A forum for jazz reviews, discussion of new jazz, blues music, the musicians, reviews of recent and historical releases, reviews of live performances, concerts, interviews and almost anything I find of interest.
by Ralph A. Miriello
Roberto Magris Denis Razz Quartet- In Action- JMood Records
At the end of 2025, pianist Roberto Magris, who resides in
the northeastern Italian seaport city of Trieste, released a wonderful quartet collaboration
with the Croatian based saxophonist Denis Razumovic. The album is a two-disc release
titled In
Action on J Mood records. This adventurous collection of
well-curated music features compositions from masters like John Coltrane, Wayne
Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Yusef Lateef, Mal Waldron and Sun Ra, in addition to several
promising works by Razumovic and Magris and a Blues by B3 master Jimmy Smith,
where Magris shows his Hammond organ skills.
I became a fan and ardent follower of Magris for quite some time. I first came upon some his work with his Europlane orchestra with the cooking album Check In from 2005. Since then, I have followed this pianist’s growth as found him collaborating with both top-tier European musicians as well as some established ex-patriot American jazz artists that still had something to say. In the subsequent years, I’ve listened to and sometimes reviewed some of Magris’ releases that found the pianist working with such notable musicians as saxophonists Tony Lakatos and Herb Geller, multi-reed and trumpeter Ira Sullivan, French guitarist master Philip Catherine, bassists Art Davis and Eric Hochenberg, drummers Albert “Tootie” Heath and Idris Muhammad, and trumpeter Brian Lynch to to name a few.
Magris has said “I am an Italian of non-Italian culture…so I am an expert at looking ahead to tradition.” This skilled pianist has absorbed some of the music’s traditions before pushing forward. As a player, Magris has developed a wide range of colors on his pianistic palette. He can pull from skills like the bebopper fluidity that recalls Powell; the melodicism from Flanagan and Evans; the rhythmic drive and aggressive attack from Tyner and Pullen, and the harmonic and rhythmic adventurism of Hill and Bley. This makes Magris’ music a bit like a wrapped gift box; you never precisely know what you are getting until you open it.
On In Action, Magris is joined by three talented Croatian musicians Dennis Razz (Razumovic) on alto and soprano saxophones and flute; Karlo Ilić on acoustic bass electric guitar and oud; and Rajko Ergić on drums, percussion and soprano saxophone on two cuts. Magris uses both acoustic and electric pianos, keyboards, Hammond organ, and Mexican whistles to complete the instrumentation. When the listener opens this gift, you get a potpourri of music that delights and surprises.
Magris mentions that vibrant saxophonist Dennis Razz, who is a local Croatian hero with limited exposure to the world of global jazz, “…is a passionate jazz musician with a big heart and soul.” That same heart, passion and soul are the common qualities that all these musicians possess; the secret sauce they bring out in each other when they operate together as a very intuitive, expressive group. This group was originally thought of as an informal and temporary band formed post COVID, but if this album is any indication, these guys have many more inventive roads to travel.
There are eighteen cuts on the album, close to two hours of music, that offers something for almost everyone-inventive, energetic, soulful, swinging, melodic, avant-garde leaning or blues based and unpredictable music.
You can groove to John Coltrane’s “Some Other Blues” with Razz’s fluid alto and Magris’ Wynton Kelly-like piano solo and a nice pizzicato solo by bassist Ilić. Dennis Razz’s “In Umbria” a promising two chord-based piece. It reveals a compositional skill allowing the altoist to show his melodic side as Magris’ electric piano floats in the background with aplomb, and Ergić’s intuitive drum work adds to the mix. Wayne Shorter’s composition “Blue Nile” is another favorite, as Magris and Razz raise the temperature of the set with driving kineticism driven by the potent rhythm section and Razz alto searing and soaring with authority. Ergić’s polyrhythmic solo is another treat.
Magris and Ilić is an avant-garde original “Double Helix” which finds the bassist picking up his electric guitar and having what feels like a spontaneous atonal interaction.
“Il Mare a Fiume,” another Magris original, opens with a synth-driven keyboard setting the stratospheric opening before the music morphs into a soulful shuffle. Magris is on electric piano, Ilić on electric bass, and Ergić’s provides the sauntering drums, as Razz’s soprano soars in the clouds like a falcon.
McCoy Tyner’s “You Taught My Heart To Sing” is a beautiful ballad that brings great melodicism to the set. Magris’ piano lines are liquid and heartfelt, offering a tip of his hat to Tyner, and Razz’s alto evokes a sweet sound that reminds me of Johnny Hodges.
Yusef Lateef’s Middle Eastern inspired “The Plum Blossom” is a trip into another world. To create this world the group uses the unique instrumentation of Ilić’s oud playing sinewy lines against Magris’ acoustic piano probing, Ergić’s tambourine and Razz’s drone-like soprano saxophone work.
The second disc has its own highlights. The free form “Spirits of the Wild” with Razz’s flute work, Ilić’s bowed bass and Magris on Mexican whistles. A swinging version of Sun Ra’s “Discipline 27-11” that shows off Razz’s expressive dynamism on the alto.
The title track, Magris’ “In Action” is a Coltrane inspired composition that opens with a driving ostinato line that is the perfect vehicle for this group to let loose. Magris’ piano lines are very reminiscent of Tyner’s aggressive keyboard attack; percussive and stabing. Razz’s alto ignites the music further like a splash of gasoline on a raging fire. His horn is taking no prisoners as Ergić’s drum work propels the music and offers a dynamic solo of his own.
Sun Ra’s “Lanquidity,” opens with Magris’ dissonant acoustic piano countered by Ilić’s electric guitar probing before Razz’s soprano enters.
Mal Waldron’s “Left Alone” is played with great feeling by Razz and Magris that it just sweeps you away with the song’s inherent pathos; just beautiful. Magris’s piano solo explores the edges of the tune, as Ilić’s bass maintains the pulse with Ergić’s brush work and Razz’s alto states the theme with an open heart.
Razz’s composition for his daughter, “‘A’ Means Antonia” has a bright feeling and finds the altoist in top form. Magris adds some tasty electric piano that reminds me a little of the work of Jeff Lorber.
The album follows with Magris using his Hammond organ chops on the Jimmy Smith blues “You’ll See” and then the classic “My Foolish Heart” ends the set with a familiar, slow shuffling feeling good coda.
The chanteuse Tessa Souter released her latest album Shadows and Silence- The Erik Satie Project on the NOANARA label on July 1,
2025. Having been a follower and fan of this stylistic vocalist, this may be
the best of her releases to date.
Souter’s theme is the artistry of the classical
composer/pianist Erik Satie, whose eccentric and minimalist approach to western
music may have been an inspiration to the subsequent modal jazz and ambient
music trends. Despite the influence to jazz and ambient genres, there is a
great deal of classical, albeit modern, influence on this record.
Souter has the soul of a lyricist, and it is on display in
spades on this album. She takes several songs from Satie-Gymnopedic No 1, No 2,
Vexations, and No 3, Gnossienne No 1, No 2, and No 3- and retitles them with lyrics. She pens
lyrics about love, loss, transience, fluidity, beauty and the futility of thinking
you can capture the ever-changing present, and peace. This thoughtful
compilation shows respect for the music of an artist whose work was so
influential. My first exposure was back in the early seventies, when I fell in
love with the Blood, Sweat, & Tears version of their Variations on Theme 1st
and 2nd movements from Gymnopedic No 1, as arranged by multi-instrumentalist
Dick Halligan and recorded by the jazz/rock band back in 1968.
On Souter’s version of this composition, she renames this
lyric version “Rayga’s Song,” in dedication to the birth of bassist Yasushi
Nakamura’s son, which happened during a snowfall. She is accompanied by Luis
Perdomo’s delicate piano work and Steve Wilson’s soaring soprano saxophone. Bassist
Nakamura’s plucky bass solo offers his own poignant comment. Souter’s lyrics and her sincere voice bring the element of hopeful love, to this piece that revels in the promise of a new life
into this otherwise haunting piece.
Satie’s Gnossienne No1 was retitled with lyrics as Souter’s “A
Song for You” (not to be confused by the Leon Russell song by the same name).
On this one Souter tells the story of a disguised lover who hides his true
intention and the effects it had on his befallen lover. Drummer Billy Drummond’s beat is
hypnotic, Perdomo’s piano is splendid and Nakamura’s bass throbs like a beating
heart.
Souter even knits in a song that recalls a Paul Gaugin
painting of the same name “Du’O Venons-Nous” based on Satie’s Gymnopedic No3, which
has some nice arco work by Nakamura and some airy soprano work by Wilson.
Clearly Souter’s exposure to Satie has been more studious
and rigorous then mine. But this is not exclusively a Satie album. Souter finds other excellent
pieces that seem to thematically weave into the fabric of this project seamlessly.
The Edith Piaf-inspired “Avec le Temps,”
a Leo Ferre composition that Souter sings in French, with both emotion and verve,
accompanied by Nakamura’s excellent bow and Perdomo’s crystalline piano.
Souter includes a Rod McKuen song, inspired by Jacques Brel
titled “If You Go Away.” She does as an intimate duo with Perdomo in the intro, before she kicks it up a notch for a moment with her vocal energy, as she injects a
cabaret feel. She follows with singing in French for a section before the trio takes the
music to another level, eventually Souter returns to that intimate duo at the coda.
Jazzers should appreciate the song “Never Broken (ESP)” a
collaboration written by vocalist Cassandra Wilson and saxophone/composer, legend
Wayne Shorter. Souter is at her most fluid here. The trio percolates with Perdomo
getting off on the zigzagging lines he introduces, as Nakamura and Drummond
lock in like a fine-tuned timepiece, with Drummond getting a little freedom to
offer some nice drum centric features on this one.
Perhaps one of my favorites is bassist Ron Carter’s “Mood,”
which Souter’s worded version is called “Musica Universalis.” Instrumentally,
this one includes a mesmeric metronomic beat that is laid down by Nakamura
and Drummond, before Perdomo adds his own leading piano lines. The real tonal treat
comes from Australian born New York-based Nadje Noordhuis’s moody muted
trumpet lines as they interweave with Wilson’s sinewy soprano work, that at times almost
sounds like a flute. The two show a great deal of magic and symbiosis when
playing together. Souter’s vocal spells out the enchanting lyrics “Mood is a
feather, just floating wherever, like change in the weather, all clouds in the
sky’… “Now waits for no man, it’s gone in a moment, Belonging to no one.” The lyrics nailing the transience, the
fluidity, the beauty and the futility of never being able to keep things more than
in the moment.
Tessa Souter's Shadows and Silence- The Erik Satie Project is a splendid album that you will find yourself revisiting many times.
The drummer/composer/arranger Tyshawn Sorey never ceases to impress. This time his trio of Aaron Diehl on piano and Matt Brewer on bass released Continuing on Pi Recordings at the end of June and it takes a deliberate, thoughtful, sometimes slow simmer approach to make its artistic point. Sorey has one of the most creative musical minds out there today. He seems to reinforce this notion with each of his successive releases like this one on the heels of his 2022 highly acclaimed Mesmerism and The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism.
On Continuing, Sorey and his bandmates take three songs culled from the canon of some recently passed masters' artwork. Wayne Shorter's "Reincarnation Blues" was first heard on Art Blakey's 1962 Buhaina's Delight, pianist Ahmad Jamal's "Selertus"first heard life on Jamal's 1958 release Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal, and "In What Direction Are You Headed"from Sorey's mentor Harold Mabern, to whom this album is dedicated. The one outlier is the Earl K. Brent/Matt Dennis classic "Angel Eyes,"which wasfrom the 1953 film Jennifer where Dennis, the songwriter, played piano and performed it for the first time. The song later became part of the canon when it was picked up by jazz artists like Dave Brubeck, Jim Hall, Gene Ammons, and Chris Conner to name a few.
What is beautiful about this album is the care and extended time that these terrifically sympathetic musicians take to develop their expressive musical interpretations of these gems.
Starting with Shorter's "Reincarnation Blues," the trio takes this hard bop tune and gives it a slow blues saunter of a rhythm with a metronomic feel. The music is brilliantly walked by Brewer and cadenced to perfection by Sorey. Diehl's slowly developed harmonic ideas are explorative and spare, but yet never lack in grabbing your attention. At about the 3:58 mark, Brewer offers a probing bass solo that is responded to by Sorey's selective percussive responses. The group punctuates the music with a sense of increased intensity at the 7:07 min mark. They raise the heat dynamically as Diehl's piano erupts with a gush of notes, Sorey's drum work percolates with intention, and Brewer's bass pulses like a throbbing organ. There is an alloy-like quality to the way these three musicians interact, almost like being fused on the neurological level.
With Jamal's "Seletrtus," we find Sorey and Brewer creating a march-like cadence that sets the tone. Diehl chordally sets a line that has Brewer responding with an alternative take on his buoyant bass. The trio keeps the repeated line like a backdrop to some exploratory bass work by Brewer and syncopated lines by Sorey. Diehl ascends the line with climbing chord work that urges Sorey and Brewer to increase the pace. Sorey's drum work is incredible, a multi-tonal, kinetic feast of rhythmic invention. Diehl's work is resplendent carrying the music over the magically enticing rhythmic feast.
Sorey's "Angel Eyes" is a veritable reinvention of this classic. It simply captivates you. The pace is slow, real slow, and languishing, like an instrumental being given a provocative Shirley Horn treatment, and no less effective than her unique way of making a song all her own. Brewer is given high marks for being able to keep this lazy pace without ever losing the time. Diehl spells out the melody with precise notes that just hang like gorgeously ripe grapes on a fall-season vineyard arbor. Sorey judiciously uses his cymbals to great effect, tickling rhythm from subtle, swirling sounds. These guys bring new possibilities as to how you might listen to this song. Wordless music that speaks volumes. It's like a love affair with this melody. They carry it for almost fourteen intentional minutes and they make you believe that you maybe never really heard this song the way it was supposed to be played before.
Harold Mabern's "In What Direction Are You Headed" is a gospel-inspired, soul-drenched finger-snapping song. Brewer lays a circular line that holds down the vamp. Diehl lays out a wandering pianistic exploration. Sorey's rotating drum work is overflowing with vibrancy and drive. The music has an organic life of all its own offering tinkling piano keys that just float, staccato rolling bass lines that circle like a clock mechanism, and built on a relentless flurry of percussion that just drives this anthem throughout.
The Tyshawn Sorey Trio's Continuing is certainly worth several listens to appreciate just how rewarding reimagined music can be in the right hands.
Kirk Lightsey: I Will Never Stop Loving You JJR-001
The pianist Kirk Lightsey is perhaps a name that you may not
be familiar with, but that is certainly not for lack of his possessing immense
talent and sublime taste. The now eighty-four-year-old pianist and one-time
flutist has certainly flown under many people’s radar, despite being a key
participant and contributor to many of the music’s notable performers of the
past fifty years. Lightsey’s sensitive imprimatur can be heard as a sought-after
sideman for an impressive array of important performers in this music’s history.
Lightsey’s piano work has been present on work with Yusef Lateef, Betty Carter,
Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Stitt, and Chet Baker. He toured four years with
saxophone titan Dexter Gordon and has recorded with such diverse artists as Woody Shaw. Harold Land and Blue Mitchell, Clifford Jordon, Gregory
Porter and even The Roots. Lightsey’s leader work as a pianist has always been noted
for his ability as an astute interpreter of many of the music’s most creative
compositions. Back in 1984, Lightsey and the other underappreciated pianist, Harold
Danko, did a duo album titled Shorter by Two. They astutely recognized
the compositional brilliance of Shorter long before it was fully appreciated and
took two inspiring and unique interpretations of the music’s possibilities.
Lightsey has lived in France since 2000 and over his storied
career released close to twenty albums as a leader and numerous albums as a sideman. Lightsey’s latest release
is a gorgeous solo album titled I Will Never Stop Loving You on
JOJO records. The title song has become a signature song for the pianist. The
music was written Nicholas Brodszky in 1955 with lyrics by Sammy Cahn for the
movie Love Me or Leave Me. The song has been sung by Doris Day, Dinah
Washington, Andy Williams, Nancy Williams, and even British pop singer Dusty
Springfield and played by Ahmad Jamal. Lightsey has an innate ability to extract the beauty and
sensitivity from this song and it is just an unhurried approach that is so rare
to hear in today’s frenetic times. As his sparse liner notes Lightsey says :
“Patience.
A lesson in patience. My whole life seems to be about the lesson of patience. Patience
with myself.”
There is something undisputedly true about reaching that kind of understanding that is refreshing and revealing of this pianist at this point in his career.
Lightsey mines compositional gems here, like Wayne Shorter’s
“Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” which he gives a jaunty, almost stride-like approach. The pianist
finds Tony Williams less explosive side by treating the drummer’s “Pee Wee”
with sensitivity and respect. The touch, the pensiveness, and the emotive approach as
he expands on the theme are just wonderful.
Shorter is again celebrated by Lightsey with another two of
his compositions “Infant Eyes,” as good as a composition as had been created in
the past fifty years, and the gem “Wild Flower”. Lightsey’s pianist approach to
“Infant Eyes” is expansive and moving and filled with a bouquet of harmonic possibilities.
The composer/saxophonist Phil Woods once said “Goodbye Mr. Evans”
was his best composition ever and acknowledged that Lightsey had probably made
one of the most memorable renditions of this dedication to the pianist Bill
Evans. There is no doubt that Lightsey revels in this song and evokes some of Evan’s
spirit in playing this fine composition.
Lightsey resurrects John Coltrane’s epic “Giant Steps” here with his own unique take on this relentlessly climbing
composition that always seems to be reaching for but never quite arriving at its
destination. The pianist finds slightly angular approaches to this memorable theme,
and he ends with his own creative take at the coda.
Shorter’s “Wild Flower” ends this marvelous album. The
pianists accompanying left-hand sets the rhythmic pulse as his right hand
explores, with a patience and richness that allows the music to blossom like the synanthesis
of the wildflower it was named for.
Kirk Lightsey has played and recorded many of these songs over his career and yet there are always new ideas to be mined by a seasoned artist. Like a traveler who frequents a familiar road, we can always find new things to explore, new ways to find alternate paths in the music. This album offers a most recommended way to spend just under thirty-five minutes of basking in this man's artistry.
The Russian trumpeter Alex Sipiagin releases a new album titled Upstream, on May 7th and this fine offering is propulsive, modernly melodic, and superbly played.
Sipiagin contributes five impressive compositions for this record and his bandmates add three others along with one gorgeous Wayne Shorter ballad for good measure. Posi-Tone producer Marc Free continues to reveal an uncanny talent to identify distinctive players and match them up with like-minded musicians to great success.
On Upstream, Sipiagin is joined by pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Rudy Royston and together these guys can elevate your heart rate with excitement, dazzle your mind with their taste or pull at your heartstrings with poignancy.
Trumpet legend Randy Brecker said "...there is a full spectrum of many moods and emotions on this great album..." "...one of his best many excellent albums."
This album is simply a joy, and if you're like me, it will be on auto replay on your both headphones and your iPhone.
Alex Sipiagin is one of those first-call trumpet players that if you do not recognize his name, you have certainly heard his work before. Since his arrival from his native Russia in 1991, Sipiagin’s distinctive, precise and melodic sensibilities have been heard in the orchestra’s trumpet sections for Gil Evans, Swiss Composer George Gruntz’s Concert Jazz Band, bassist Dave Holland’s Octet and Big Bands, Michael Brecker’s award-winning Quindectet and Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side Orchestras. Alex has been a member of the great Mingus Big Band since 1996, and I last saw him in that great band almost two years ago at the Jazz Standard.
Despite being often seen as a first-call orchestra trumpet section voice, Alex has worked extensively as a leader, with seventeen other releases since 1998. He is a founding member of the group Opus 5, which includes Seamus Blake (s), David Kikoski (p), Boris Kozlov (b) and Donald Edwards(dr).
The title Upstream refers to Alex’s desire to maintain “intensity and desire” in his artistic life. Consequently, he likes to go against the current and swim upstream of the fray. This album is Sipiagin’s artistic representation of that never-ending search.
The opener “Call” is the artist’s expression of an overflow of emotions that sometimes just happens as if by a force of nature outside of your control. An explosion of expression as Sipiagin’s trumpet is like a clarion call that bubbles with emotive and powerful bursts. The group responds with equal energy and well-controlled sympathetic kineticism.
The pianist Art Hirahara’s beautiful “Echo Canyon” allows the listener’s elevated pulse to take a breath for a moment. The music has a more pensive feel, with Sipiagin using the warmer sound of Flugelhorn to great effect, playing out front of his bandmate’s sensitive accompaniment. Hirahara’s piano solo is splendid and Sipiagin reaches some gorgeous high register notes that just soar.
Alex’s “Sight” has a switchback, complex pattern that is brilliantly executed by this formidable rhythm section. Hirahara plays on what sounds like a Rhodes piano and offers an airy solo. Sipiagin’s trumpet is focused, precise, and always melodic. Sipiagin’s compositions musically inspire and are advanced both harmonically and melodically and yet executed with aplomb and taste.
Another of the leader’s compositions is the scorching “SipaTham” which is an acronym of the first letters of Alex and his wife Mellissa Tham’s last names. There is a volcanic eruption of expression in these songs. Like “Sight”, “SipaTham” were both created when artistic creativity was being quarantined from all normal outside world activity by the pandemic. Sipiagin successfully used the time to compose and it shows how his energy was being redirected into this amazing music. His bandmates undoubtedly felt that being able to tap into this music’s energy would be cathartic for them when this was finally recorded, and it shows. Alex’s playing is on fire, and the group is on a mission. Hirahara and Kozlov are in beautiful sync and Rudy Royston’s drum work is particularly propulsive and takes you to a new level of involvement. This one is special.
Boris Kozlov is a top-notch bassist who I have had the privilege of seeing play in several different settings. Here Alex takes Boris’ composition “Magic Square” on a fusion take that features Hirahara’s searching Rhodes, Kozlov’s electric bass, and Sipiagin’s tart muted trumpet. Royston’s drum work is spectacular and erupts with a flurry of syncopation that overflows like an overheated cauldron.
Sipiagin’s “Rain” is a sensitive ballad that was inspired by waiting for a loved one to be released from a hospital while it was relentlessly raining. It is these moments, being unprepared and being subjected to live’s uncertainties, that can provide inspiration. Sipiagin’s trumpet is played beautifully on this and you can feel his release of angst, the sincerity in his expression of thanks, and the mastery of his command that allows him to gorgeously express those feelings.
“Shura” is another Kozlov composition that is played in 6/8 as requested by Alex and was written in humor and named for the trumpeter by his nickname. I can’t get enough of Alex’s facility and clear tone. Many people play the trumpet well, but few with such authority and joy. Royston’s drums fill up the song copiously, especially at the coda, and Kozlov and Hirahara accompany brilliantly.
Wayne Shorter’s “Miyako” is a gorgeous ballad and Sipiagin’s flugelhorn simply needs to be heard to be appreciated. Kozlov’s bass solo is fluid and eloquent. Royston’s cymbal and tom work are impressive.
The title song “Upstream” returns to the energy level previously offered in the Sipiagin compositions covered earlier n this album. According to the artist’s notes, some of the melodies in “Upstream” were inspired by a Russian folk song. The folk song was in turn inspired by a painting by Ilya Repin titled “Barge Haulers on the Volga,” which depicts exhausted workers depleted by the strenuous work and the heat of the sun.
"Upstream" is a quick-moving song featuring Sipiagin’s declarative trumpet, Hirahara’s melodic Rhodes, Kozlov’s probing bass, and Royston’s roiling drum work. The heat rises-the energy level is driven into overdrive activity-lead by Sipiagin’s piercing high register work. Royston’s drum solo is like a whirlwind of percussion inventiveness and worth the price of admission.
Christian
Sands is a twenty-seven year old pianist who hails from New Haven, Connecticut.
His work with drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.
in Grammy Award winning bassist Christian McBride’s trio, has already garnered him wide spread
recognition. Together these three
musicians re-wrote what we came to expect from a piano jazz trio. A
sophisticated, extremely intuitive trio that brought a jois de vivre to
everything they played-from a re-imagining of a well-worn standard, to breathing
new life into an improvised version of a contemporary pop song. Although the trio was led and anchored by
McBride, Sands dazzled audiences with
his silky, polished facility and his locked-in sense of swing that manifested
itself in a myriad of styles that he commands.
The young
man has been attempting to play the piano since he was a toddler trying to
reach the keyboard, and started formal lessons at the age of four. Classically trained, he found himself all too
often distracted by his desire to improvise on the classics. He was directed by
a teacher to jazz studies, and eventually met Dr. Billy Taylor at a summer jazz
program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, who became a mentor and
took the young Sands under his wing.
Besides studying masters like Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson and Dr. Taylor,
Sands has also studied with two young lions of contemporary piano, Jason Moran
and Vijay Iyer and cites them all as inspirational.
Sands will
be playing for two nights, Friday and Saturday June 9 and 10th this
weekend at the Velvet Note in Alpharetta in support of his latest album Reach. Notes on Jazz caught up with Sands via
telephone Friday afternoon June 9, 2017.
NOJ: I
understand you have some ties to Atlanta can you speak to that for our hometown
fans?
CS: Yeah, it’s
my mother’s side of the family. My mother is originally from Augusta-
Waynesboro GA. All the family is down there, but I have a few cousins and a few
family members that have moved to Atlanta, so that is where the Atlanta connection
comes from.
NOJ: So
what do you think of the Atlanta music scene?
CS: It’s
great, I know a few musicians who come from here like (drummer) Terreon Gulley
and (vocalist) Avery Sunshine. I actually spoke to her yesterday on the phone.
We were going in opposite directions – she was going to the airport and I was
coming in from there. We were trying to link
up but couldn’t make it work. The music scene is awesome down here. Just
growing up and listening to hip-hop, Atlanta’s hip-hop scene is amazing; the
whole Georgia connection is incredible. Georgia is in the bloodstream of my
music and in me too.
NOJ: You
have been playing piano from the age of about four years old from what I have
read. Were you trained classically when you first took lessons?
CS: I started playing piano when I was about one
or two, I started lessons at four. It’s kind of difficult to find a teacher for
a four year old. I was originally classically trained, doing Suzuki piano,
playing Chopin and Mozart and that kind of repertoire. Then I went to jazz
studies when I was about seven years old.
NOJ: Did
any of the classical composers really ring true to you?
CS: Mozart.
Really because of the story of Mozart .I heard how young he was when he started.
I kind of identified with that because I was young at the same time. As a child
you think you can identify because you are both five or six or seven. That’s
the vibe, that’s what I was hearing myself as.
NOJ: Do you
still listen to classical music?
CS: Oh
yeah, all the time. I ‘am heavily into Scriban, but since college I have loved
Erik Satie. I absolutely love Satie, because of his use of simplicity and depth
at the same time. He has got this dark beauty in his writing. I love Ravel and Debussy
of course. You talk about colors and textures, the shaping of music, is absolutely
incredible. I am still a fan of Mozart, almost anytime I hear any Mozart or any of the
operas come on the radio, I am listening. I’m a big fan of Puccini as well.
NOJ: So how
did you change direction from classical to jazz?
CS: I
always liked to create. I liked to improvise, so when I was younger I would
take the songs that I was learning-Bach, Chopin or Mozart- and I would
improvise on the etudes, improvise on some of the patterns that they had. In
classical you’re not supposed to do that, so I would get in trouble all the
time. I would just take a solo and do one chorus and I would change the keys, my teacher finally got tired of telling me not to do that anymore, so she
ended up telling my parents to put me into jazz studies. So that’s when I
started those studies and I was seven.
NOJ: You
took lessons with Billy Taylor?
Dr. Billy Taylor
CS: Well
not just yet. I took lessons from Dr. Taylor at maybe fourteen years old. It
was absolutely incredible. I started out meeting him at the Jazz in July
Program at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I actually teach there now,
this is my third year teaching at the program. It’s actually awesome to be
there. It’s a two week program and I was supposed to do just one week, but I
fell in love with the program and fell in love with Dr. Taylor. He liked my
playing and asked if I could stay the second week and so I did. Everywhere he
went I went.
NOJ: What
is the most influential thing Dr. Taylor did for you as a pianist?
CS: The
most influential thing that I can say Dr. Taylor talked about (with me) was
honesty in music. A lot of people don’t talk about that. He talked about why
people sound the way they sound. It wasn’t because they were trying to develop
concepts or something like that; it was because they were a product of their
environment. He talked about bringing the audience with you. Build your audience
to the point that they know exactly where you are going. If you want to play avant-garde, for example, build into that. He was a master of literally breaking down music. He would
tell you what’s going to happen in the form. He would tell you who is going to
solo here. He would tell you what kind of groove you were going to hear-(on a
composition) maybe from swing groove to Latin groove on the bridge. What is the
bridge? Well, the bridge is the middle section of the song. He would take the
time to explain all the parts before he would actually perform it.
NOJ: So if
I understand what you are saying, structure was essentially is what you took
away from his teaching?
CS: Yeah,
just the way to play music in an honest way.
NOJ:
Meaning what? Coming from your heart? Coming from your soul?
CS: Yrs
coming from your heart and coming from your soul, but just coming from where
you have come from. Coming from what you have experienced in your life.
NOJ: You
also took lessons from Jason Moran. Compare what you got from Jason as opposed
to what you got from Dr. Taylor.
CS: Jason
was amazing. My studies with him and Dr. Taylor overlapped for about a year.
Studying with both of them was so good for me because I learned so much about
the history of piano. Dr. Taylor was around when modern jazz piano was being
developed. He being a protégé of Art Tatum all the way to him being around to
see guys like Jason Moran, was just a tremendous breadth of experience. Jason
talked about pianists that a lot of other people didn’t talk about, like Paul
Bley, Herbie Nichols, Andrew Hill and Jaki Byard. Jaki and Andrew were both
Jason’s teacher so he came from that. What Jason taught me was the way to
create. Jason was all about creation, all about challenging my creativity. We
never worked on repertoire; it was always we worked on creativity.
NOJ: Can
you elaborate and explain how he would do that?
Jason Moran
CS: Jason
would have a two hour lesson and within that lesson we would just improvise and
play off each other. Maybe one goal would be to try not to repeat ourselves for
the entire session, or try to play the full two hours without stopping and see
how far we got. Continuously just moving in all directions, -almost like
water-pushing envelopes and pushing different ideas, trying to see how creative
we could be.
NOJ: Was
this exercise played within a song format or was it free?
CS: Not
necessarily, sometimes it would be or develop into a song. Sometimes it would
be free form; sometimes it would just be segments or just vamps or just
anything. That was the great thing about Jason, anything was game.Literally, it
could be playing inside the piano for two hours and seeing what kind of sounds
we could get out of it.
NOJ: So if
I can distill this a little bit for myself; Billy was structure and honesty and
Jason gave you freedom and creativity. Is that fair?
CS: Yeah
perfect.
NOJ: You also took lessons with Vijay Iyer, what
did he bring to the table for you?
CS: Vijay
was very similar to Jason, except Vijay was in a way very much structured like
Dr. Taylor. He would say creation was good, but it had to be purposeful. So he
would like to write something, for say the drums to specifically play. He was
more into through composing. It was the creativity with less manipulation of
the creativity within through composed pieces.
NOJ: Within Iyer’s format he still allows his trio
to improvise?
CS: Yes,
but a lot of it is based on things that are already written, which is
interesting. So the drum groove that Marcus Gilmore might play is written
there, but then within that he will make a variation of what is already
written. Vijay is all about textures as
well. When I mean textures, I mean, I compare his music to like (the game cube)
Tetris. You have the block and you can move its parts side to side and up and
down. His music is very sequential. He taught me how to take patterns and
textures in ways that it’s either the melody or the harmony or the rhythm. Each
piece had multiple functions. It works out because he is an engineer so it
makes perfect sense.
Kenya Revisited Bobby Sanabria's Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra
NOJ: You
were on the Grammy nominated 2009 recording Kenya
Revisited Live when you were with Bobby Sanabria’s Manhattan School of
Music Jazz Band. This, by the way, was a great, great album. Tell us about that
experience.
CS: Bobby Sanabria is quite an individual. He is
an amazing person and an amazing band leader. The majority of the students in
the band were seniors or master’s students. That year myself, I think Jake
Goldbas the drummer was in that band, and there were a few other freshmen in that
band. The fact that he could take like five freshmen and the upperclassmen and
turn us into this machine, and what a machine; it’s incredible and even Bobby
said that was the best band he ever had. Then to be nominated for a Grammy was
absolutely an incredible experience. I got to learn more about Latin music. I grew
up playing it in New Haven and also Hartford CT. They are both big Latin
scenes. I grew up playing in different Latin ensembles like a Latin Jazz
Ensemble or a Brazilian Jazz Ensemble. The first Latin pianist I was introduced
to was Chucho Valdez and then Gonzalo Rubalcaba after that. There are so many
cats that can play that. I first got into Chucho and for me he was like a
combination of Oscar Peterson and McCoy Tyner. But he had this heavy, heavy
rhythmic feel. Both of them are heavy rhythmically and both are virtuosos. So
listening to that was incredible. My
senior year in high school I also started playing with Los Hombres Caliente out
of New Orleans with Bill Summers and Irvin Mayfield. They were heavily into
Latin influence, but also Creole music. That was the first band I ever went out
on tour with. Being a fan of Bill Summers from Herbie Hancock and the
Headhunters days, I was already hooked into that, and Irvin Mayfield just played
a pile of trumpet. That’s when I joined Bobby Sanabria, being in that band I
learned so much. One of the things I learned was how to play intensely. You
heard that band, how to play with so much force and a lot of passion, because
you hear Bobby just yelling and screaming. He would point and you and tell you
to solo, and you have no chord changes or nothing and you have got to play
something. Again creativity, but also just passion, and playing with fire. That’s
how I describe playing with Bobby, playing with fire.
NOJ: You played
with Christian McBride for several years in a remarkable trio (with drummer
Ulysses Owens Jr.) what did you personally get from that experience with
Christian?
CS: Similar
to Dr.Taylor, just the honesty of music, because with Christian his music is him.
Away from the stage he is this big personality with this big laugh and this big
smile and this loving personality, and that’s what his music is. His music
reflects that personality. So one of the things that I learned while I was with
him was just how to be yourself in music. How to truly be you, and how the music
should reflect you, because that is what he is all about. It should reflect
everyone (in the band), but it mostly reflects him. He probably learned that
from Freddie Hubbard, or all the people he has played with, because when you
listen to Freddie Hubbard it’s unapologetic, it’s in your face. One thing I
learned from McBride is how to be yourself in music and also I learned just how
to play for people, instead of musicians. He is such a virtuoso that he can
play anything.
NOJ: But he
is also a bit of a showman, right?
CS: Yeah he
is a bit of a showman, how to entertain people. When musicians come up to your
gig, they know what you’re doing already, but the people don’t. It’s all about
how you feel, how people feel. So we will play a Motown or Jackson Five tune or
like we recorded that Rolls Royce tune “Car Wash.” So I’ve learned not everyone
is a jazz lover or aficionado, but they are all music lovers. So play music, so
that is what I learned from him.
NOJ: That
gets us back to that Dr. Taylor statement about how do you try to bring your
audience along with you without compromising yourself and your own musical
integrity?
CS: Exactly.
NOJ: It is always an issue for club owners and
promoters of this music, who want to preserve the tradition and the legacy but
struggle with maintaining an audience. What was Dr. Taylor’s solution to this
problem of bringing your audience along with you?
CS: It’s funny,
because Dr. Taylor just loved all music. Because we would sit down and have
conversations about Mary Lou Williams and the next conversation would be about
the Roots or A Tribe Called Quest. He knew them, especially the Roots. They
recorded “I Wish I Knew How It Feels to be Free” with John Legend and I asked
him about that recording and he knew it and he told me he loved what they did
with it. His thing was that music is supposed to evolve. Music is supposed to
be a documentation of what life is (at any given time.) I have had a lot of conversations about where
jazz going is or what jazz is. Is hip hop jazz or should it be straight ahead,
or big band or traditional?I’m a product of both. For me jazz is supposed to evolve,
but you should evolve from the knowledge of where you have come from.
NOJ: I
understand what you’re saying and people like Nicholas Payton have their own
ideas about jazz and the word and what it all means, and if the word has any
relevance anymore.
CS: Yeah, I
totally understand where Payton is coming from too. I feel that jazz is still there
because that is where all the music comes from. So either you call it all jazz
or you don’t call it anything at all. So Nick is saying let’s not call it that
anymore.
NOJ: To me
jazz is like an umbrella. It takes in so much and maybe you don’t like the
word, or some kind of outdated connotation or where it came from, but it has
served its purpose. The music has widened its reach out all over the
world. I don’t know of any other music
that is so universally loved and even cherished in all parts of the world as
jazz. It has become so inclusive under the banner of “jazz,” that for us to
label the word as some kind of problem I don’t think is very helpful.
CS: I
understand what he is saying; there is just different ways of saying it. What
he is saying is that the word is bad. What I ‘am saying is take the word away,
the genre is like the root of all music today. It comes from the blues, it
comes from classical music, it comes from classical harmony, it comes from
African songs, it comes from field songs from slavery, and it comes from early
French music which had a swing to it. It’s actually very interesting, other
music was relatively straight and then French music had a bounce to it. When you hear older musicians play jazz or you
listen to older recordings, even the blues records like Blind Willie Johnson or
you listen to these early classical recordings it’s all related. But jazz is a
direct mirror from American history. Today it sounds the way it sounds because
it has absorbed so many different parts, views and conditions of the American
experience. It’s so broad because America is so broad culturally. That’s why it
sounds like it does. So either you call it jazz or call it all jazz or you
don’t call it jazz and instead don’t name it anything. Somebody once said if
everything is art there is no art. So if everything is jazz then there is no
jazz. It’s kind of like the way you want to take it. Nick is kind of saying
don’t call it jazz call it Black American Music or Black African music because
it is, and it is that, but it is also a lot of other things .
NOJ: You
have played with McBride and Thomas Fonnesbaek and Ben Williams all different
bass players. How does playing with these different bassists differ for you as
a pianist?
CS: It’s
funny because if I wasn’t a pianist I would either be a trumpet player or a
bass player. I love melody and I love how trumpet and bass can manipulate
melody, it’s very much the closest thing to the voice that you have.
NOJ: The trumpet definitely is like a voice, I
don’t know about the bass?
CS: The
bass is like a voice because you can bend notes and manipulate notes like a voice.
So that’s how I viewed it like that. I love the bass and I grew up playing with
a lot of bassists. I grew up playing with Nat Reeves and Rufus Reid, Phil
Bowler, Jeff Fuller. I definitely played with Jeff every day. Christian
McBride, Thomas Fonnesbaek, Ben Williams, John Clayton, and Derrick Hodge the
list goes on and on.
NOJ: I’ve
noticed that you have played several children’s songs in your repertoire. You’ve
played “Pure Imagination” from Willie
Wonkaand the Chocolate Factory;
you’ve played “If Your Happy and You Know It” another children’s song and now
on your latest album you do “Somewhere Out There” from the animated feature An American Tail. What is it about these
happy children’s songs that give you so much inspiration?
CS: That’s
because that is what gave me inspiration as a child and gave me inspiration to
play. I know I am not the only one who has had inspiration from these songs,
because this is a memory from my childhood and who I am today. These movies
were part of my experience and a part of my generation too. To play them is
also reaching to audience members and to people who have gone through that
experience as well. I can talk to
somebody about Willie Wonka and say “I said good day sir” and people can
remember that scene and identify with it.
Or I can talk about Fievel from An
American Tail and people who know that movie can relate .Many peoples
childhood or many people who have children can all relate, so it’s part of the
American culture and American life.
NOJ: The
three times I’ve seen you perform; you have always dressed very nattily, always
in suit and a tie. How did this fascination with clothes come about and how
does the way you dress affect the way you play?
CS: The dressing is Sand’s men thing. My
grandfather dressed up, my father dressed up, my brother dresses up, my uncles.
So, all the Sand’s men were pretty dapper. I guess it is a family thing. I
don’t always wear a suit sometimes I just wear a tee shirt, but the majority of
the time I wear something nice anyway. It’s kind of empowering in a way. To
dress up and have, not a uniform, but something that sets you apart from the
listener that is coming to see you. At the same time I also dress up, on an
African American side of it, because I want to show African American boys that
you don’t have to just have baggy pants to be a rapper. You could totally wear
a suit and still convey a message. So it’s a message thing too.
NOJ: How
does it affect the way you play?
CS: Well it
used to affect the way I played. When I wore a suit I tried to play more
elegantly, as opposed to when I wear something less dressy when I play more
rugged and raw, but now I just play.
NOJ: You dedicated two of the songs on your latest
album to pianists. One to Chick Corea called “Armando’s Song” and one to Bud
Powell’s called “Bud’s Tune.” Tell us
about those influences and why you wanted to do this?
CS: I
listened to Chick as a kid, but not intently, because I grew up listening to
Fats Waller and Ahmad Jamal and a lot of Herbie (Hancock), but I didn’t really
listen to Chick as a kid intently. Later as an adult I really started
listen to him and kind of understanding what he was doing. I listened to him with
the Latin piano, because he has articulation with his rhythm .Later on, I
really got into listening to pianists and trying to figure what they did that
made them who they were. Then with Chick it was more about his compositions.
Where he came from, the way he articulated and where the Spanish thing came
from. McBride started working with Chick, and there was a lot of Chick material
and we would actually practice some Chick tunes for sound check or play some on
the bandstand. Then I got a chance to meet him, and he was such a nice and
gracious guy. So I just wanted to write a tune. I was really listening to him a
lot at the time, trying to understand what he was doing compositionally.
NOJ: But
you don’t feel he is an influence on you?
CS He is, but he’s not. He is, because I love the way he plays in time. He has a similar
way, as do a lot of Latin players, of playing very structured, but then
loosening it. It is almost like breathing. The way Chick plays, he will play
very much on the beat and then he will play these phrases and then go back to
the beat and then he will leave some space. It’s very, very incredible. I would
say he is definitely an influence, but a later influence.
NOJ: What
about Bud Powell?
CS: If you go to Chick you got to go to Bud and
McCoy. He was another guy that I got into later on, because I grew up listening
to Monk. Monk was the guys for me, the end all, be all. Thelonious Monk.
NOJ: That’s
funny because he was a great composer, but some say not a greatest pianist.
CS: Right, but something about his compositions
made him the greatest pianist on his music. Monk had this wittiness, he was
just funny. Listening to Bud was similar, but Bud was faster. Bud was a little more
stylistic, more suave.
NOJ: Well
Bud came directly from the (Art) Tatum school, right?
CS:
Exactly, right they both did. They were different translations of Tatum. Dr.
Taylor would tell the story of Monk listening to Tatum and Monk actually
sounded like Tatum at one point. So
someone would tell Monk, we already have a Tatum so you have to do your own
thing. The Monkism was already there in his playing, but like when you hear some
of his flurries that‘s a Tatum line. “Round Midnight” was written after an
arrangement that Tatum played of “Body and Soul," it was inspired by that.
When you hear that version you can understand where it came from. Monk had the
harmony thing and Bud had the linear ideas. So if you take Bud, he has all
these little slips and they change keys and dexterity. So Bud was another
influence on me as to how to play time, how to play up-tempo, but also how to
play in different pockets.
NOJ: You haven’t mentioned Bill Evans. How, if
at all did Evans playing influence you?
CS: Bill
Evans just because of his clarity. Each note was just ringing. When he played he was so
clear and so patient and he was an honest player. I heard him on some
interviews telling people how he was still working on things and you’re saying
to yourself how is that possible that you (Bill Evans) are still working, what are you
working on, it’s so beautiful.
NOJ: Many
people consider Bill to be one of the most honest, sincere players who ever
played. He bore his soul every time he sat at that keyboard. It was like he was
playing with no clothes on; he left himself out there naked to the world.
CS: That’s
really what I liked about his playing. Honesty and he has patience about his
playing that I really like.
NOJ: What
living artist would you most like to play with if you had a chance?
CS: Wayne
Shorter. That’s the guy for me it’s Wayne.
NOJ: Well
Wayne is one of the best jazz composers in the last fifty years, for sure.
CS: I don’t even feel like he is playing jazz
anymore. It’s hard to describe. I don’t even think he is playing music anymore,
it is just got its own identity now. Its expressions and gestures; it’s coming
from a different place. It’s not coming from this scale or this sound there, it
is coming from how he breathes into the horn and whatever comes out, comes out.
It is just him. You talk about honest music, it’s just Wayne. It sounds like
science fiction.
NOJ: If you
had to choose one pianist that most represents where you want to be
stylistically who would that be?
CS: That’s
hard, but probably Jason Moran or Chucho Valdes. I’d say Jason, because
creatively he is in a place by himself. He is creating his own palette, sort of
like Cecil Taylor did. When I was
studying with Jason he would send in incredible subs like Fred Hersch, Ethan
Iverson, Mathew Shipp and Gonzalo Rubalcaba so you got it all. That expressionism
that Jason and Cecil and Mathew have makes sense if you understand where they
are coming from. They have created their own scales, and the scales are not
derived from one note, it can be a chord, but to them it's like one note. It’s
strange and different and it’s totally their own.
Jason is
coming more of a fine artist perspective, where his music is coming from
skateboarders or paintings or words and voices and installations and multi-media
presentations. I love that and I want to do more of that. At the same time I
also want to represent America and where I am from like Chucho is doing with
Cuban Music. So that’s why I say Chucho. He has this staple of what Cuban music
is all about, but he also has a very specific style and sound. He is very
much the ambassador of Cuban music, just like Danilo Perez is the representative
of Panamanian music. They represent all the good and all the musicality and all
the studying and the history of their music. So eventually, I want to do that as
well, like Chucho is doing and at the same time continue to push it forward.
Chucho Valdes
NOJ: What
is your go-to song, when you have the crowd in the palm of your hand, and at
the end of the night all you want to leave them with is something really special
that you can dig into?
CS: Recently it actually been “L.O.V.E.” the Nat
King Cole kind of thing. Everybody understands love or some form of it and
right now that’s the go-to song for me. We can kind of go anywhere with it and
people can understand the concept of it.
NOJ: What
contemporary musicians are doing the most interesting music and what is it that
grabs you about what they are doing?
CS:
Nicholas Payton and Christian Scott because they have taken what Miles did and
are pushing it into different boundaries. I’m a big Miles fan. I think Miles would have still been doing this
had he still been here, but somebody has to do it so those two guys. Kendrick
Lamar, because as far as words go, as far as rhythms go, he is totally doing
something that musicians in general are not doing. He brought the idea of theater back to the
music. Things have prologues and transitional sections in his music, so he is
really doing something different. Chance
the rapper. What I like about him, he is so honest with his music, and he is
always sounding like he is just having a ball; so much fun. He is coming from Gospel music and jazz and he
is putting it all into his music. Sometimes it doesn’t all work out, but you
kind of appreciate the attempt. Wayne
Shorter is still doing it. He is beyond music. My brother and I are big Star
War fans and Wayne is our Yoda. He just exists and tells us things in riddles
and we just have to figure out what they mean. Wayne is incredible
compositionally and as a playing artist he is just amazing.
NOJ: You
play some of the Great American Songbook. Do you believe it has run its course?
CS: No. I don’t think it has run its course, but
now it is giving us different ways to think about music for today. I think now,
instead of playing them verbatim, they have information about how to put song
form together or how to form melodies that really speak to people, because
those songs did and they still do. People still relate. So there is something
there even though it was written so many years ago.
NOJ: The
songbook has amazing durability, but if you could just take the last fifty
years, because many of these songs are beyond fifty years old, who would you
say are contemporary composers that have created songs that will transcend
their period and have the lasting endurance that the American Songbook has had?
CS: Wayne (Shorter), Miles Davis but he played
a lot of Wayne’s music.
NOJ: I’m
thinking along the lines of more popular music, because jazz often takes
popular songs and re-imagines them for their purpose.
CS: That’s
a tough question. We live in a time when music is constantly changes, but what
is lasting.
NOJ: Well I
will give you a few that I think do make it to this level of durability and see
whether you agree? Stevie Wonder.
CS: Oh
totally yes. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, probably him more than Prince.
Eric Clapton, a lot of his music is blues, but his words and the story he tells.
I would have to say Sting.
NOJ: I’m
not sure about Clapton but Sting I would agree with you on. I think Paul Simon
is enduring and of course Lennon and McCartney. But what about people like
Antonio Carlos Jobim?
CS: Jobim’s
writing is beautiful and gorgeous, but I think his music has sort of finally,
not run its course, but is fading into the background now. It’s a shame because
I think his music is absolutely beautiful, it’s given us the tools, like the
American songbook, to build off of. But anytime you hear the song the “Girl
form Ipanema “everyone knows the song even if they don’t know it is a Jobim
song. So, yes you could put him in there.
NOJ: Some
other people that you might consider as durable song composers are Carole
King’s work or Bob Dylan’s work.
CS: Well
yeah and then I would have to say Bob Marley’s work. You talk about love, I’d
have to say anytime you talk about love and the betterment of the human
condition than that is what stands the test of time. Like Stevie Wonder or Bob
Marley or Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell they are talking about all of us together.
NOJ: Tell
us about your new album and your upcoming tour and your gig at the Velvet Note.
CS: The new
album is called Reach and it’s about
reaching out and self discovery; not only for these artists but for the
listener. Finding out who you are or
understanding who you have been. So that’s what the whole album is about. I
wanted to write music reflecting that search, those questions that I have had
and some of the answers that I found. A majority of the compositions are music that
I have written for this session and some I wrote way before the session, years ago.
The standards that I did include the Bill Wither’s “Use Me” and the song “Somewhere
Out There” from An American Tail are songs
from my childhood that I have identified with, and I play them for me, but also for
people who want to hear something they can relate to, that they remember or that
they know. The record is really just a feel good record, it is for people and that
is who I dedicate it to.
NOJ: You will
be playing tonight Friday June 9th and Saturday June 10th at the Velvet
Note in Alpharetta. Who will be playing with you in the band?
CS: At the Velvet
Note, Barry Stevenson will be on bass and my younger brother Ryan Sands on the drums.
