Live in New York

Here we have in my opinion one of the most talented & creative of drummers 39yr old Antonio Sanchez,leading a free flowing modern jazz quartet playing live at The Jazz Standard. The quartet is unique in its instrumentation of two saxes alto & tenor, upright bass & drums. The players Antonio has selected for his band are some of the finest most in demand musicians in NYC. Miguel Zenon on alto sax esteemed winner of the genius grant. Miguel has performed in a wide variety of musical situations from being a member of the SF Jazz Collective to underground jazz & hip hop artists Quite Sane & Steve Coleman. On tenor sax is David Sanchez a forward thinking sax man with several fine albums to his credit, also a composer of great tunes. David's Forgotten Ones is played on this album. On acoustic bass Scott Colley a solid swinging player & an inventive soloist. Scott has been on the scene for at least 20 years playing with established masters like Jim Hall while also making many killer albums with peers like Chris Potter, Donny McCaslin & even the younger generation of jazz musicians. This music was performed live before a lucky audience at the Jazz Standard. There is alot to like here, all of the music is written either by Sanchez or his band mates. It's presented here on two cds each with four long tracks,after all this is live and all the stops have been pulled! The music is complex definitely post bop influenced but rendered so beautifully that the music flows & time seems to cease. The opening tune from the first cd is composed by Sanchez called Greedy Silence. This tune has at times a Ornette Coleman feel to it in the melodic movement of the the two saxes in tandem but with a much more solid groove, on all of these tracks Antonio is playing so so great! To close the first cd the band plays a composition by alto sax man Miguel Zenon called Revelation which opens with Zenon playing solo then being joined by tenor man David Sanchez for some inspired duo blowing before the rest of the group enters with lots of drive & energy working a funky samba groove anchored by Colley's fat bass lines while Antonio colors and drives the music with very inspired drumming. The second cd is at this writing my favorite batch of songs starting out with It Will Get Better(when people get here). This tune opens with a funky boogoloo type groove from Antonio on drums before he's joined shortly by Colley, their killer groove is the reason for this tunes awesome feel. This second disc features a tune by tenor man David Sanchez The Forgotten Ones. I'm not going to review the album track by track. I hope that I'v provided the reader with enough info during this review. I'll close saying that this highly charged & inspired modern jazz is not for casual fans of music like Kenny G or the like. It does have elements of the Pat Metheny Trio which Sanchez plays in. This is beautiful organic modern jazz presented in its purest truest form enjoy.

A great recording! Antonio, plus David Sánchez, plus Miguel Zenón. I mean, we're talking Boricua jazz royalty. Their interaction is phenomenal, and this recording gives them plenty of space to develop and expand their solos. And talk about value: All this in two discs with the majority of songs well over 12 minutes, for only $7.12. That's a great bargain, if I ever saw one!

Not much to say or to add about this great drummer.Most of all his playing is airy ,without sacrificing freedom of musical space for the rest of his band.

This is what I believe jazz should be about. The musicianship and music are top notch. I found it to be very interesting from beginning to end. You really can't get much better than this. Pure pleasure!

Awesommmmmme

I meet Antonio some years ago performing with Pat Metheny, in this time was good to know that a Mexican drummers could improve the performance of the great latest drummers of PMG. After that I felt surprise in Blue Note NY when Antonio performed with Gary Burton and the new generation.This the reason that I try to follow his work like a soloist, ....and now I feel that I discover a new value and a new expression in jazz!!

This album sounds great. I always look at how realistic the drums sound. And in this album, the drums sound very real and close up as if each drum has its own mike. The saxophones and bass kind of do their own thing, but the drums will hold things together, sometimes the bass holds them together. Without Antonio holding the bottom end, things would be all over the place and not good at all, but the way it's arranged, the mucic sounds very good, and very different which is good. The soundstage is a closer one, but each instrument has it's own space for sure, so if you have good equipment to listen, you will enjoy this. The drums especially. they run from left to right and center. the other instruments are on left and right and the bass sounds like back a bit on center right. I recommend this album if you want jazz with it's own flavor.

just give it a listen / maybe a couple of times/ wow...unity ,control, with individual personalities showing with their instrument but with unity and control, sanchez is the man , keeps everything together and allows everyone their space...bass is outstanding, why not, with such talent....the most out there live session i have heard in a long time...a must buy and listen.