Alex Sipiagin: Generations - Dedicated to Woody Shaw (2010)

With Generations, his eighth Criss Cross outing as a leader, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin honors the legacy of the great Woody Shaw, reimaging five stellar pieces from Shaw’s repertoire and balancing the progam with four originals. The quartet lineup here (Sipiagin, guitarist Adam Rogers, bassist Boris Kozlov, drummer Antonio Sanchez) at one time formed the core of the brilliant Michael Brecker Sextet. Together, these four players bring years worth of mutual collaborative experience to the music at hand.

Woody Shaw himself appeared just once on Criss Cross, lending his extraordinary horn voice to Introducing Kenny Garrett (Criss 1014) in 1985. Shaw’s influence has long been implicit in Sipiagin’s laying – not only in the Russian-born trumpeter’s work as a leader, but also in his scorching solos with Dave Holland’s Big Band and Octet, the Mingus Big Band, the late Michael Brecker’s Sextet and Quindectet and many more.

With Generations Sipiagin makes his debt to Shaw more explicit, but he approaches these canonical works with his own individuality and imagination foremost in mind, in the determined spirit of Shaw’s song title: Beyond All Limits.

Tracklist

1.Greenwood I (Alex Sipiagin)

2.Obsequious (Lester Young)

3.Cassandranite (Woody Shaw)

4.Beyond All Limits (Woody Shaw)

5.Windy Bahn (Alex Sipiagin)

6.Katrina Ballerina (Woody Shaw)

7.Chance (Alex Sipiagin)

8.Blues For Wood (Woody Shaw / Ronnie Mathews)

9.Greenwood II (Alex Sipiagin)

Personnel

Alex Sipiagin (Tp / Flh)

Adam Rogers (G)
Boris Kozlov (B)
Antonio Sanchez (D)
Generations - Dedicated to Woody Shaw
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Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow, Antonio Sanchez: Quartet Live! (2009)

Quartet Live! is a revisited edition of the classic Gary Burton Quartet. The album features three original members and jazz legends Burton, Pat Metheny and Steve Swallow along with one new member, and perhaps one of the most prominent drummers of his generation, Antonio Sanchez. The eleven song album was recorded live at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland. The story begins in 1967 when bassist Steve Swallow joined with vibraphonist Gary Burton to form the original Gary Burton Quartet. In the early 1970s, then 19 year old guitarist Pat Metheny joined Burton’s band and one of the most celebrated careers in music began. This would be the start of a 35 year musical friendship between the vibist and guitarist that continues today. A decade ago Metheny discovered drummer Antonio Sanchez, inviting him to join The Pat Metheny Group, and the two have been playing together ever since. Metheny came up with the idea to revisit the Gary Burton Quartet, the band that had been his entry into the jazz world: "For me, as a teenager in Missouri just starting to appreciate jazz, Gary’s group was the most innovative band around". They decided to schedule a gig at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2005. The musicians’ rapport and the freshness of playing at Montreal was so energizing that the musicians took the act on the road in Japan and the US in 2006 and 2007, and the group reunited again for a European tour in 2008. What we have here is four legendary musicians, improvisers and composers all, each at the top of his game, bringing modern jazz history to life on Quartet Live!.