David Sanchez: Cultural Survival (Concord Picante – 2008)

It’s been almost four years since saxophonist David Sanchez released Coral (Columbia, 2004), the disc which marked the end of an eleven year relationship with Sony Music—and it’s wonderful to have his big, singing, prolix tenor back, on song and kicking.
Sanchez has not been idle since Coral, touring extensively with his own band, on a world tour with singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, and on a US tour with guitarist Pat Metheny. He also gave a few headline performances in the US of Eddie Sauter’s “Focus,” a suite originally written for tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, who recorded it on Focus (Verve, 1961). Sanchez was also Artist in Residence at Georgia State University during the 2005/06 academic year.
Of these experiences, the one that has had the most obvious impact on Cultural Survival, Sanchez’s Concord Picante debut, is the tour with Metheny. Though pianists Danilo Perez and Robert Rodriguez are heard on three tracks, their’s are guest appearances, and it is guitarist Lage Lund—a vibrant in-the-tradition player with an interesting sideline in subtle, textural, digital effects—who is the album’s key chordal player and second soloist.
There are seven originals and one cover—a gorgeous version of Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Mood.” Aside from this track and the elegiac “The Forgotten Ones,” the disc is up-tempo, assertive, and fiercely energetic. Most of the music sounds like it must have needed detailed written arrangements—there are frequent shifts in tempo, rhythm and dynamics, the introduction of secondary themes, and tension-building passages centered on reiterated motifs—but it all sounds remarkably fresh and organic.
After four years away from the studios, Sanchez has a lot to say, and he solos vigorously, richly, and at length. But while he is generally tagged as a muscular, freebooting player, there’s a delicate side to him too. This shines through in the more pastoral passages on Cutural Survival, and is enjoyably reminiscent of saxophonist Phaorah Sanders during his astral jazz explorations of the late 1960s. The African-derived drums, percussion and chanted vocals which open and close the twenty minute opus “La Leyanda Del Canaveral,” carry unmistakable echoes of “Upper Egypt And Lower Egypt” from Sanders’ Tauhid (Impulse!, 1967). So, too, do Rodriguez’s trippy note clusters. The bass ostinato that introduces Sanchez’s main theme, however, references Jimmy Garrison’s on “Acknowledgement” from saxophonist John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1964).

Sanchez has been missed. Cultural Survival is a brilliant return to disc.

 Tracklist:
1. Coast To Coast
2. Manto Azul
3. Adoración
4. Monk’s Mood
5. Ay Bendito
6. Cultural Survival
7. *The Forgotten Ones
8. La Leyenda del Cañaveral

Personnel:
David Sanchez: Ten Sax, percu(1, 2), vocal  (8);
Lage Lund: electric guitar;
Danilo Perez: piano (2, 6);
Robert Rodriguez: piano and Fender Rhodes (8);
Ben Street: bass (1-7);
Hans Glawisching: bass (8);
Henry Cole: drums (1, 4, 5, 8);
Adam Cruz: drums (2, 3, 6, 7);
Pernell Saturnino: percussion (2, 8).

Original Release Date: May 20, 2008 – Label: Concord Records

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Charlie Haden: Nocturne (2001 – Umvd)

When Charlie Haden took to the stage of Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, his face beamed as he scanned what was a full house of enthusiastic fans. Even before playing a note, Haden seemed compelled to mention the inspiration he had taken from many of the art works he had seen while touring the galleries at the museum earlier in the day. Then he went on to extol Cleveland’s virtues, adding that according to album sales figures, his most recent album American Dreams has sold more copies in Cleveland than in such urban centers as New York or Los Angeles.
The occasion of Haden’s appearance in Cleveland (and a rare one at that) was the performance of music from his Grammy Award-winning Nocturne and most of the original players who were involved in that project were on hand, including pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, saxophonist David Sanchez, drummer Ignacio Berroa, and violinist Federico Britos Ruiz.
It seems that with his projects of recent years, Haden seems bent on painting with a softer hue that is often diametrically opposed to the kind of radical avant-garde stance that many associate with Haden during his formative years. The music from Nocturne is no exception, with the folkloric boleros that serve as fodder for Rubalcaba’s arrangements never making it much past your traditional ballad tempo. And therein lies the rub, because as beautiful and delicate as the music was throughout the performance, under the surface was a nagging desire to hear Haden and his cohorts break into an up-tempo romp that would dispel an irksome awareness of similitude.
One had to have just a bit of compassion for Berroa, who had limited opportunities for expressing himself much past the traditional swish-swish sound of his brushes. Sanchez, on the other hand, utilized extreme breath control in voicing his delicate statements, yet there was a burning fire smoldering just below the surface that coaxed from him some of the most radiant moments of the evening. At one point, the saxophonist even quoted a phrase from Wayne Shorter’s “Witch Hunt” as if to suggest that his thought process too was on something just a bit more extroverted. Haden’s solo opportunities were few, but he made the most of what he allowed himself, despite the fact that the decision to go for the minimal amount of amplification meant that his bass lines were often swallowed up by the rest of the ensemble.
Haden has acknowledged that his love of film noire has had a direct impact on his musical statement of the past several years. He’s clearly longing for the beauty and space that comes with the kind of lush balladic pieces that he chooses to explore. So maybe the onus is on all of us to catch up with Haden’s current developments, yet like even with the most enjoyable things in life, too much of a good thing can be a plausible certainty when taken to the extreme.
C. Andrew Hovan (All About Jazz)

Track List:
1. En la Orilla del Mundo (At the End of the World)
2. Noche de Ronda (Night of Wandering)
3. Nocturnal
4. Moonlight (Claro de Luna)
5. Yo sin Ti
6. No Te Empenes Mas (Don’t Try Anymore)
7. Transparence
8. El Ciego (The Blind)
9. Nightfall
10. Tres Palabres (Three Words)
11. Contigo en la Distancia (With you in the Distance)/ En Nosotros (In Us)

Personnel:
Charlie Haden (Bass)
Gonzalo Rualcaba (Piano)
Ignacio Berroa (Drums)
Joe Lovano (Tenor Sax) (1,4,7,11)
David Sanchez (Tenor Sax) (6,10)
Pat Metheny (Guitar) (2)
Frederico Britos Ruiz (Violin) (1,5,8)

Original Release Date: April 17, 2001  –  Label: Umvd Labels
“NOCTURNE” won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.
 
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