SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SPRING, 2021
VOLUME TEN NUMBER ONE
JEREMY PELT
(April 17-23)
WILLIAM GRANT STILL
(April 24-30)
AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS
(May 1-7)
KARRIEM RIGGINS
(May 8-14)
ETTA JONES
(May 15-21)
YUSEF LATEEF
(May 22-28)
CHRISTIAN SANDS
(May 29—June 4)
E. J. STRICKLAND
(June 5-11)
TAJ MAHAL
(June 12-18)
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR PERKINSON
(June 12-18)
DOM FLEMONS
(June 19-25)
HEROES ARE GANG LEADERS
(June 26-July 2)
Christian Sands
(b. May 22, 1989)
Artist Biography by Matt Collar
A sophisticated jazz pianist, Christian Sands emerged in the 2000s displaying his deep understanding of the post-bop and swing traditions. A protégé of the late Dr. Billy Taylor, Sands drew early accolades for his performances at the 2006 and 2007 Grammy Awards, as well as similar appearances alongside Taylor at the Kennedy Center. Following early solo albums and work as a member of Christian McBride's band, the pianist came into his own with his 2017 Mack Avenue debut, Reach, and its 2018 follow-up, Facing Dragons.
Sands was born in 1989 in New Haven, Connecticut, where he first started playing piano at age three, and by age five he was composing. As a teenager, he attended both the Neighborhood Music School and the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven. He was also a regular participant in the Jazz in July music camp at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he first met his mentor, pianist Billy Taylor. After high school, Sands further honed his skills at the Manhattan School of Music, where he graduated with his bachelor's and master's degrees. Since leaving school, he has performed with a bevy of luminaries, including Lou Donaldson, Kirk Whalum, Phil Woods, James Moody, and Wycliffe Gordon.
As a solo artist, Sands debuted with Footprints at age 12 in 2002. He followed up with 2004's Harmonia and 2008's Risin', the latter of which featured trumpeter Josh Evans. There were also high-profile appearances at the 2006 and 2007 Grammys, including a duet with legendary pianist Oscar Peterson. Sands gained wider recognition performing as a guest of Taylor at the pianist's 2006 and 2007 Jazz at Kennedy Center series. He then joined bassist Christian McBride's outfit, contributing to albums like 2013's Out Here and People Music. He also recorded with bassist Ben Williams, and appeared with the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, led by Bobby Sanabria, on the Grammy-nominated Kenya Revisited Live.
In 2014, Sands was a finalist in the American Pianists Association Jazz Fellowship Awards. Three years later, he released Reach, his debut album for Mack Avenue Records. Featured on the record were guest appearances by guitarist Gilad Hekselman, bassist McBride, and saxophonist Marcus Strickland. The following year, he returned on Mack Avenue with Facing Dragons, which featured his core rhythm section of bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Jerome Jennings, as well as contributions by Strickland and trumpeter Keyon Harrold. Coming off a two-year residency living in Shanghai, Sands released Be Water, which found him drawing inspiration from martial arts icon Bruce Lee.
Christian Sands
Christian Sands is an emerging jazz force. A recent Steinway Artist, he possesses pianistic technique in abundance, but it perfectly matches his conception. His use of understatement accomplishes a much deeper musical goal. He takes a fresh look at the entire language of jazz: stride, swing, bebop, progressive, fusion, Brazilian and Afro-Cuban. He says, “My music is about teaching the way of jazz and keeping it alive. Born May 22, 1989, Christian possessed an insatiable appetite for music. He was enrolled in music classes at age 4 and wrote his first composition at age 5. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Manhattan School of Music.
His meteoric rise in the jazz world already includes two appearances at the 2006 and 2007 Grammy Awards, including an outrageous, highly publicized duet with legendary pianist Oscar Peterson. At the young age of 20 he received two GRAMMY Nominations for Best Latin JazzPiano Solo, and Best Latin Jazz Album for his performance on Bobby Sanabria’s “Kenya Revisited” featuring Candido Camero. He is the protégé of Dr. Billy and has been featured on several performances with him at Washington DC’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Following in his mentor’s foot steps he encourages, inspired and advocates for the preservation and history of Jazz. He teaches and promotes to young people as well as mature audiences the passion and richness jazz offers.
He has shared the stage with jazz luminaries such as Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, Vibraphonist Stefan Harris, Lou Donaldson, Avery Sharpe, James Moody, Saxophonist Bill Evans, Russell Malone, Rufus Reid, Chip Jackson, Terrance Blanchard, International Drummer Alex Riel, Louis Hayes, Patti Austin, and Wycliffe Gordon to name a few.
But most recently he is a member of renowned jazz bassist Christian McBride trio and quintet group Inside Straight. The prowess of his playing takes him from Gilmore Jazz Festival in Kalamazoo, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in Delaware, Martha’s Vineyard Jazz Festival, New York’s celebrated jazz clubs Village Vanguard, Jazz Standard and Dizzy Club Coca Cola to International jazz clubs in Russia, Italy, Japan, Corsiva, France, Belgium, Denmark and Germany.
As a pianist, he possesses an extensive vocabulary of patterns, textures and structures, which allow him to play in almost any style. On his four inimitable CDs, Footprints (which was recorded when he was 12), Harmonia, Risin’, and Furioso (released in Japan 2009) he demonstrates his skills as a composer, arranger, and producer. He provides a soulful melodic touch on S. Epatha Merkerson’s documentary “Contradictions of Fairhope” soundtrack recorded with Bassist Christian McBride. To be certain he has a firm grasp on the jazz culture he was named as one of Jazz future rising stars in “Jet Magazine” by Wynton Marsalis. Coming soon he will appear on Christian McBride’s newest trio album to be release in 2013. Playing his own music, he invents and re-invents himself with sonorities which define each moment, rhythms which impel the music forward, structures which are surprising and fascinating — and never for a moment un-musical.
He exemplifies the rising musicality and spiritual aspirations of a singularly gifted musical soul. “To whom much is given, much is expected.” Christian Sands doesn’t disappoint.
Released: 7/17/20
Christian Sands
Be Water
Also Available on 2-LP on translucent royal blue vinyl
Christian Sands’ third recording for Mack Avenue Music Group captures and establishes him as a forceful leader in composition and conceptual vision. With Be Water, the music is akin to the element which has no form of its own, taking on the structure of whatever musical composition and performance in which it finds itself and is a universal necessity. For this recording, Sands has reunited with bassist Yasushi Nakamura and saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and is joined by trumpeter Sean Jones, trombonist Steve Davis, guitarist Marvin Sewell, and drummer Clarence Penn.
https://downbeat.com/news/detail/christian-sands-water
How Water Supplied Christian Sands With His New Album’s Concept
The title of Christian Sands’ album Be Water nods to a quote by martial arts star Bruce Lee. (Photo: Anna Webber)
When Christian Sands turned 30 in May 2019, he felt an urge to take stock of his life. For some millennials, that exercise might be a bit deflating, but few of his peers have so many achievements to contemplate: piano prodigy at the age of four, leading gigs at 12 and playing with masters like Billy Taylor, Oscar Peterson and Herbie Hancock during his teens.
Sands’ studies at the Manhattan School of Music led to more success, including playing on one album by the MSM Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra and two by Bobby Sanabria. At 20, he began a six-year stint with bassist Christian McBride, and in 2017 he signed with Mack Avenue, which has just released his third album for the label, Be Water.
“Thirty is a big year for people because everything changes,” Sands said over Zoom while seated in front of the grand piano that dominates a room where he was spending the majority of his time during the coronavirus lockdown. “[At age 30], you’re not a young individual, but you’re not old, either. You are more specific about what you want to do. You make certain choices that really define who you are.”
His 30th birthday coincided with several events that helped define the form Be Water would take. Those included relocating to Stamford, Connecticut (40 miles from where he grew up in New Haven), encountering a doctor who suggested he consume more water, reading a book titled The Mysticism of Sound and Music: The Sufi Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and revisiting Bruce Lee’s classic martial-arts films, which he watched alongside his father when he was growing up.
“The final straw happened when I was performing in Hawaii,” Sands said. “My bassist, Yasushi Nakamura, and I had some time to kill after we checked out of the hotel. So, we went to this park, put our swimming trunks on and put our feet in the water. Out of the blue, this big sea turtle appeared, and it just kept coming closer until it was sitting right at our feet.”
It was then, Sands said, that he knew his next project would explore the concepts of water and flexibility, centered around a favorite quote of Lee’s: “Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. ... Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
While his previous two leader dates reflected his love of Hancock-style funk, Latin percussion, hip-hop and the mainstream swing that Taylor schooled him in, Be Water significantly expands his sonic palette to include the blues-inflected playing of guitarist Marvin Sewell, ethereal movements and a rollicking cover of Steve Winwood’s “Can’t Find My Way Home.” Frequent collaborators Nakamura, drummer Clarence Penn and saxophonist Marcus Strickland are on board, as are trumpeter Sean Jones and trombonist Steve Davis.
The title of Christian Sands’ album Be Water nods to a quote by martial arts star Bruce Lee.
(Photo: Anna Webber)Despite its disparate parts, the album coalesces around the theme of flexibility but without assaulting the listener with the high concept behind it. Most provocatively, the program includes the ambitious track “Be Water II,” which gracefully merges a piano trio with a highly textured string quartet, performing an arrangement written by Sands’ former MSM peer Miho Hazama.
“I wrote it as a piano sonata for students to practice movement,” Sands explained. “I’m a big fan of Mozart, and I’ve always loved certain things about his music, like his arpeggios. So, I was playing this piece, trying to figure out what to do for this next album, and I was like, ‘Can I put a string quartet on there?’ A lot of things I come up with are from the question of why. I decided to just keep it there and further it along, and Miho immediately came to mind.”
For Hazama, there’s irony in having her old friend turn to her for the kind of string arrangements in a jazz setting that has become her calling card: She credits Sands with determining her career path.
“He was a year behind me at MSM,” Hazama said. “When I got to New York, I still had plans to become a jazz pianist, rather than just a composer and arranger. But then I heard him play—just jamming before classes one day. His technique and groove were so phenomenal, and his playing was so organic that he made me rethink my plans. I knew, given my background as a classical pianist in Japan, that I could never achieve that.”
Among the elements that made Hazama recognize Sands as not just another young keyboard hotshot with loads of technique was his ability to draw color from the piano.
“A lot of jazz players just work on their technique and don’t focus on tone, but he gets that,” she said. “I used to have my ‘dream sound’ in my head and be able to play it in the classical setting. He plays that dream sound, those tone colors. It’s sophisticated and sexy. He has a very strong core in his body, so he can use less power in his playing yet draw out these very thick notes.”
Aside from his playing, Hazama also remembers being impressed with Sands’ outlook at MSM.
“He was always reaching out to classical students to learn specific things,” she said. “That’s such a wonderful attitude as an artist.”
“Most jazz musicians, especially when they’re young, are musical tourists,” said Sanabria, who was one of Sands’ mentors at MSM. “They look at things at a superficial level. They think they can learn a style of music like Afro-Cuban by just learning patterns. Christian got involved in the culture. He didn’t want to be a tourist. He wasn’t on an ego trip; he was very poised, polished and enthusiastic, which I think is a reflection of his work with Dr. Billy Taylor.”
Like Hazama, Sanabria recalled first hearing Sands at MSM, and his own reaction.
“He was assigned to my Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra,” Sanabria said. “At the first rehearsal, I heard these young guys, and said to myself, ‘Holy shit.’ Right then was when I decided to do those albums with them. I got him the Tito Puente Scholarship to study with Sonny Bravo, one of the true giants of Latin music, and he was able to really get inside that heavily percussive style of playing, as well as being able to play bebop with a really fast, light touch.”
If there’s an overarching motif to Sands’ career to this point, it’s his ability to astound listeners when they first hear him. Strickland is no exception.
“We were on a [bassist] Ben Williams gig together about five years ago, and the first thing I noticed was how young he looked,” Strickland said. “I was like, ‘Man, this guy looks like a baby,’ but he played like a grown man. It was very impressive to see someone his age have so much knowledge, and I’ve seen him grow so much since then.”
Now on his third recording with the pianist, Strickland said Sands has a distinctive way of hearing harmony and weaving melodies.
“His compositions are always challenging,” said the saxophonist. “He’s not someone who tells you how to play them, either. He gives you that information through his piano playing, and he always gives me a different way of expressing myself than I might’ve thought of.”
The pattern of surprise sonic attacks continued with McBride, who related to DownBeat in 2017—after he had produced Sands’ Mack Avenue debut, Reach—how he hired the pianist immediately after hearing him rehearsing for a segment of Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz radio program he was guest hosting.
The late Geri Allen, too, fell under the young man’s spell, inviting him to participate, along with Jason Moran—another of Sands’ mentors at MSM—in a 2015 tribute to pianist Erroll Garner at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Together, the three performed the music from Garner’s legendary Concert By The Sea in celebration of the album’s 60th anniversary. Learning the music in a duo rehearsal with Allen in New York was a revelation to the younger pianist.
“I would talk about Garner with Dr. Taylor,” Sands said, “and he would show me some things that Garner would do, but it wasn’t in full detail. It wasn’t until I sat with Geri and we really dove into the music that I really got it. We would sit together and discuss, ‘So, why is he doing this passage?’ or ‘These octaves in the right hand with the chords in the middle, how does he do that at light speed?’ Even at that point, I assumed, you know, that everybody knows. This is just something that I haven’t got to yet because I’m only 25.”
As plans came together for the Erroll Garner Archive at the University of Pittsburgh, where Allen led the jazz program, she asked Sands to join the Erroll Garner Jazz Project as its youth coordinator to bring a younger perspective to the music of Garner, who died in 1977.
“When I was approached by the Garner estate and Octave Music to create more of a social network presence for the project, I didn’t know that Geri had already talked to them about it,” Sands said. “Geri was going to continue to do what she had been doing with it. She wasn’t officially the creative ambassador, but that’s what her position was. And then she got really sick.”
Sands said he visited Allen in June 2017, just days before she died from pancreatic cancer. Unbeknownst to him, she had put plans in place for his future.
“She couldn’t speak at all, but we communicated the best we could. We played some Garner and I talked about his music. About two weeks after she passed on, I got a call from Peter Lockhart and Susan Rosenberg [of the Erroll Garner Jazz Project] to ask me if I would take on the role of ambassador because that was Geri’s wish.”
Through the Garner estate’s deal with Mack Avenue, announced last fall, the Octave Remastered Series will release a dozen albums culled from the archive—which includes some 7,000 reels of tape and more than a million documents—to celebrate Garner’s centennial, culminating with his 100th birthday on June 15, 2021.
Sands hopes that the series will not only reignite interest in the late pianist, but also set the record straight about what he accomplished.
“You know, if you Google ‘Erroll Garner,’ the first things that come up are how small he was and that he couldn’t read music,” Sands said. “I didn’t grow up reading music, either. I mean, I could read, but it was just so much easier and quicker for me to just hear it. But there’s this story that Art Blakey told about Garner just playing the shit out of music that he’d only played a few times. So, it’s like, ‘OK, my man didn’t need to read music.’ It’s not because he couldn’t; it’s like, at a certain point, he didn’t need to. He was the music.”
A big part of the reason he identifies with Garner’s approach, Sands said, is what he learned from elders like Taylor and renowned trumpeter/educator Clark Terry. He recalled playing with older musicians who would have charts that looked to him like indecipherable handwritten notes.
“What I learned was that you need to get the essence of what you’re playing,” he said. “You want to get the feel of it.”
That approach hasn’t changed for Sands, even as he has moved into teaching via educational programs such as Christian’s Jazz Kids in Copenhagen, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz For Kids and Jazz In July at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. He said there’s nothing that can replace learning from the source.
“Education is such a big thing in everything I do, and it’s not just being in the classroom. There’s things I play on purpose to make sure you know what this is. Like block chords. I didn’t come up with that, but let me show you about George Shearing or Nat Cole or Billy Taylor, and let me show you the difference between the three.”
The latest educational project Sands has become involved with came about through his role as music director of the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour project in 2018–’19, and is part of his appointment as artist-in-residence at the festival itself, which has been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus. While part of his duties as a teacher and mentor have been scrubbed due to the pandemic, he remained hopeful that he could participate in some of Monterey’s other educational initiatives in 2020.
Meanwhile, the long weeks of COVID-related isolation have been an opportunity for Sands to learn more about his craft.
“I’m really getting to, like, deconstruct my own playing,” he said. “‘How can I improve on this?’ I’m influenced by so many different things, so this is a chance to get out of the thing that I was doing and really shift. I think a lot of musicians are going to sound a little different after this [because] they’re by themselves, just practicing.”
Monterey Jazz Festival Artistic Director Tim Jackson described Sands as “a bright light” in the next generation of jazz pianists.
That’s an outlook shared by Strickland, who said, “When I see Christian, I get a very promising experience. It makes me feel fulfilled to see the way that he’s carrying the torch for jazz. With his broad appreciation for tradition, pop music, funk and hip-hop, he’s basically the new template for what we call a jazz musician.” DB
This story originally was published in the July 2020 issue of DownBeat.
Christian Sands - Be Water I (Official Audio)
June 4, 2020
Christian Sands
New album!
“be wATER”
Christian Sands’ third recording for Mack Avenue Music Group captures and establishes him as a forceful leader in composition and conceptual vision. With Be Water (available May 22 worldwide), the music is akin to the element which has no form of its own, taking on the structure of whatever musical composition and performance in which it finds itself and is a universal necessity. For this recording, Sands has reunited with bassist Yasushi Nakamura and saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and is joined by trumpeter Sean Jones, trombonist Steve Davis, guitarist Marvin Sewell, and drummer Clarence Penn.
It can be overwhelming to realize how much water surrounds us, affects us and impacts our lives. It’s an element vital to survival yet can be utterly devastating; it can be placid and beautiful or torrential and violent. It’s ubiquitous – flowing at the turn of a faucet, comprising 70% of our own bodies – yet somehow intangible, able to change form or assume the shape of its surroundings.
On his stunning new album, Be Water, pianist Christian Sands takes inspiration from water’s tranquility and power and muses on the possibilities offered by echoing its fluidity and malleability. Through ten gorgeous and thrilling pieces, Sands alternately conjures the serenity of a sun-dappled lake and the drama of a relentless thunderstorm. Just embarking on his 30s, Sands has already enjoyed a remarkable career trajectory, touring and recording with Christian McBride’s Inside Straight and Trio, as well as collaborating with the likes of Gregory Porter and Ulysses Owens.
The vividly expressionistic recording finds Sands with his core trio of longtime bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Clarence Penn, with brilliant contributions from guitarist Marvin Sewell, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Sean Jones and trombonist Steve Davis. On one piece the ensemble is also supplemented by a string quartet featuring Sara Caswell, Tomoko Akaboshi, Benni von Gutzeit and Eleanor Norton.
Due out July 17th, Be Water is Sands’ fourth release (including a five-track digital-only EP as an extension of his debut album Reach) for Mack Avenue Music Group. The album takes its title from the philosophy of martial arts master and movie star Bruce Lee (by way of screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, who distilled his thoughts for the screen). Lee’s voice appears on both halves of Sands’ title track offering this profound advice: “Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle... Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” (Bruce Lee inspirational quote)
“I was trying to practice being more open, more free, more flexible than I usually am,” Sands explains. “Through that I started to have this awareness of just how much water was all around me. As I was touring it seemed to be raining every day; I actually had to change a few dates because of a hurricane. I even started seeing a new doctor who told me I needed to drink more water [laughs]. It seemed to be some kind of a divine message to pay attention to water.”vv
Sands began composing his most wide-ranging and ambitious set of compositions to date. The introductory track takes form gradually, with the glacial pace and implacable momentum of a rising tide. The simple sounds of lapping waves flow into a dawning melody on arco bass, slowly but forcefully surging to a gripping crescendo as more instrumentalists join in. The piece was modeled on the impactful openings of another of Sands’ major influences, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.
The rollicking “Sonar” takes the concept of navigating via sound as a metaphor for the way in which we relate to our surroundings, echoing off of and situating ourselves within a larger picture. Lee’s words usher in the chorale-like “Be Water I,” with its interwoven horn lines over Penn’s shifting tempos. Its companion piece, “Be Water II,” is an elegant dance between the trio and the string quartet, arranged by Sands’ Manhattan School of Music classmate Miho Hazama.
Propelled by Penn’s driving rhythm, “Crash” depicts the impact of waves on the shore, or the collisions among people. The scintillating “Drive” peers within, imagining personal ambition with the unstoppable force of the ocean and summoning ferocious solos from Strickland and Sewell. The amorphous “Steam” finds water taking its most elusive form, evaporating into thin air before one’s very eyes; the piece offers the trio at its most abstract yet always maintaining a perfect tension between its three diverging and reconvening poles.
The cyclical nature of water, its ability to flow staggering distances or gather in the clouds only to fall back to earth, sparked the choice of the album’s sole non-original, a gospel-tinged take on Steve Winwood’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” (originally recorded by the supergroup Blind Faith). The wistful pairing of Sewell’s luxuriant guitar and Sands’ evanescent touch evoke the calmness of a wave-free lake on “Still.” The fanfare-like “Outro” playfully reverses the “Intro,” ending the album on a cinematically celebratory note.
The music of Be Water flows with the mesmerizing tranquility and awesome power of its namesake. On his most conceptually ambitious album to date, Christian Sands takes heed of Bruce Lee’s wisdom and truly allows his creativity to transform and assume a dazzling variety of forms.
ALBUM REVIEWS
“Be Water II” now nominated for the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards for Best Instrumental Composition.
“…having successfully made the case for his breadth of style, Sands is free to follow his music where it leads.” - NPR
“…Christian Sands plays with a restrained touch and a rolling command across the entire keyboard.” - The New York Times
“Sands is skilled, soulful and melodic…” - VICE Noisey
“On his breathtaking new album “Be Water, the pianist Christian Sands is inspired by the calm and power of water and ponders the possibilities that arise from the echo of its fluidity and malleability… The music of “Be Water” flows with the mesmerizing calm and awe-inspiring power of its namesake. On his conceptually most ambitious album to date, Christian Sands take note of Bruce Lee’s wisdom and really allows his creativity to transform and take on a dazzling variety of shapes”. - Jazz-fun.de Magazin fur Jazz Musik - Germany
A Neon Jazz Interview with Christian Sands - Jazz & COVID-19 - Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interviews with Jazz Pianist Christian Sands… Enjoy a candid conversation with him on June 1, 2020 about his newest 2020 CD “Be Water” and the strange new COVID-19 world…
https://downbeat.com/news/detail/christian-sands-adaptability
Christian Sands Relies On Adaptability
Christian Sands is among the 25 artists DownBeat thinks will help shape jazz in the decades to come. (Photo: Anna Webber)
When pianist Christian Sands titled his latest Mack Avenue album Be Water, he had no idea how appropriate its metaphor for adaptability would be. “There are different challenges with everything, and you just have to remind yourself to be ready, and to prepare yourself as much as possible,” he said. “I did not know that 2020 was going to put that to the test, but here we are.”
Like most jazz musicians, Sands has seen his bookings reduced to a trickle, but he has done some livestreamed performances.
“I went on the road with Christian McBride in my senior year of college,” Sands, 31, said via phone from Stamford, Connecticut. “So, this is the longest I’ve actually been home since then.” It hasn’t quite been time off, though, because Sands has been working. He’s been practicing, performing online and putting serious thought into the evolution of his artistry.
“Before, I was always on the road and always performing, which is great,” he said. “But you don’t really get a moment to improve the performance. I mean, you might say, ‘OK, tomorrow, let’s try doing this with the tune.’
“But how do we present the tunes? How do we really entertain people? Now that I’m home, I can take this time to work on different things.”
Like most artists nowadays, Sands can’t help but be influenced by the nightly news.
“As far as 2020, and having to be like water whether we like it or not, it’s put us through a lot of different things,” he said. “There are things that are making us more aware—I mean, George Floyd. Now is the time to be proactive. I’ve been more on the sidelines of things, and part of that was the notion of, ‘Can I do this? How do I do this? How do I go about this the right way?’”
Sands explained that he has benefited from time spent online. “All the Zoom meetings I’ve had to do have actually made me more comfortable speaking onstage,” he said. “I’m a very private person, but now that I’ve been doing shows in my living room, and having to be intimate with the fans, there’s this connection. Now, I have a chance to really create performances.
“My goal is to create experiences when you come to see me,” he added. “I mean, you already get one, but now it’s going to be more of an experience. Like Christian McBride says, ‘We want you to leave feeling full.’” DB
This story originally was published in the November 2020 issue of DownBeat.Christian Sands, The art of being water.
It’s all about ears, according to pianist Christian Sands. Of course, we know that: you can’t appreciate music without ears, and obviously you need ears to play music. What he means is, listening to music is so much more important than reading it or, I imagine, reading about it. So with that in mind, the first thing I would recommend is that you stop reading this interview right now, and listen to his new album. It’s called Be Water, it’s his third for the Mack Avenue label, and it’s a thing of exquisite beauty. My ears are still quivering with pleasure at his nine original compositions and his version of Steve Winwood’s Can’t Find My Way Home…
OK, welcome back. So you will know by now that Christian Sands’ ears are sponges. Described as a post-bop pianist (whatever that means), in reality he is a product of everyone who has come before him. He just absorbs them all: Chano Dominguez, Chucho Valdez, Tito Puente, Cecil Taylor and – as we will shortly discover – George Shearing and Erroll Garner. That doesn’t mean he has no style of his own. In fact, his playing reminds me of the great Marcin Wasilewski. It’s simply that you can’t describe what he does – you just have to listen.
The music is so free-flowing, it’s hard to imagine it written down. So my first question to him was: how much is composed, and how much emerges spontaneously?
“Specifically on this album, I wanted to bring sketches into the studio. I don’t like to tell people what to bring to it. I’m always curious as to what they’re hearing. That’s how I play music, that’s how I make music, I like collaborating on different levels. Improvisation is just what I do, I love it. I could perform without any sort of repertoire at all, and I’d be happy. So this album was a result of that, a result of me really bonding with my friends – with the people I just love talking to, and musically talking to. So just bringing some sketches in and saying, hey, this is what I’m thinking, let’s play it and see what happens, and let’s record it at the same time.”
Christian’s collaborators on Be Water would… well, they would make anyone’s mouth water: he has worked closely with bassist Yasushi Nakamura for a decade, but drummer Clarence Penn is relatively new to him. “Yasushi is such a warm personality, but he’s such a solid personality. I can always rely on him. He’s so reliable, on and off the bandstand, so you can’t leave him behind.” It was Nakamura who brought drummer Penn into the core trio. “I was looking for a drummer because the drummer I had at the time wasn’t available. So I talked to Yasushi and I said, ‘Hey man, who do you like playing with? Who do you think can play my music and you like playing with?’” Also on the album are guitarist Marvin Sewell, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Sean Jones and trombonist Steve Davis. On one piece (Be Water II) they are joined by a string quartet.
Christian himself plays several different keyboard instruments. I wondered what governed his choice of acoustic piano or Fender Rhodes.
“Just necessity. Life happens. The studio was quite small, so we had to put all of the horns in the same room as the piano, but we didn’t want there to be any sound bleeding, so I decided to record it with Fender Rhodes [which, as an electric instrument, can simply be fed directly into the control room] and overdub it with piano later on. And I liked how the Rhodes felt initially, so I decided to keep it. So really it was just by chance.” There’s also the occasional snatch of Hammond organ. “That was intentional. I don’t have an organ, so I don’t get the chance to play it that much. But when you have a little bit of time in the studio, you get to experiment with different sounds. I always loved the organ, I grew up hearing it, being a part of the gospel church. So that’s in my musical DNA. Playing that Hammond organ on Drive was necessary – it just needed that sound. There’s a Wurlitzer in there too. I wanted to create this palette. I love to cook as well as play music, so I always love to sneak in some different ingredient.”
The title of the new album sounds a little New Age. How can you “be water”, and what on earth does it mean? Well, water turns out to be a useful metaphor, derived from the teachings of actor and martial arts guru Bruce Lee – stay with me, readers: the point about water is that it takes on the shape of whatever vessel contains it. And that is exactly what jazz musicians are doing when they improvise jazz – they find themselves in a particular context, and they adapt to it.
“The reason I chose water is because it’s a perfect analogy for life, for everything. You never want to feel stuck in any position or encounter that you’re in. And it really resonated with me because when I recorded the album I was going through a lot of different adjustments and transitions in my life – travelling, performing, turning 30. There were a lot of different things that just started opening up, and new experiences. And how do you go through those things? I’m a fan of Bruce Lee, I’ve grown up with all of his movies. My father used to teach martial arts as well, and I used to do martial arts. So, Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do [Lee’s system, also known as “The Way of the Intercepting Fist”]… all of that I know like the back of my hand. I used to use nunchucks. I was very talented with that. So I just felt at home with that creative process. Bruce Lee is somebody who has influenced me in my music from childhood.”
Lee was interested in the skills of real fighting, not just those of sporting events. And in real combat, you might be faced with anything. So spontaneity is the key – spontaneity combined with speed of reaction. So just as water can flow into any shape, the accomplished practitioner of Jeet Kune Do can control whatever situation he or she is in, by “being like water”.
This fascination with the East is no mere flirtation. Christian was the artist in residence for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s new club in Shanghai for two years, and played there several times. “With each visit, I experienced something new, I met different people, I started seeing different things, I went to the Buddhist temples, ate different food, talked to different people, learned about different cultures and heard different music. And it was something that really was inspiring. When you hear these drums, or you hear certain songs that they sing and how the melodies work, or the timbre of each instrument, it really does something. Also going to the acrobatic shows – they’re breathing fire, they’re doing flips… it’s really an amazing culture.” He was in China when he wrote his 2018 Facing Dragons album. “The dragon represents all the unknown things,” he told an interviewer last year. “Instead of running from the questions, or taking your time to puzzle them out, you have to face those questions. Questions like, ‘Who am I as an artist? Where do I want this music to go, and who do I want to reach? What’s the next step?’”
He also draws inspiration from Quentin Tarantino. I wondered how a film director could possibly influence a jazz pianist. “Well, I love film, I love the drama of film. What I love about Tarantino is, when he wants to show you something, he zooms in on it, whether it’s an image or whether it’s a sound, or whether it’s an idea, he just drives that idea home. So there’s ambiguity in the album, but there’s also what you might call Easter eggs, where there’s something particular I want to tell you. I love Sixties Japanese films as well. I’ve been watching a lot of the Sun Tribe films. I love the camerawork, I love the cinematography, I love the storylines, the way they use jazz.”
We talked about the tsunami of rage around the world over the murder of George Floyd, and the crushing impact on musicians of the coronavirus. How had he been coping with not playing gigs?
Christian Sands
Life and career
Sands was born on May 22, 1989.[1] He grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and later moved to the nearby town of Orange.[2] He started playing the piano at a very young age, and took lessons from the age of four; he commented that "I grew up with it in the house, in the classroom and on stage so it has always been a huge part of my life".[2]
Sands was mentored by pianist Billy Taylor, who allowed the teenager to close one of the sets that Taylor played at the Kennedy Center.[3] Sands went on to study at the Manhattan School of Music.[4] The school's Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, led by Bobby Sanabria, recorded the album Kenya Revisited Live in 2009;[5] it was nominated for a Latin Grammy.[6]
After graduating, Sands joined Inside Straight, one of bassist Christian McBride's bands; they have toured internationally.[7]
Sands became a Steinway artist in 2012.[8] In 2014, Sands cited as influences McBride, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, and Marcus Roberts, because "They're coming from the tradition of bringing people into the music, but also moving it forward into new directions".[2] In the same year, Sands became an American Pianists Association Jazz Fellowship Awards Finalist.[2]
Discography
An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.
As leader
As sideman
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/be-water-christian-sands-mack-avenue-records
Christian Sands: Be Water
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And so it does. For next is "Sonar," a romping festival of feisty performances from Sands and his core trio of bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Clarence Penn which is meant to assure each other and listeners alike that they're setting out for points as much known as unknown on all cylinders. They're cutting no corners. They'll call upon the masters one moment, (Art Blakey effortlessly and thankfully comes to mind) or they'll push their collective sense of new bop to the margins.
For a little perspective, Facing Dragons (Mack Avenue Records, 2018) was hailed uniformly, by friend and foe alike, to be a wide-ranging master class. Be Water, Sands' fourth release for Mack Avenue Records, goes beyond that, positing new horizons with new promises and new voices brought to the fore. That said, the next voice you hear is Bruce Lee, (yes that Bruce Lee) Buddha-like urging "Be formless, shapeless like water" and thus "Be Water I" takes the shape of expectation driven by Penn's boundless sense of time, Sands' ever more expressive Rhodes, and the entwined front line featuring tenor saxophonist Sean Jones and trombonist Steve Davis.
"Drive" at first takes the shape of edgy 70's jazz/rock as guitarist Marvin Sewell tickles, Sands probes, and Penn holds the tension, before Strickland unapologetically elbows in, only to have all combine for one of those rousing anthems powered to completion by Sewell's stinging, surging solo. Speaking of rock, Steve Winwood's haunting, 1969 Blind Faith classic "Can't Find My Way" goes full gospel with Nakamura at the helm, as Sands unleashes his exuberance for Winwood's mournful melody and Penn crashes away. "Steam" finds the trio at their abstract best. And yes, though for some it might cut a little too close to what was once called new age, Sands' innate and intimate sense of melodic spaciousness holds both him and Sewell in its elegant grasp on the shimmering impressionism of "Still."
Track Listing
Intro; Sonar; Be Water I; Crash; Drive; Steam; Can’t Find My Way Home; Be Water II; Still; Outro.
Personnel
Christian Sands: piano; Yasushi Nakamura: bass; Clarence Penn: drums.
Additional Instrumentation
Marvin Sewell: guitars (#1,5,9,10); Marcus Strickland: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet (# 3,5,10); Sean Jones: trumpet, flugelhorn (#3,10); Steve Davis: trombone (#3,10); Sara Caswell: violin 1 (#8); Tomoko Akaboshi: violin 2 (#8); Benni von Gutzeit: viola (#8); Eleanor Norton: cello (#8); Bruce Lee: voice (#3,8)
Album information
Title: Be Water | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Mack Avenue Records
https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2012/05/09/152382787/another-young-jazz-artist-who-also-cares-about-pop-music-today-gasp
Another Young Jazz Artist Who Also Cares About Pop Music Today (Gasp!)
As a follow-up to yesterday's thoughts around BADBADNOTGOOD, the improvising band that many folks are talking about, I'd like to submit this brief video interview with young pianist Christian Sands.
Season 1, Episode 1 : Christian Sands (Piano) performs "Runaway" by Kanye West
Sands is a product of the modern jazz education system — he graduated from the Manhattan School of Music, one of the most prestigious jazz programs out there, and studied with both Jason Moran and Dr. Billy Taylor. He got his first big break when he joined Christian McBride's Inside Straight, which brought him on tour around the world. He's currently studying composition with Vijay Iyer — he was literally in the middle of a lesson when All Things Considered interviewed Iyer in March.
As you can see, Sands carries himself with a soft-spoken humility. He also happens to be a very good and very in-demand musician. I met him briefly when he stopped by NPR with Ben Williams' band, and you can hear him on Piano Jazz and playing with the Olatuja Project.
All this would seem to make him the anti-BBNG musician: possesses a music school pedigree, is polite, demonstrates competence in straight-ahead jazz, plays a lot of seated shows in suits, actually looks up to older musicians. But he's but a 23-year-old with a voice that occasionally cracks — merely two years older than BBNG's oldest member. And check out the tune Sands is playing throughout in the background: Kanye West's "Runaway." (It becomes more obvious around 6:21, when you can hear Sands' riff on the signature "repeating single note on beat three" motif.)
Like BBNG's members, who cover Kanye's "Flashing Lights," Sands came of age musically as Kanye West rose to pop culture superstardom. Naturally, Kanye's beats are part of Sands' musical lexicon too. (So is the popular hip-hop duo OutKast, whose song "Prototype" Sands also briefly talks about arranging.) Just because he came up in jazz's mainstream doesn't mean that Sands doesn't think about how his art interfaces with pop culture today. I like to think it's given him more tools to deal with that, actually.
I'd like to point out one more bit of this interview I find revealing:
A strong thing that me and Dr. Taylor spoke about was how to keep [jazz] going. In this kind of society now, is everything is Internet driven, and television driven, and radio driven. And a lot of the stuff that we do as jazz musicians caters to just jazz musicians, you know? It doesn't really cater to TV, or doesn't really cater to mainstream radio. And it's not on purpose — it's just because we just like to have fun, and a lot of our stuff borders [on] 10, 12 minutes. And they don't have that kind of time sometimes. So the thing that Dr. Taylor really talked about was: Bring your audience with you.
The success that BBNG enjoys owes a lot to the fact that the band has brought its audience with it. The band has done more than meet its young fans halfway — it's given away plenty of free downloads and YouTube clips and cover tunes, and booked its shows in standing-room venues, and communicated often in photos and Tweets and strongly-worded interviews.
In comparison, the jazz community of recent decades — musicians, fans and even bloggers like this one — could generally do a much better job of communicating why live improvisation is still relevant, and why swing and the blues are forever relevant. But Sands is at least thinking hard about this issue, much as Billy Taylor still was not long before he died in late 2010, at age 89. If you were listening to Kanye West like most other 23-year-olds, and simultaneously wearing suits to time-out-of-mind jazz clubs and fancy performing arts centers — for gigs that your non-musician peers rarely attend — how could you not think about it?
Something like Capsulocity, the folks behind this series of video interview/performances with young New-York-based musicians — well, it's not the answer. But it certainly could be a part of the storytelling, the translation to the present tense, that more jazz artists deserve.
Christian Sands - Be Water
Label: Mack Avenue, 2020
Christian Sands: piano, keyboards, voice, Fender Rhodes, Hammond B2; Yasushi Nakamura: bass; Clarence Penn: drums + Marvin Sewell: guitars; Marcus Strickland: tenor sax, bass clarinet; Sean Jones: trumpet, flugelhorn; Steve Davis: trombone. String Quartet - Sara Caswell: violin; Tomoko Akaboshi: violin; Benni von Gutzeit: viola; Eleanor Norton: cello.
American pianist/composer Christian Sands has a striking new album in which he leads a flexible band composed of his core trio plus guests. Sands, who has made a name for himself as a creative composer and virtuosic player both as a leader and member of Christian McBride’s Insight Straight trio, takes inspiration from the fluidity and malleability of the water to traverse new ground. He shapes his music like water and fills the structures through clever sonic routes that often tweak expectations. Be Water contains 10 tracks, all originals with the exception of a gospelized trio version of Steve Winwood’s folk-rock song “Can’t Find My Way Home”.
The first part of the title track stresses the formless and shapeless qualities of the precious liquid, starting with the voice of actor and martial artist Bruce Lee, an early idol whose philosophy and physical agility influenced Sand’s music. This piece boasts a personality of its own, becoming a vehicle for fine improvisations - by turns, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Sean Jones, and Sands (on Fender Rhodes) explore concise yet ambitious itineraries created from their imagination.
The spectacular harmonic avenues of “Drive” also provide solid ground for the soloists, with Strickland and guitarist Marvin Sewell, who concludes in big, deserving the spotlight. Tightly weaved but never overworked, the arrangement sports a nervy guitar ostinato, freethinking piano playing and a bright, funk-rock rhythm. The bass clarinet is added for depth and extra groove.
“Intro” makes for a docile opening filled with dramatic splendor and emotional power. It leads to “Sonar”, another sophisticated and multifaceted trio experience whose passages require expertise to work. The group’s ultra-refined chemistry is on display throughout ever-evolving sequences where unpredictability is key. The complexity of the rhythm and crisp melodic accents are in the mould of progressive jazz. They are later slowed down, with the group reaching a calm, airy retreat before setting an invigorating, uptempo swing in motion. Taking the form of a vamp, the polyrhythmic final section is filtered through empathetic drumming and a collective rhythmic understanding.
“Crash” is presented in the classic piano trio format with underlying lushness. Sands engages in a nearly telepathic communication with bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Clarence Penn, whose colorings and rock-inflected propulsions feel just perfect for the lighthearted tone of the pianist’s brazenly jazzy melodies. On the lyrical “Be Water II”, Sands even employs a competent quartet of strings for sonic diversity.
Sands' accomplished compositional style helped configuring Be Water with absorbing musical moments. This is clearly my first pick from the pianist's catalog.
Grade A
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Sonar ► 03 - Be Water I ► 05 - Drive
An Interview with Christian Sands
Since he was a young child growing up on Long Island, NY, Andrew has always loved writing and collecting physical music. Present-day, Andrew is proud to share his love of music with the world through his writing, and the result is nothing short of beautiful: articles and interviews written by a music addict for fellow music addicts. Andrew lives on Long Island and works as a Horticultural Operations Manager by day and runs the Vinyl Writer Music website by night.
If you’re a fan of Jazz, then this is a wonderful time to be alive. A wave of young, talented and vibrant Jazz musicians is sweeping across the scene and Christian Sands is one of them. In just a few short years, Christian Sands has accomplished more than some do in a lifetime, and he’s not even close to done yet.
Today, we’ve got the talented pianist, Christian Sands with us for a chat. We talk about his early influences, working with some of the greats, his love for vinyl and his occasional dreams of becoming a race car driver.
If you would like to learn more about the music of Christian Sands, you can head over to his website here. Once you’ve gotten through with that, dig into this interview with Christian. Cheers.
Andrew:
Christian, thank you for taking the time to speak
with us. It’s been a weird year, hasn’t it? What have you been doing to
pass the time?
Christian:
That’s a loaded question. Funny enough, I feel like I’m
busier than ever. I won’t list everything, but I’ve been doing more
“personality” work than playing the piano which actually has been very
different for me. Usually, I let my music speak for me, but in this
case, I’ve had to get in front of cameras, use my voice to host tv shows
and web series’, using online platforms like Instagram and Facebook to
engage MORE with fans across the world. It’s been an adventure to say
the least but very rewarding.
Andrew:
Tell us a bit about your backstory. What are your musical origins so to speak?
Christian:
I grew up in New Haven, CT studying Classical piano
from the age of 4, but I’ve grown up with multiple styles of music
either played or listened to in the home. From Beethoven to Barry White,
Charlie Pride to Charlie Parker, and everything in between, I’ve been
surrounded by music my entire life. I started improvising when I was
about that young or younger and it sort of was the backbone of me being a
Jazz musician. I started formal studies at age 7.
Andrew:
As an artist, and pianist, who have been some of your most important influences? How did you develop your signature style?
Christian:
Growing up, both of my parents played many different
pianists in the house. Them being an amateur pianist, my father loved
listening to piano based songs and artists like, Joe Sample, Ahmad
Jamal, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck to name a few. My mother loved
Classical music, Mozart in particular and Country music like Ray Charles
and Charlie Pride. But throughout my life, I’ve also been exposed and
influenced by multiple artists, branching beyond music, like Salvador
Dali, Pablo Picasso, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Tinker Hatfield
(Jordan Brand), Ferdinand Porsche (you can tell I like design), and
Bruce Lee which has helped with my latest project, Be Water.
Andrew:
Early on, you were mentored by pianist, Billy
Taylor. My understanding is he even allowed you to close one of sets
when you were a teen. Tell us more about working and learning under
Billy.
Christian:
Working with Dr. Taylor was truly the experience of all
experiences. It was indeed working with a master, one who has been
involved in music and American history since the 40s when he moved to
NY. He taught me so many useful tools, from performance, to how one
conducts themselves during business meetings, how to lead a band. He
also shared wisdom that he had learned when he was coming from legends
like the great Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Erroll Garner and so on. But
above all, he truly taught me about how kind and grateful we should all
be. He was a truly remarkable human being with a warm heart and an open
mind.
Andrew:
After you graduated from the Manhattan School of
Music, you joined bassist, Christian McBride’s band, Inside Straight.
How did you end up getting that gig? What is like working with Christian
McBride?
Christian:
I had met Christian [McBride] a few times before, back
when I was an undergrad at the Manhattan School of Music and each
meeting was good, nothing remarkable on my end, definitely not one that
would lead to getting a gig, but all just good. He was a nice guy, very
warm and welcoming, but nothing eluded to, “Hey, lets play together”
until I received a phone call from the great Marian McPartland. She had
asked me to be a guest on her show, “Piano Jazz” which I more than
gladly accepted. A few weeks leading to the taping, my parents (who were
my managers at the time) received a phone call saying that Ms.
McPartland was ill and couldn’t make the show but assured us that it
would still go on with a substitute, Mr. Christian McBride. Fast forward
to after the show, I’m in a practice room at MSM and preparing for a
lesson I had with my private instructor at the time, Vijay Iyer, when I
got a phone call from Christian’s manager, Andre Guess. “Hey Brother
Sands! McB wants to know what you’re doing on X&Y date, he’s got a
week at the Jazz Standard (in NY) and wants you to play with him.” The rest is history…
Andrew:
As a side man, you’ve had the opportunity to work
with the likes of Bobby SANABRIA, Ulysses Owens, Christian McBride,
Gregory Porter and more. What’s it been like working with such wonderful
and talented musicians?
Christian:
Working with so many different artists in the
supporting role is great. I’ve been fortunate of being more than just a
“side” musician, but a collaborator of the music. Making decisions with
another artist, putting our minds together, it’s a great feeling. You
learn more that way, you hear more that way. In my earlier years, being
in bands is how I learned how to play the music like how to swing, how
to play in different styles and in different spaces. I think it’s
important for artists to have been in bands because it gives you a great
foundation in your musicality and also teaches you how to lead
generously as well.
Andrew:
You put out a new record in 2020. It’s called Be Water. What can you tell us about the new album? What was the inspiration?
Christian:
This record is a very personal one for me. They all
are, but this one in particular is special. I feel more myself as an
artist on this record, I’m not trying to impress anyone or show how much
piano I can play, I’m just simply expressing myself and am truly living
in the moment. That’s what Be Water is about, being in the
moment, not knowing what will happen in the future, not worrying about
the past but truly being in the present and moving through with whatever
is thrown at you. Not thinking that we’d all have to be like water this
year for 2020, but it was something that I was feeling and wanted to
capture as best I could. I was inspired by moments in my life, different
pivotal moments and great memories. As a child, watching spaghetti
westerns and Bruce Lee films with my father and younger brother was
something we loved to do so film was definitely a big factor in this
particular project. Film to me is a snapshot in time that tells a story
about humanity and the possibilities, responsibilities, that come with
it fact or fiction. And we immerse ourselves in those stories and
sometimes find ourselves in the stories. That’s what I strive to do with
music, to be a story teller but also give the listener a snapshot of my
life in that moment.
Andrew:
Let’s talk about current events. You’ve also been
nominated for a Grammy this year for best instrumental composition. How
gratifying is that for you?
Christian:
I’ve always used my life and life story as a way of
moving through my music and I feel like it’s all lead here, to this
moment. I’ve been nominated before, with groups but never for something
that I lead, written or owned, so this is a very special moment. Fingers
Crossed.
Andrew:
Aside from any potential possibilities musically,
what are else are you passionate about? How do those passions inform
your music, if at all?
Christian:
Like I’ve said before, I love film so I’m really
interested in film scoring. One of these days, I’m sure it’ll happen.
Acting is also on my bucket list, I don’t know if I’m any good, but you
don’t know until you try it, right? [laughs]. I’m also into
fashion/lifestyle, for those who follow me on my socials. All of these
inform my music with how creative I can be and my music informs my
hobbies and interests. I had thought about being a race car driver at a
point in my life too so there’s that too! [laughs].
Andrew:
Shifting gears now. In your opinion, COVID-19
aside, what’s the state of the industry? With the never-ending barrage
of social media, and constant squeeze from big business, is it harder or
easier for artists to succeed these days?
Christian:
THAT is a good question. I believe it is a split
decision. There are moments for artists where they have grown accustomed
to the system and relied on it to work. But on the other hand, there
are many who haven’t and have been just as successful, so I think it
really depends on the individual and where you’d like to be. The hustle
is real and you have to do it to survive. But we can also look at it
from a different angle. We’re in a time where new ideas and new
opportunities are being created by ourselves, our generation, and the
possibilities are endless. You just gotta be ready to move when it’s
time.
Andrew:
What are a few albums that mean the most to you, and why?
Christian:
There are so many!! Some for sentimental reasons,
making me think of my family and good times, others because the music is
so incredible on vinyl. I’ll give you a few; Off the Wall, Michael Jackson (and Thriller), Abbey Road, The Beatles, Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd, Purple Rain, Prince and anything by Miles Davis.
Andrew:
Are you into vinyl? Tapes? CDs? Or are you all digital now? Where do you like to shop for music?
Christian:
I believe music sounds better on wax, so I’m definitely
a vinyl-head. Unfortunately most of the record shops near me have
closed at this point, but there are still a few left standing in America
that I get records from whenever I’m on the road like Amoeba in LA, Newbury Comics in Boston, Easy Street Records in Seattle to name a few.
Andrew:
This has been such an odd time, but we’ve still
seen a lot of great music released in 2020 into early 2021. What are
some of your must have albums of the last year or so?
Christian:
There are a lot of great releases across the board for
this year. Some that have been in rotation for me and others that I
still have to get to. Brandy’s B7 has been in heavy rotation for me, that shit is brilliant. Bad Bunny has had a year with YHLQMDLG. Young titan, Immanuel Wilkins’ record, Omega, has been in my ears for a while too. And of course the great Charles Lloyd with 8: Kindred Spirits, super killer!
Andrew:
Last question. You’ve had a great career, with
hopefully a long way to go yet. That said, looking back, what are some
of your proudest and fondest memories as a musician? What advice would
you have for young musicians trying to get their start today?
Christian:
There are so many to name, I’m just blessed and humbled
that I get to be on this path and everyday is a better experience than
the last. The advice I’d give to young musicians is to live in the
moment, take in everything you can and don’t stop growing. Be open to
knew things, absorb them and know that the sky is just the beginning.
Interested in learning more about the artistry of Christian Sands? Check out the link below:
Dig this interview? Check out the full archives of Vinyl Writer Interviews, by Andrew Daly, here: www.vinylwritermusic.com/interview
https://jazz.fm/christian-sands-interview-be-water/
How martial arts taught Christian Sands the fundamentals of jazz
Christian Sands’ music is what 21st century jazz sounds like. It’s dynamic, it’s surprising, it’s melodic, and yet it’s still so full of the tradition of jazz.
Over the last decade, the pianist and composer has established himself as an artist to be reckoned with, creating moods and sounds with some of the biggest names in jazz and carving out a unique spot for himself.
His latest album is Be Water, his fourth with the Mack Avenue record label, which takes inspiration from the tranquility and power of water and muses on “the possibilities offered by echoing its fluidity and malleability” — a philosophy largely modelled after that of martial artist Bruce Lee.
The expressionistic recording finds Sands with his core trio of bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Clarence Penn, with additional contributions from guitarist Marvin Sewell, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Sean Jones and trombonist Steve Davis.
Sands joined us from his home in Connecticut to talk about the ideas, experiences and philosophies that informed this new album.
Would you say this has been a time when you’ve been inspired to practise and be creative, or is it hard to get in that mode based on everything that’s going on?
It’s a combination of both. There’s a lot going on in the U.S., not only with COVID-19 but the loss of jobs, the loss of gigs, the loss of people, the injustice that’s happening right now. But at the same time, it is inspiring to talk about it, to have conversations, to write music about it — so it kind of goes hand in hand.
I get the sense that the new album Be Water is about being flexible, flowing, adapting to current situations, whether that’s in music or in life. In essence, is that what “being water” is — being malleable, ready for anything?
That’s exactly right. It’s about being as prepared as you can possibly be for the unknown, for the things that are to come. The last thing you want to do is to be faced by a challenge that you can’t rise above. It’s about being flexible, it’s about being aware, and it’s about being honest to yourself as well.
You’ve said you were making the album at the age of 30 and you had been starting to see that you were hardening a bit, not being as open, and you wanted to make sure those sensibilities stayed with you. Is that a fair assessment?
I’ve always been a relaxed person, a very open person, but after you get to that 30 threshold, you sort of get a taste of specifics. So now, I’m specifically open with certain things. I’m trying to remain that way — taking what I was in childhood, the openness and curiosity and precociousness, and bringing that into adulthood, but in a way that’s mature, in a way that’s still open, but strong and with purpose. That’s really the idea of the record. That’s where I was coming from.
Your last recording was called Chasing Dragons. You spent time in China. Your dad taught martial arts. Bruce Lee was part of the inspiration for the new record. What is it about that Eastern culture that’s had such an impact on you?
I’ve grown up with film. I grew up watching Bruce Lee with my father and my younger brother Ryan. You know, The Chinese Connection (Fist of Fury), Game of Death with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. We’ve always had that in our system. My father also taught martial arts at a certain point. He’s given us this discipline, but also the creativeness to work with as well. Learning styles from jeet kune do, to aikido and hapkido, to American-style karate — there are so many different disciplines of the art, and it in turn feeds the music as well. I love different styles of music. I love all music. So it goes hand in hand.
Did you see the 30 for 30 documentary on Bruce Lee?
It’s been on my queue. It’s on my to-do list. I haven’t seen it yet because I’ve been trying to binge and work at the same time, so I’m trying to keep myself away from it at least until I’m in a space where I can breathe and be the water that I need to be to watch it.
When you were a kid and martial arts were part of your life, did you see that correlation between music and martial arts, or were you a kid just doing stuff and having fun?
A little of both. When you’re a kid, you’re just doing anything, especially when you have supportive parents who are putting you in interesting things. I was doing martial arts as a kid, and I was also heavily into arts and crafts, and I was building things, and I was playing piano at the same time. It all just was me. When it was me hanging out with my friends in the neighbourhood and then we’d come inside and play piano and then we’d go and play a video game, it was all intertwined. I didn’t necessarily know there was a connection — but I felt it. When I was sparring with opponents, or with my dad or my brother or my cousins, there would be moments like, how do I attack this? How do I get from point A to point B? And then learning music was sort of the same thing. I never put them together until I was much older, but it was very much the same type of discipline. There was nothing strange about it. I feel like they both taught each other in ways that I didn’t realize until I was older.
It sounds like creativity is something that was encouraged in your family.
Most definitely. I grew up in a very, very creative household. Aside from just listening to music, my mother loved literature, and she would create poems or sonnets. When you’re a child, your parents tell you bedtime stories, but my mom would make up her own stories. There was always this idea of creation. My father loved the arts as well. Aside from music, he was a photographer, he did martial arts, he painted, he was an illustrator, and he played multiple instruments here and there, just a little. He just did everything. He was such an advocate for creation. Growing up in that environment fed my creativity and the person that I am today.
A lot of kids like to hear the same story over and over. If your mom was making them up, was she able to recreate it if you wanted to hear it again?
It’s funny, if you look at it in a jazz way, it was pretty much like this is the bones of the story and each time she would tell it, it would have something different in it. Now that I think of it that way, it’s actually pretty interesting. She would tell stories and I might have a favourite story, and she would tell it again but it might be slightly different, or the way she told it might be different. It would never have the same type of cadence. It might be more intense in a certain scene than it was the last time she told it. It was always a little different.
Christian McBride produced your last album, but you decided to self-produce Be Water. Can you tell us why you made that choice and what the process was like?
It’s always hard work. You put your heart and soul into it. You try different things. But with this one, I wanted to do it myself because I was going through this personally. All my albums are [personal], but this one in particular. Everything is shifting and changing, so I said let’s shift with this and let me produce this myself and see what happens. I had produced other artists, so I thought if I could do them, I could produce myself as well.
Based on the results, would you consider producing it again, or would you look outside?
It depends. It’s always about who I want to collaborate with. “Hey, I like what you’re doing. Let’s put this together. Let’s see what we can come up with together.” So, who knows? The next project, it could be anybody.
I saw that you and your rhythm section, Yushiri and Clarence, got together at the Smoke Club in early August. How did that feel?
It was amazing. We hadn’t played since February, so it had been a long time. We tried to play over Zoom and over Skype, and we were trying to fight through the lag, but it’s not the same. When we finally got the opportunity to play at Smoke, the way they set it up there was no one in the club except us and the film crew. They streamed it online, so despite the empty room, it was just great to make music with my guys and hear what everyone’s been working on for the last few months. That first night was a little… a little rocky. But it was great. We hadn’t had a chance to play before getting all the kinks out. We’re overplaying, we’re stretching things. But the second night was beautiful. They both were amazing. I think we’re going to be releasing some clips from the show [on YouTube], so be on the lookout for that.
I think jazz in particular does require other people. It’s about communication and a shared moment, more than other musical genres. It seems that jazz musicians need those other players more than other genres. Would you agree with that?
I would absolutely agree with that. It’s a communicative art form. I play it for me, it’s therapy for me, it’s reflection for me, it’s expression for me, but at the same time when you have someone listening to it, their listening is expressive. They feed into me and I feed into them. It’s the closest thing to religion if you’re not a religious person. We have a similar energy that we share. Whenever I perform, I always want my audience to be vocal. I always love that. I love when people are shouting, or they’re agreeing with what we’re saying as musicians. It encourages us to play harder, play better, play faster, play stronger, and it encourages them to shout more or express themselves the way they want to express themselves. I feel like music is honesty. It’s a place where we can all come together and get to a higher plane and a higher space in life. We leave the job behind, we leave the wife and kids behind sometimes, and we get to this place where it’s just us. Leave all the social media behind and just really commune in this place at this time. When we’re all doing it at the same time, it’s a beautiful thing.
As great as those two nights were, did it lead to sadness after that? It’s like you just went to church, and now you can’t go to church anymore.
A little bit. It was a little bittersweet. You finish and now you’re like, “When’s the next gig?” And then you find out it’s next year sometime.
I read that you like to cook. I’m wondering if during the lockdown you became a better cook, and if you did what are some of the things you were making?
Being like water means that you have to learn how to boil water. I’ve
been cooking like crazy. I’ve been trying to perfect my cooking skills. I
made pecan-crusted trout the other day. I made Cornish hens with
asparagus tips. I made fig chicken. I’m always trying to experiment and
just be creative and perform in the kitchen. That’s my latest thing.
https://soundcloud.com/jazzfm91/interview-christian-sands-2020
JAZZ. FM91
Follow JAZZ.FM91 and others on SoundCloud.
Christian Sands' music is what 21st century jazz sounds like. It's dynamic, it's surprising, it's melodic, and yet it's still so full of the tradition of jazz.
Over the last decade, the pianist and composer has established himself as an artist to be reckoned with, creating moods and sounds with some of the biggest names in jazz and carving out a unique spot for himself.
His latest album is Be Water, his fourth with the Mack Avenue record label, which takes inspiration from the tranquility and power of water and muses on "the possibilities offered by echoing its fluidity and malleability."
The expressionistic recording finds Sands with his core trio of bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Clarence Penn, with additional contributions from guitarist Marvin Sewell, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Sean Jones and trombonist Steve Davis.
Sands joined us from his home in Connecticut to talk about the ideas, experiences and philosophies that informed this new album.
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/13/645216939/first-listen-christian-sands-facing-dragons
Review
Christian Sands Follows His Wild Muse On 'Facing Dragons'
From
Christian Sands' Facing Dragons comes out Sept. 21. Anna Webber/Courtesy of the artist
Note: NPR's First Listen audio comes down after the album is released. However, you can still listen with the Spotify playlist at the bottom of the page.
Precocity has long been a defining feature in the career of Christian Sands. Growing up around New Haven, Conn., he was a boy wonder on piano; by his early teens he was a protégé of the eminent jazz educator Dr. Billy Taylor. Most jazz observers today know him as a dazzling presence in bands led by bassist Christian McBride, who had a similar trajectory as a rising talent around the time Sands was busy being born.
Like McBride and others in the cohort formerly known as Young Lions, Sands has embraced the jazz tradition while carefully evading any sense of restrictive obligation. He made his official debut as a leader last year with Reach, whose title expresses a mission statement. (He followed it up this spring with Reach Further, a five-track EP.) On the cusp of 30 now, having successfully made the case for his breadth of style, Sands is free to follow his muse where it leads.
And on the evidence of Facing Dragons, his crisply assured new album, he's betting on a mode of soulful eclecticism that expresses new ideas without abandoning the old. Built around the core of his working trio, with bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Jerome Jennings, it's a well-rounded program of gospel reassurances ("Sunday Morning"), state-of-the-art jazz balladry ("Her Song") and the odd redrawn pop standard (The Beatles' "Yesterday"). The opening track, "Rebel Music," has the plot-twisty character of a tune by Chick Corea, whom Sands seems to acknowledge in his piano solo, without losing his bearings.
A savvy composer-arranger, Sands elsewhere enlists a front line with Keyon Harrold on trumpet and Marcus Strickland on tenor saxophone. On "Fight for Freedom," joined by guitarist Caio Afune, they bring muscular poise to a melody that recalls the hard-bop heroics of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. They do the same on "Frankenstein," which feels deftly stitched together using pages from the mid-1960s playbook of Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.
Sands isn't boxed in by these jazz-historical allusions; he expresses himself freely at every turn. And with "Sangueo Soul," which features Afune alongside two Latin percussionists, Cristian Rivera and Roberto Quintero, he fashions a tune at once accessible and ambitious. Don't miss the piano-and-percussion breakdown that starts about three-and-a-half minutes in — it's a display of casual ebullience that would impress at any age.
https://www.sussexjazzmag.com/christian-sands-interview/
Christian Sands Interview
Tell us a bit about the trio that you’re bringing to the UK for Love Supreme Festival.
It’s actually a new configuration. Yasushi Nakamura on bass, I’ve played
with him a number of times and people who have seen us in Europe know
us. He’s not new but the drummer, for this tour, is Clarence Penn. He’s
an absolutely amazing drummer, composer, arranger. He’s originally from
Detroit, Michigan and he’s played with so many different people
throughout the years, so he’s no stranger to Europe and the tour life.
He’s worked with Ellis Marsalis, Diana Krall, Cyrus Chestnut to name
just a few. He’s a wonderful musician and I’m really excited having him
play my music and to be touring with him.
In terms of the music, will it be new material, or from your last two albums?
It’ll be a mixture. I’m currently writing some new music. I’m trying to
go into the studio in the fall, so I’m just coming up with some more
material, and then hopefully by the European tour we’ll start to play
some of that, test it out and see what people think, along with music
from my last few records. Wherever the music leads us, really.
You’ve toured Europe quite a bit in the past few years. Have you found any differences between American audiences and European ones?
American audiences have a different appreciation for the music. It’s music that they’re sort of familiar with, because it’s American music, and the way that I play it, it’s from American roots, so a lot of things are familiar to American audiences. But European audiences absolutely love it, because it’s fairly new. It’s old but new, it’s a different experience, it’s fun. It’s fun all around. I don’t really think there’s a major difference for me. My thing is that if you love music then you enjoy yourself, you just have a good time. And no matter where we play, we’re always having a good time.
I don’t know if you read Downbeat’s recent interview with Branford Marsalis. He talks about a lot of improvisers regurgitating. As an improviser, how do you break away from doing that?
I haven’t seen that interview but, you know, it’s like learning words. The more languages you speak, the more different ways in which you can express yourself. The more music you know, the more you get away from playing the same old licks and vocabulary, because now you’ve developed vocabulary. I believe that’s what Branford is saying, which is something that I’m always striving to do. I’m always listening to so many different things, to broaden my vocabulary, broaden my language in music, so that way, when I do improvise and play, it’s coming from so many different sources. But also it’s coming from sources that I’ve experienced so it’s all, ultimately, me.
What Branford said reminded me of something that Chick Corea said, “Only play what you hear, if you don’t hear it, don’t play it”.
Exactly, exactly. It’s all vocabulary. It’s all a language, so there’s going to be some similarities. There’s going to be some of the lines or rhythms or certain things that we’ve heard throughout jazz’s history, that’s just because of how the language has developed. And that’s ok. That’s what I tell my students. It is okay to regurgitate at one point because you have to learn the language, you have to learn how to speak and greet people in order to have a conversation. So in order to do that you have to learn the language. In the learning process, learn the language, learn the way to greet each musician, to greet the music. And then once you learn how to do that, then you can develop how you want to greet the music in your own way. So I think it takes both.
In terms of your own playing. How do you manage to express who you are, through the music?
I just get up there and play! I express myself the way anybody does. You
just start talking. You just start playing from the heart, and playing
from the soul. As long as it’s honest, that’s the best policy.
How does someone get to be as good as you?
I don’t think it’s how to get as good as me. I think it’s how do you
express yourself. I’m a very expressive person on stage. I’ve been doing
it for so long. The real answer is just practice. Do practice, but also
be yourself. I don’t think that anyone is better than anyone else, I
think it’s just how you express yourself, and the vibrations between
people. I resonate with certain people, and then certain people I don’t
resonate with, which is okay. I think that’s true with everybody,
whether you’re a musician or not. Every person in the world has certain
frequencies that we resonate with, and some things that we really,
really feel, and some things that we really don’t. I’m just lucky enough
that people feel my frequency…and I practice.
Tell us a bit about how the future is lining up, in terms of what you’ve got planned.
I’m doing a lot of touring, a lot of producing this year. A lot of
different records for people. I’m doing a lot of writing. I write music
for all different types of artists, so I’m doing a lot of different
collaborations this year, continued from last year to this year. Not
only in the jazz genre, but different genres. Some hip hop, country and
western, some EDM, it’s a lot. I’m also working with some fashion
designers this year. I’ve been sponsored by a few companies this year.
Oxyfresh, the toothpaste company and Amazon. I’m doing a lot of work
with different corporations, different brands. It’s a lot of stuff
that’s happening, a lot of really positive things happening.
Are you looking forward to returning to Love Supreme?
Yes. I haven’t been since the last time I performed there with Christian
McBride. I remember that it was raining and there was a big tent and
there was dirt on the ground. And I think this was the first time that
Kris Bowers was performing there. He’d just finished a record and he was
touring it and I remember seeing him with his group at Love Supreme.
Are there any piano players around at the moment that you like to check out?
Yeah, there are tons. Sullivan Fortner I absolutely love. Alfredo
Rodriguez I’m a big fan of. These are people that I love to play with as
well. I haven’t played with Alfredo yet, but we’re talking about it,
which will be a lot of fun. Theo Hill. I love Theo Hill, he’s great, a
really excellent pianist. There’s a whole bunch of musicians that I’m
really checking out. I know there are a few people in the UK coming out
of the Royal Academy. I try to keep my ear close to what’s happening, so
I can watch my job! But there’s a few people. There’s always someone
new coming up and they always have something interesting to say. So I
always like to pay attention to what’s going on.
So what are you up to for the rest of today?
A bit of writing, and a bit of reading. You should always expand your
mind in order to write. I have a couple of meetings later on. I’m
meeting with Lincoln Center, and I have a meeting with another company
that wants to do a collaboration. And a meeting with the Errol Garner
Project. That’s a new project that we’re working on. We’re doing the
music of Errol Garner. It’s all music that he’s written, or 90%. But
most of the music that we’re playing has never been recorded or even
released before. It’s with Terreon Gully on drums and Luques Curtis on
bass. A very fun group. We’ve done a few shows in the States and we’re
going to be doing a European tour later this year as well. So it’s
really exciting. And it’s going to be a multimedia concert too, we’re doing a whole bunch of different
stuff. So that’s what we’re talking about today, getting all the
details. Stay tuned to the music, follow me on Instagram, Facebook and
Twitter! Can’t wait to see everybody.
Christian Sands Trio
Love Supreme Festival
The Arena Sunday, 5:30pm
Interview by Charlie Anderson
Photo by Anna Webber
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/an-interview-wpianist-christian-sands-and-his latest
An Interview w/Pianist Christian Sands and his Latest Album “Reach”
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?
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 Wonka and 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.
NOJ: Good luck with this record and the tour and I’m looking forward to seeing you on Saturday and thank you for spending the time with us.
Check out one of Christian Sands new songs from Reach here:
https://soundcloud.com/mackavenue/christian-sands-reach-gangsta-lude
https://thekey.xpn.org/2021/02/07/expansions-in-jazz-christian-sands/
Expansions In Jazz: Christian Sands
On this week’s episode of Expansions in Jazz, Julian Booker is joined by pianist Christian Sands. The Connecticut native talks to Julian about what first sparked his interest in piano, recording with contemporary jazz icons Christian McBride and Gregory Porter, and his most recent studio album, Be Water, which was just nominated for a Grammy award.
Listen to the interview and check out some highlights from their conversation below; the text has been edited for length and clarity.
On growing up in a creative household:
“I was always really involved in creativity. My parents are very creative people. My father did a lot of work in photography; he also loved music and was a martial arts instructor. My mother was always into literature, she loved poetry and short stories, she loved making up short stories. So we were always doing creative things: illustration, painting, drawing…music was a part because both my parents loved music and they both played a little bit. They kind of passed it on to their kids, myself and my brother, so we just were bitten by the bug of creativity, and we were able to use music as a tool.”
On his relationship with the late jazz musician and educator, Dr. Billy Taylor:
“This mentorship was happening…I would go with him to Washington D.C. when he was the artistic director of the Kennedy Center, I would go with him to New York when he was doing the Jazzmobile in Harlem. I was always with him, not just learning about music but also watching how the business works, watching how grace and elegance work. He was such an elegant and masterful person, and such a personable person as well. I learned a lot about life just being around him and being next to him.”
On recording the album Nat King Cole & Me with singer Gregory Porter:
“Nat just happened to be a singer. His playing was really incredible, especially how he accompanied and played behind himself, it’s really an art form, it’s something that people should study…that first day being in Air Studios [in London], was absolutely breathtaking. You’re in this space that looks like a giant church…they were getting the strings together first and there were these little steps right above where the string section was, and you just hear these strings swell around you, it was so incredible and inspiring just being in the room…[Gregory] has a very strong connection to Nat ‘King’ Cole, so I also want to make sure that when he listens to this he’s going to be like: ‘this sounds great, this feels good,’ this is another part of his memory, and it’s going to be a part of ours.”
On his song “Be Water II” being nominated for the Grammy for ‘Best Instrumental Composition’:
“It’s a really good feeling, it’s a reassuring feeling. Especially on composition, on writing. I kind of see myself as a composer more than just a pianist…being a creative, I just use the instrument to do what I want to do. Recently I found out that my fifth great grandfather [Christopher Christian Manuel] was a musician as well…he was a composer from Cape Verde, and then I found out that I was nominated for a Grammy in composition. Despite the pandemic there is some light here, so to be recognized in a time where chaos is happening, especially for composition, makes me feel good.”
On making music that addresses the wide spectrum of human emotion:
“Being a reflective musician, it’s not always pretty. Sometimes life happens and you have to deal with that. Sometimes there’s deeper meanings to it. I’ve always had an amazing relationship with my father, but I always had a tricky relationship with him. I didn’t realize that a lot of the albums that I put together were really just re-connections I was trying to have with him. Which is super personal…there’s moments where its amazing and there’s moments where heads are butting: how do we put these things together? You have to be as honest as you can as you make this music, and that’s what we try to do.”
https://jazzbuffalo.org/2020/01/19/christian-sands-carries-forth-the-legacy-of-erroll-garner/
Christian Sands Carries Forth The Legacy of Erroll Garner
In 2018, jazz pianist Christian Sands was named Creative Ambassador of the Erroll Garner Jazz Project. A project that honors the legacy of one of the most prolific jazz pianists in jazz history. Garner, a self-taught pianist, earned a special place in the hearts of many for his unique style of playing jazz standards. Most notably, his “Concert By the Sea” album released in 1955 consistently appears on lists by pundits as one of the top jazz albums of all time.
As Creative Ambassador, it has meant Sands has been on an ambitious touring schedule for 2019-2020. One of those tour stops takes place on Sunday, February 2 at 3 pm at Kleinhans Music Hall as part of the Art of Jazz at the Philharmonic Series. The temporary home for the Art of Jazz Series as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery undergoes new construction in the next two years.
In a recent Downbeat interview, Christian Sands is quoted as saying: “Being creative ambassador is a big honor. It’s given me a different hat to wear. Aside from being a performer, now I have taken on the role to help shape and execute someone’s creative vision who isn’t here and combine it with my own, all the while staying true to what the artist intended.”
Sands’s ambassadorship of Garner’s legacy began a few years earlier in 2015. The late jazz pianist Geri Allen was planning a celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Concert By The Sea album for the 2015 Monterey Jazz Festival. Allen asked Sands to be a part of the special anniversary concert and it was then that Sands knew he wanted to help carry on Garner’s legacy. Taking a noted interest in how the longtime trio of pianist Erroll Garner, bassist Eddie Calhoun, and drummer Kelly Martin were at the heart of Garner’s unique sound.
After the Monterey Jazz Festival, Allen recruited Sands to share in fostering the Garner legacy and to share in the managing of the Erroll Garner Jazz Project. Sadly, it was not meant to be. Geri Allen passed away in 2017 from pancreatic cancer. Says Sands in a recent interview with JazzTimes: “I went to the hospice I think the day before she passed away and we were talking about Erroll and playing some records, and just listening to some things. A couple of weeks after that I got a call from Peter Lockhart and Susan Rosenberg [of the Erroll Garner Jazz Project] and they asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. They had had a conversation with Geri ahead of time.”
In response to taking up Allen’s torch and his special interest in Garner’s trio, Sands formed the High Wire Trio. The trio features Sands alongside bassist Luques Curtis and Ulysses Owens, Jr. or Terreon Gully on drums. The trio has developed a repertoire of Garner’s original arrangements of such tunes as “Yesterday” and “My Funny Valentine.” The trio has been touring throughout the US and abroad. Introducing Garner’s music to a new legion of fans and also reintroducing the music to those with fond memories of hearing the music of Erroll Garner in their family household in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s.
Due to Garner’s pioneering and steadfast commitment to only licensing his music to record labels, much of the archival history of Garner’s musical recordings remains intact. Resulting is a resurgence of Garner’s music, as well as, the release of multiple recordings just in the past two-plus years. Just like Garner’s joyful grunts, he was noted for in his playing, this has brought much joy to the long-term and new fans of one of jazz’s most revered pianists.
Christian Sands appears at the Art of Jazz at the Philharmonic Series on Sunday, February 2nd at 3 pm at Kleinhans Music Hall. Tickets are available at the Kleinhans Music Hall Box Office or online at www.kleinhansbuffalo.org.
Christian Sands: Facing Dragons
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Sands, born on May 22 1989, grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, later moving to nearby Orange. He started playing piano from a very early age, took lessons from the age of four (yes, four) and began composing at five (yes, five). He was mentored by Dr. Billy Taylor who allowed him, while still a teenager, to close a set he played at the Kennedy Center. Sands went on to study at the Manhattan School of Music.
He cut his first album, Footprints, at the age of 12 (yes, 12) in 2002 and says of the piano: "I grew up with it in the house, in the classroom and on stage so it has always been a huge part of my life."
After graduating, Sands toured internationally with Inside Straight, a band fronted by bassist Christian McBride. Sands cites McBride as an influence, along with Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Garrett and Marcus Roberts, because "they're coming from the tradition of bringing people into the music, but also moving it forward into new directions." Facing Dragons is his fourth album. He thanks "the world's ears" for it and advises listeners to "continue to face your dragons."
"Fight For Freedom" is reminiscent of some of the music Horace Silver and Art Blakey laid down back in the hard bop era. Here Sands writes for a band as opposed to his own piano with other instruments tacked on. "Marcus Strickland brings a certain fire to the band," says Sands, "Especially on this track. He's got a rich and deep tone, so it was perfect for the earthy theme of the song."
But despite lauding all his musicians "for bringing so much love and light into the music," Sands doesn't really give them that much of a look-in. It's very much a piano album. It is also very much a studio album. It would be nice to hear him playing with a real band. That said, "Frankenstein" features some fine sax from Marcus Strickland and equally fine trumpet from Keyon Harrold. And Yasushi Nakamura too puts in some solid work on bass on the ballad "Her Song."
But Sands is a believer. On the sleeve he writes "I'd like to thank God the Creator, for allowing me to explore and share my gift with the world." So it's perhaps not surprising that the album's standout track should be "Sunday Mornings," a simple, soulful gospel number with "church" written all over it.
Track Listing
Rebel Music; Fight For Freedom; Yesterday; Sangueo Soul; Sunday Mornings; Frankenstein; Her Song; Samba De Vela; Rhodes To Meditation.
Personnel
Christian Sands: piano, Fender Rhodes; Caio Afune: guitar; Keyon Harrold: trumpet; Jerome Jennings: drums; Yasushi Nakamura: bass; Roberto Quintero, Cristian Rivera: percussion; Marcus Strickland: saxophone.
Album information
Title: Facing Dragons | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: Mack Avenue Records
Review: Christian Sands in Discovery Artist at the KC Jazz Club
Jazz pianist Christian Sands appeared at the KC Jazz Club last Friday evening with drummer Jerome Jennings and bassist Eric Wheeler: together, the pulse and rifts and energy lifted both heart and soul.
And the future of jazz has a spotlight to the moon.
Young, personable, and a pianist with magic fingers, Christian Sands with his Trio mixed traditional jazz with more popular motifs, with compositions ranging from Cedar Walton’s “Bolivia” to Bert Kaempfert and Milt Gabler’s “L.O.V.E.”
At one point, Sands even forecast a possible nod toward DC’s own Go-Go.
Sands gave us his original compositions too, most notably “Reaching for the Sun,” from his new album Reach.
The trio then did Ray Brown “FSR” with bassist Eric Wheeler leading the way with an arresting solo. When Sands and Wheeler joined in, the explosion of sound was pure express.
Jerome Jennings got his solo on a rendition of Thelonius Monk’s “Evidence.” Jennings knows how to use his sticks and he had his audience hanging on each beat.
One of the highlights of the evening, both for its jazz work and for its nod to contemporary musical phrasing, was the trio’s version of “L.O.V.E,” made famous in Nat King Cole’s album of the same name.
The delicacy of Sands’ fingerwork, with each note sounding discreetly yet in harmony with each cluster, had the audience listening for each new nuance of love with rapt attention. An ovation was not far away.
If this eclectic evening of jazz is any indication, the Christian Sands Trio will never miss an opportunity to surprise its audience with unique combinations of experimentation and tradition.
Running Time: 75 minutes with no intermission
Christian Sands played the KC Jazz Club on November 18, 2017, at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Gallery – 2700 F Street, NW, in Washington, DC. For the full season at the Jazz Club go online.
https://straightnochaserjazz.libsyn.com/podcast-750-a-conversation-with-christian-sands
July 5, 2020
It’s been a pleasure to watch pianist Christian Sands grow as a composer, musician and bandleader. By the time he was ready to graduate from Manhattan School of Music, he had released three trio albums and been nominated for a Latin Grammy as part of the School’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, led by Bobby Sanabria. Tabbed by Christian McBride to be part of his quintet Insight Straight, Sands quickly became known as one of finest young pianists of his generation.
Be Water is his fourth release on the Mack Avenue label, and it finds him to mature as an artist. His compositions show him willing to take chances, and the band he has assembled for the sessions is top notch. Anchored by long-time collaborator Yasushi Nakamura (bass) and drummer Clarence Penn, he continues to bring in ace players like guitarist Marvin Sewell, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Sean Jones and trombonist Steve Davis. On one piece, the ensemble is supplemented by a string quartet featuring Sara Caswell, Tomoko Akaboshi, Benni von Gutzeit and Eleanor Norton.
Sands is more than just a top jazz musician – he is a jazz fan. Out conversation is peppered with his enthusiasm for his musicians, and for others he he has had a chance to work with, including drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. and singer Gregory Porter. Further, he has spent much of the past few years helping preserve the legacy of pianist Erroll Garner, both by performing Garner’s works with his High-Wire Trio (with bassist Luques Curtis, and drummer Terreon Gully) and serving as Creative Ambassador for the Erroll Garner Jazz Project at the University of Pittsburgh.
Podcast 750 is my conversation with Christian Sands, as we talk about his many projects, including the making of Be Water. Musical selections from the album include one of two songs entitled “Be Water”, plus “Still”, a tune featuring Marvin Sewell, and a cover of the Blind Faith classic “Can’t Find My Way Home.” From Nat King Cole & Me, his recording with Gregory Porter, comes “Pick Yourself Up.”
Christian Sands 'Yesterday' | Live Studio Session
Christian Sands - Be Water I (Official Audio)
Christian Sands Trio - Reaching For The Sun - Live
Christian Sands - Can't Find My Way Home
Christian Sands performs LOVE live on WBGO's
The Making of Christian Sands' Be Water
Christian Sands - Song Of The Rainbow People
Christian Sands - Reaching For The Sun (Live)
Christian Sands - "Sonar" (Official Audio)
Christian Sands 'Reaching For The Sun' | Live
Christian Sands at Paste Studio NYC live from The
Christian Sands - The Swing and I
Christian Sands Trio live at North Sea Jazz 2019
Christian Sands Trio live
Welcome to the Sands Box with Christian Sands
Christian Sands - Sangueo Soul
Jazz Piano Man Ascending - Christian Sands
Rencontre avec Christian Sands | Jazz in Progress
Pianist Christian Sands on his early music education
Christian Sands - Outro (Official Audio)
Sunday Mornings · Christian Sands
Christian Sands Interview: Part 1 - Christian Sands
How a Jazz Musician Found Family Stories He
Welcome to the Sands Box with Christian Sands: Featuring Christian McBride
Monterey Jazz/Kuumbwa Jazz Summer Jazz Intensive: Christian Sands Masterclass 1 and 2