On his 14th Criss Cross leader album, titled Reverberations, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin booked a six-concert tour in November by a sextet of long-time friends and bandmates from several files of activity that constitute his thriving career. After a few days off, they convened at a well-appointed studio in Bassano del Grappa, the grappa capital of Italy, a 10-minute drive from Sandrigo, the village in the north Italian region of Vicenza, where Sipiagin resides with his wife, Melissa Tham.

"I always try to create a story," Alex Sipiagin says. "For me, the pieces are totally connected, even if they don't sound that way - a standard could connect with some free composition or complicated odd meter. It's a very logical line from the beginning until the end."

The album's back story dates to label founder Gerry Teekens' suggestion after the 2017 release of Sipiagin's Moments Captured that the trumpet grandmaster consider making a standards album as a follow-up. In March 2020, COVID-19 shut down the world. A few months later, Sipiagin and his wife, Melissa Tham, decided to relocate from the New York metro area. When Jerry Teekens Jr. continued Criss Cross, Sipiagin participated in Swing On This, the fifth Criss Cross album by Opus 5, the cooperative quintet in which he partners with tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, pianist David Kikoski, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Donald Edwards - all Criss Cross leaders and members of the Mingus Big Band extended family. After the session, Sipiagin reminded Teekens fils of the standards project, and received a green-light.

Alex Sipiagin: trumpet, fleugelhorn

Will Vinson: saxophone

John Escreet: piano

Makar Novikov: bass

Donald Edwards: drums

Aubrey Johnson: vocals (on track 2)