous July. First, he reached out to first-callers Chris Potter, David Binney, Craig Taborn, Boris Kozlov, and Eric Harland. He commenced to write sketches on sojourns to Spain, France, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, and Holland. He fleshed them out after returning to his home on Long Island's north fork. “Every composition came out of my travel experience," Sipiagin says. “It was a very special year—a lot of different places and feelings. That's why I named the record Destinations Unknown."
No stranger to the road, Sipiagin, who has accumulated an international reputation for his ability to execute the lead trumpet function while also improvising with enviable flexibility and inspiration on a broad lexicon of trumpet expression, has circumnavigated the globe over the last 15 years on tours with, among others, the Mingus Big Band, Michael Brecker, and various Dave Holland-led groups. More recently, though, an increasing percentage of his itinerary finds him traveling both with his own units and collaborating as a special guest with various bands in the aforementioned locations.
“I bring charts," Sipiagin says. “They're usually fans, so they already know my music well." As examples of the former, he cites a group in Taiwan; projects in Italy with guitarist Michele Calgaro, saxophonist Roberto Bonisolo, pianist Riccardo Fassi, and saxophonist Paolo Recchia; and a recording in France with Andre Charlier. “Some of these musicians write amazing things," he continues. “They're working very hard to play like New York musicians, but of course, their tradition is different, and so is the writing. It's given me new ideas— although I don't really think about it when I write, these experiences somehow reflect in my music. I experimented, and took a lot of chances."
Perhaps this explains the episodic, mysterious ambiance of the tunes, which feel like long- form stories with multiple plot lines that reflect an array of moods and colors. “It's the New York sound," says Sipiagin, a native of Yaroslavl, Russia. “You feel this only after you live here for 10-15 years. You go for it a hundred percent—there are amazing rhythm sections everywhere, and everything is musical and perfect."
Sipiagin could not have recruited a unit possessing skill sets more apropos to animating this programmatic corpus. Destinations Unknown marks Sipiagin's fifth Criss Cross collaboration with Chris Potter (the 40-year-old tenorist's 17 appearances on the label include two early- career leader dates), and the second on which he, Potter, and alto saxophonist David Binney, himself the leader of four Criss Cross dates, have comprised a three-horn front line. The leader takes full advantage of the possibilities, writing gorgeous voicings and intoxicating polyphony that spur a series of thrilling solos.
“It's very special to me that Chris and Dave were so enthusiastic to do this project," Sipiagin says. Of his '90s band mate in the Mingus Orchestra and, more recently, with the Dave Holland Octet, he notes: “Chris had a gig on the same night as the recording, but he told me that the record was his priority."
A long-standing participant in various Binney units and in Potter's Underground Quartet, Craig Taborn, recording with Sipiagin for the first time, unleashes his mojo on Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano. “Craig doesn't play like a regular jazz pianist," Sipiagin says. “He always finds colors. He recognizes instantly where you want to go, and supports you. What he plays here is totally his inspiration. I wrote the rhythmic part and reference the voicings, and told him to go for whatever he heard. That's his specialty. I asked him to do the record because I knew he'd take it to another level."
The anchor is bassist Boris Kozlov, Sipiagin's friend from '80s school days at Gnessin Conservatory in Moscow during the days of glasnost, his roommate when they co-emigrated to the States in 1990, and his subsequent colleague in a slew of ensembles. He locks in deeply with Harland, with whom Sipiagin became acquainted when both played in the Dave Holland Sextet from 2006 to 2008.
“Eric is dedicated to the beauty of music," Sipiagin says of the brilliant 34-year-old drummer with the singular sound. “His soul is clean, and that's why he plays so honestly. He totally cared about every note he played. He's an amazing reader and knows music so well; he looks at a chart, sees some triplets, for example, and immediately knows what to do. It's almost like he memorizes right away and remembers everything."
Harland makes all the hits on the disjunctive opening to the jubilant set-opener, “Next Stop— Tsukiji," and sustains an environment of tension and sweet release. Sipiagin named it after the famous Tokyo fish market. “I've been in Japan maybe 30 times," he said a week or so before the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear reactors. “Each time I arrive, as soon as I place the suitcase in the hotel room, I ride the subway to Tsukiji to a restaurant with the most amazing sushi and tuna that a Japanese friend named Kiichi Goto showed me 15 years ago. It's become like an addiction—you dream about it flying over, then you're in the hotel, on the train, and finally they say, 'Next stop, Tsukiji.'" With this narrative in mind, think of Sipiagin's skittery opening statement as reflecting the pre-meal anticipation, Binney's as ordering the food and observing its preparation, Potter's as the ecstasy of eating five different kinds of ohtoro, and Taborn's as the ritual of digesting the meal after the appetite-sating, perhaps with a touch of sake.
Sipiagin conceived “Tempest In a Teacup" in Taichung City, Taiwan, at a moment when a nasty typhoon was imminent. “I was supposed to go to Tokyo, and I was in my hotel room looking at the sky, wondering what was going to happen, nervous whether I'd be able to get out," he recalls. The jittery rhythms and dissonant harmonies in the theme, and the intense three-horn exchanges over the first 4? minutes reflect the notion of imminent violence and disruption, before Taborn, who has signified upon the dialogue on fender Rhodes, uncorks a cogent solo that transitions the atmospheric pressure from high to low (the typhoon devastated an area ten miles away, but Sipiagin's locale was sunny), remarked upon by Binney in a 2?-minute solo before the final ensemble statement.
The original title of “Fast Forward" was “Thallys," which is the name of the high speed train that Sipiagin boarded on a beautiful day for the Paris-to-Amsterdam leg of a trip to Groningen, where he teaches several weeks a year in the Prince Claus Conservatory “Jazz in New York" program. “I paid the 10 Euros difference to ride first class, so there was full hospitality with food," he recalls. “I could open my computer and look through my window at the scene changing fast forward." The bright, energetic melody reflects a quality of wind-flight. Sipiagin sustains it on a virtuosic solo; so do Binney and Potter in a section in which they trade fresh ideas at a blinding pace; Kozlov's collect-the-wits solo slows down the train as it reaches its destination. Alert to every nuance and detail, Taborn (acoustic piano) and Harland offer a textbook example of supporting the flow.
The mood is chill on “Meu Canario Vizinho Azul," a ballad by Toninho Horta, extending Sipiagin's engagement with the Brazilian guitar master (he arranged “Sonhando Com O Meu Primeiro Amor" for the Potter-Binney three horn configuration on Equilibrium, from 2003; and “Moonstone" on his Criss Cross debut, Steppin' Zone, from 2001). There's a hint of Native Dancer era Nascimento-Shorter in the arrangement, and also a vibration not unlike Mingus' “Self-Portrait In Three Colors." Kozlov offers a brief statement after the long ensemble opening, then Sipiagin and Potter, with ravishing tone, offer pithy ruminations before an extended ensemble conclusion.
The straight-eighth, soulfully Mediterranean feel of “Fermata Scondola" evokes the 800-year- old Vicenza studio ("beautiful, huge, tons of paintings") of Mariella Scondola, girlfriend of guitarist Michele Calgaro, with whom Sipiagin toured for three weeks in northern Italy. Over a buoyant Kozlov-Harland vamp, Taborn launches the solo rounds on Fender Rhodes, uncorking elegant, funky lines. Sipiagin develops the ideas with a deep, burnished sound, Potter unleashes his imagination, as does Harland in creating a polyrhythmic web, at once grooving and open-ended.
Representing a village 60 kilometers south of Paris where Sipiagin spent ten days, “Videlles" evokes the composer's impressions of “the quiet, the beautiful air, the rabbits, wild boar and other wildlife." Sipiagin's warm tone, articulation, harmonic mastery, and feel for melody denote his exalted stature in the trumpet pantheon circa 2011. Harland conjures more polyrhythmic wizardry, and Potter and Binney blow with soulful virtuosity, keeping thematic imperatives in the forefront, before a polyphonic ensemble conclusion.
“Calming" describes Sipiagin's response to the comforts of home after extensive travels. “I enjoyed being with my son during the month before the recording, when I put the music together," he says. “With the family atmosphere, I felt sharp and the memories came up clean." Displaying an earthy, catgut tone, Kozlov intros the consonant, multi-sectional theme, which has a hymnal feel. Sipiagin credits Binney, himself one of the master composer- improvers of the era, with carving an interpretative path on his opening solo. “This song has a lot of chords, a lot of information, and I thought it might be too much to play on a first take," he says. “But Dave made this complicated music sound so melodic and simple. Such a master." Sipiagin and Potter sustain the mood, before the ensemble engages in an informed polyphonic triologue that winds down the proceedings.
“I knew these guys would play it just right," Sipiagin says of this opus, which is perhaps his masterpiece to date, entirely in his own argot and realized without a single mis-step. “Musicians from other countries never understand it. They say, 'You do it one day?' I say, 'Yes.' It's totally New York."
-Ted Panken
No stranger to the road, Sipiagin, who has accumulated an international reputation for his ability to execute the lead trumpet function while also improvising with enviable flexibility and inspiration on a broad lexicon of trumpet expression, has circumnavigated the globe over the last 15 years on tours with, among others, the Mingus Big Band, Michael Brecker, and various Dave Holland-led groups. More recently, though, an increasing percentage of his itinerary finds him traveling both with his own units and collaborating as a special guest with various bands in the aforementioned locations.
“I bring charts," Sipiagin says. “They're usually fans, so they already know my music well." As examples of the former, he cites a group in Taiwan; projects in Italy with guitarist Michele Calgaro, saxophonist Roberto Bonisolo, pianist Riccardo Fassi, and saxophonist Paolo Recchia; and a recording in France with Andre Charlier. “Some of these musicians write amazing things," he continues. “They're working very hard to play like New York musicians, but of course, their tradition is different, and so is the writing. It's given me new ideas— although I don't really think about it when I write, these experiences somehow reflect in my music. I experimented, and took a lot of chances."
Perhaps this explains the episodic, mysterious ambiance of the tunes, which feel like long- form stories with multiple plot lines that reflect an array of moods and colors. “It's the New York sound," says Sipiagin, a native of Yaroslavl, Russia. “You feel this only after you live here for 10-15 years. You go for it a hundred percent—there are amazing rhythm sections everywhere, and everything is musical and perfect."
Sipiagin could not have recruited a unit possessing skill sets more apropos to animating this programmatic corpus. Destinations Unknown marks Sipiagin's fifth Criss Cross collaboration with Chris Potter (the 40-year-old tenorist's 17 appearances on the label include two early- career leader dates), and the second on which he, Potter, and alto saxophonist David Binney, himself the leader of four Criss Cross dates, have comprised a three-horn front line. The leader takes full advantage of the possibilities, writing gorgeous voicings and intoxicating polyphony that spur a series of thrilling solos.
“It's very special to me that Chris and Dave were so enthusiastic to do this project," Sipiagin says. Of his '90s band mate in the Mingus Orchestra and, more recently, with the Dave Holland Octet, he notes: “Chris had a gig on the same night as the recording, but he told me that the record was his priority."
A long-standing participant in various Binney units and in Potter's Underground Quartet, Craig Taborn, recording with Sipiagin for the first time, unleashes his mojo on Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano. “Craig doesn't play like a regular jazz pianist," Sipiagin says. “He always finds colors. He recognizes instantly where you want to go, and supports you. What he plays here is totally his inspiration. I wrote the rhythmic part and reference the voicings, and told him to go for whatever he heard. That's his specialty. I asked him to do the record because I knew he'd take it to another level."
The anchor is bassist Boris Kozlov, Sipiagin's friend from '80s school days at Gnessin Conservatory in Moscow during the days of glasnost, his roommate when they co-emigrated to the States in 1990, and his subsequent colleague in a slew of ensembles. He locks in deeply with Harland, with whom Sipiagin became acquainted when both played in the Dave Holland Sextet from 2006 to 2008.
“Eric is dedicated to the beauty of music," Sipiagin says of the brilliant 34-year-old drummer with the singular sound. “His soul is clean, and that's why he plays so honestly. He totally cared about every note he played. He's an amazing reader and knows music so well; he looks at a chart, sees some triplets, for example, and immediately knows what to do. It's almost like he memorizes right away and remembers everything."
Harland makes all the hits on the disjunctive opening to the jubilant set-opener, “Next Stop— Tsukiji," and sustains an environment of tension and sweet release. Sipiagin named it after the famous Tokyo fish market. “I've been in Japan maybe 30 times," he said a week or so before the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear reactors. “Each time I arrive, as soon as I place the suitcase in the hotel room, I ride the subway to Tsukiji to a restaurant with the most amazing sushi and tuna that a Japanese friend named Kiichi Goto showed me 15 years ago. It's become like an addiction—you dream about it flying over, then you're in the hotel, on the train, and finally they say, 'Next stop, Tsukiji.'" With this narrative in mind, think of Sipiagin's skittery opening statement as reflecting the pre-meal anticipation, Binney's as ordering the food and observing its preparation, Potter's as the ecstasy of eating five different kinds of ohtoro, and Taborn's as the ritual of digesting the meal after the appetite-sating, perhaps with a touch of sake.
Sipiagin conceived “Tempest In a Teacup" in Taichung City, Taiwan, at a moment when a nasty typhoon was imminent. “I was supposed to go to Tokyo, and I was in my hotel room looking at the sky, wondering what was going to happen, nervous whether I'd be able to get out," he recalls. The jittery rhythms and dissonant harmonies in the theme, and the intense three-horn exchanges over the first 4? minutes reflect the notion of imminent violence and disruption, before Taborn, who has signified upon the dialogue on fender Rhodes, uncorks a cogent solo that transitions the atmospheric pressure from high to low (the typhoon devastated an area ten miles away, but Sipiagin's locale was sunny), remarked upon by Binney in a 2?-minute solo before the final ensemble statement.
The original title of “Fast Forward" was “Thallys," which is the name of the high speed train that Sipiagin boarded on a beautiful day for the Paris-to-Amsterdam leg of a trip to Groningen, where he teaches several weeks a year in the Prince Claus Conservatory “Jazz in New York" program. “I paid the 10 Euros difference to ride first class, so there was full hospitality with food," he recalls. “I could open my computer and look through my window at the scene changing fast forward." The bright, energetic melody reflects a quality of wind-flight. Sipiagin sustains it on a virtuosic solo; so do Binney and Potter in a section in which they trade fresh ideas at a blinding pace; Kozlov's collect-the-wits solo slows down the train as it reaches its destination. Alert to every nuance and detail, Taborn (acoustic piano) and Harland offer a textbook example of supporting the flow.
The mood is chill on “Meu Canario Vizinho Azul," a ballad by Toninho Horta, extending Sipiagin's engagement with the Brazilian guitar master (he arranged “Sonhando Com O Meu Primeiro Amor" for the Potter-Binney three horn configuration on Equilibrium, from 2003; and “Moonstone" on his Criss Cross debut, Steppin' Zone, from 2001). There's a hint of Native Dancer era Nascimento-Shorter in the arrangement, and also a vibration not unlike Mingus' “Self-Portrait In Three Colors." Kozlov offers a brief statement after the long ensemble opening, then Sipiagin and Potter, with ravishing tone, offer pithy ruminations before an extended ensemble conclusion.
The straight-eighth, soulfully Mediterranean feel of “Fermata Scondola" evokes the 800-year- old Vicenza studio ("beautiful, huge, tons of paintings") of Mariella Scondola, girlfriend of guitarist Michele Calgaro, with whom Sipiagin toured for three weeks in northern Italy. Over a buoyant Kozlov-Harland vamp, Taborn launches the solo rounds on Fender Rhodes, uncorking elegant, funky lines. Sipiagin develops the ideas with a deep, burnished sound, Potter unleashes his imagination, as does Harland in creating a polyrhythmic web, at once grooving and open-ended.
Representing a village 60 kilometers south of Paris where Sipiagin spent ten days, “Videlles" evokes the composer's impressions of “the quiet, the beautiful air, the rabbits, wild boar and other wildlife." Sipiagin's warm tone, articulation, harmonic mastery, and feel for melody denote his exalted stature in the trumpet pantheon circa 2011. Harland conjures more polyrhythmic wizardry, and Potter and Binney blow with soulful virtuosity, keeping thematic imperatives in the forefront, before a polyphonic ensemble conclusion.
“Calming" describes Sipiagin's response to the comforts of home after extensive travels. “I enjoyed being with my son during the month before the recording, when I put the music together," he says. “With the family atmosphere, I felt sharp and the memories came up clean." Displaying an earthy, catgut tone, Kozlov intros the consonant, multi-sectional theme, which has a hymnal feel. Sipiagin credits Binney, himself one of the master composer- improvers of the era, with carving an interpretative path on his opening solo. “This song has a lot of chords, a lot of information, and I thought it might be too much to play on a first take," he says. “But Dave made this complicated music sound so melodic and simple. Such a master." Sipiagin and Potter sustain the mood, before the ensemble engages in an informed polyphonic triologue that winds down the proceedings.
“I knew these guys would play it just right," Sipiagin says of this opus, which is perhaps his masterpiece to date, entirely in his own argot and realized without a single mis-step. “Musicians from other countries never understand it. They say, 'You do it one day?' I say, 'Yes.' It's totally New York."
-Ted Panken
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