Christian Sands Trio
@ the Love Supreme Jazz Festival
7 July 2019
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Biography
Not yet 30, Christian Sands is currently one of the most in-demand
pianists working in jazz. In the last few years he has toured around
the world as a bandleader and recently appeared as a sideman on
records by Christian McBride and Gregory Porter. After the one-two
punch of “Reach” and “Reach Further - EP,”
Sands’ dynamic 2017 Mack Avenue debut and his live/unreleased
studio tracks EP follow-up released earlier this year, “Facing
Dragons” is Sands’ return to the recording studio with
an indestructible band and an unwavering allegiance to the groove.
“I like the freedom of the trio format,”
says Sands. “It's more dramatic to me. It’s a smaller
entity but with a big personality. I can fit it into different situations
dynamically, compositionally.” Opening track “Rebel
Music” features Sands’ wide-ranging scope at its most
elegant, nimbly jetting through single unison lines and bright block
chords. Here and throughout the record he is joined by bassist Yasushi
Nakamura and drummer Jerome Jennings, the band that Sands has been
relentlessly touring with. The two sensitive accompanists are locked
in sync, joined occasionally by a powerhouse pair of horns, a sinewy
guitarist and a fiery pair of percussionists.
Earlier this year Sands was named creative ambassador to The Erroll
Garner Jazz Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the
legacy of the late great pianist Erroll Garner. After inheriting
the position from the late Geri Allen - one of Sands’ mentors
- he is a natural fit for the role. Sands has that same affable
understanding of the audience as he recognises their innate desire
to be entertained as well as enlightened. He tackles the Beatles’
“Yesterday” with a soulful saunter. “Pop music
is essential in jazz. It’s new melodies, it’s new stories,
or same stories told in different ways. Jazz is about storytelling
and pop music has a unique story to tell.”
Sands has yet to bring his band to Venezuela but when he gets
there, he’ll be more than ready for the infectious polyrhythms
found on the shores of Choroni Beach. On “Sangueo Soul,”
Sands bounces above the churning South American rhythms, with Caio
Afune doubling the piano lines on guitar. It alternates between
the two sounds, blending them at will, a sprightly dash of octaves
on the piano cross paths with intergalactic vibrations. The tune
is impossible to resist as a battery of rhythm pushes Sands’
piano into a righteous jaunt; clear the dancefloor. Percussionist
Cristian Rivera appeared on Sands’ Mack Avenue Records debut,
and the two formed a tight bond over a decade ago in Bobby Sanabria’s
Afro Cuban Big Band. Percussionist Roberto Quintero, a native Venezuelan,
brings the fire and authenticity to the party.
“Samba da Vela” appears later, continuing the South
American travelogue with a trip to Brazil. Guitarist Caio Afune
first played with Sands’ brother Ryan, a drummer who studied
at the New England Conservatory. Afune has been playing with the
pianist for over a year now, finding his voice in the tight-knit
ensemble. His solo is an energetic but controlled centerpiece of
the performance but becomes even more effervescent when he heads
to church.
“Church music is key in not just my sound but most jazz
musicians I look up to. It’s a culture that most of us have
gone through so it’s embedded in what we do,” says
Sands. “Jazz can be a religious experience and for me
my playing is my gift to God.” Sands began formal lessons
at the age of four but picked up his sense of swing and soul at
church well before that. “Sunday Mornings” is Sands
tribute to the beginning of the week. He employs soulful clusters
of chords and a lackadaisical slide off the beat, aided and embedded
by an oscillating organ. The transition to a backyard reggae groove
is hip, propelled by Afune’s scratchy accents.
The lilting “Her Song” features bassist Nakamura.
“Yasushi has a great bass sound, great facility and is always
easy to work with, which is why he’s still in so many other
bands today besides mine,” says Sands. Regardless
of Nakamura’s schedule, he is fully committed to Sands’
vision of a rhythm section, a noble accent to the sound, unobtrusive
but always present. Jennings is equally sensitive. “What
I love about Romey” says Sands, “is the soulful intellect
he brings to the instrument. There are layers to what he does and
that comes from study and practice and also just being him - a true
soul brother.”
The album closes with “Rhodes to Meditation” featuring
an electrified Sands drifting into the ether. “The Fender
Rhodes adds a different tone to my imagination. It makes me hear
and play different.” Sands evokes a spectral world without
borders, drifting off like a satellite towards the next adventure.
“Like all of my albums, I want people to feel connected
through a story that I’m telling. On this record, I want to
remind people to always push forward and move in positivity.”
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