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<\/p>\nThere\u2019s a spiritual, almost mystical quality to the drumming of multi-genre musician Jeff Sipe. A world-traveled musician with an extensive body of work to his name. He has performed and played with some of music\u2019s most innovative and boundary-pushing artists, yet he\u2019s equally at home in an informal living room jam with friends.<\/p>\n
Though he\u2019s played professionally in most every style of music, Sipe\u2019s primary work is in the jazz fusion genre. His interest in that music began when he attended high school in Virginia. \u201cThe school had a jazz band, and I was really interested in joining,\u201d Sipe says. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d A friend turned him on to the music of Miles Davis; Sipe was immediately hooked. \u201cThat was my awakening into American jazz,\u201d he says. \u201cA door opened up for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sipe stepped through that door, keeping his ears open for other sources of inspiration. He found that in the drumming of Carl Palmer of progressive rock trio ELP, and in jazz drummer Billy Cobham. Sipe studied hard and quickly developed the musical \u201cchops\u201d necessary to play the demanding kind of music he loved.<\/p>\n
But \u2013 like his heroes \u2013 Sipe\u2019s approach isn\u2019t bloodless and technical; it\u2019s equal parts precision and emotion. \u201cEach genre has its vocabulary and its technical demands,\u201d he explains. \u201cIf you\u2019re playing jazz or classical, you\u2019ve got to practice nonstop because the technique is so demanding and the vocabulary is so vast.\u201d He allows that other genres are less technically demanding, \u201cmore of a feel good thing than an intellectual endeavor,\u201d he says. But Sipe finds them equally fulfilling.<\/p>\n
After studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Sipe relocated to Atlanta. There he soon fell in with iconoclastic band leader Col. Bruce Hampton. \u201cEverybody who graduated from the \u2018Hampton bootcamp of music\u2019 was touched by his philosophy,\u201d Sipe says of the late musician. \u201cWhy<\/i> we were doing it was as important as what<\/i> we were doing.\u201d Sipe remained with Hampton\u2019s band, the genre-blurring fusion group Aquarium Rescue Unit until its first breakup in 1997, and returned when the band reunited in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n But Sipe\u2019s musical interests and activities had always extended beyond Hampton\u2019s adventurous musical collective. He toured and recorded as a member of Jazz is Dead and cajun\/bluegrass band Leftover Salmon. And by 2005 Sipe began making recordings under his own name, working with friends he had made through his own musical travels. He has also lent his versatile talent to recordings by Susan Tedeschi, the Steep Canyon Rangers, Phish\u2019s Trey Anastasio and many others. And Sipe\u2019s drumming is always exactly what each project requires.<\/p>\n \u201cI consider myself an American drummer,\u201d Sipe says. \u201cI\u2019m self-employed, and that demands that you have to play more than a couple of styles just to be able to make a living. But I\u2019m lucky, because I\u2019m passionate about it and I love all<\/i> the styles.\u201d He\u2019s currently putting the finishing touches on a book about drumming, equal parts philosophy, narrative and instructive text.<\/p>\n Last year, Jeff Sipe\u2019s winning combination of emotion-filled and precise drumming led him to perhaps his most high-profile gig to date. Working alongside longtime friend and band mate Jimmy Herring, Sipe took part in the \u201cMeeting of the Spirits\u201d concert tour featuring pioneering fusion guitarist John McLaughlin. He treasures the memories from what was billed as McLaughlin\u2019s farewell to touring. \u201cIt was just wonderful to be in the presence of such an elevated musician and person,\u201d Sipe says. \u201cBecause his dealings with us were so gentle, inspired and positive.\u201d<\/p>\n Sipe\u2019s current project is Electric Buddha, a psychedelic funk-rock band he describes as \u201ca throwback to the \u201860s but with modern sensibilities.\u201d The group features all WNC-based musicians: Hendersonville-based guitarist Howie Johnson plus Mike Barnes (guitar), Derrick Gardner (keyboards), Mark McDaniel (bass) and vocalist-guitarist Melissa Reaves. Electric Buddha is yet another vehicle through which Sipe channels his mystical vibes. \u201cIt\u2019s a great band of wonderful, sweet human beings,\u201d Sipe says. \u201cWe have a great time playing together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a spiritual, almost mystical quality to the drumming of multi-genre musician Jeff Sipe. A world-traveled musician with an extensive body of work to his name. He has performed and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62],"tags":[4016],"class_list":["post-17617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-jeff-sipe","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17619,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17617\/revisions\/17619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}