Channels Of Energy (CamJazz)
Antonio Sanchez (featuring WDR Big Band)
Released March 23, 2018
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nx38eCVjgQjYVjhUmM7NjLiF2ztIiw-gE
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About:
A project that bears the essence of a dream come true for CAM JAZZ took shape during a prodigious one-week recording session in Cologne in December 2016. Two stars of international jazz, an amazing orchestra, a truly fresh repertoire and outstanding arrangements developed for a unique event to take place: the meeting of Antonio Sanchez on drums, Vince Mendoza as conductor and arranger and the WDR Big Band. Two invaluable CDs packed with everything you may dream (take care: not everything you “may expect”, but you may dream) when you are about to listen to such a stellar Big Band that is conducted by a genius like Mendoza and plays music by an undisputed giant like Sanchez. Here you can find an extensive, versatile wind section, flawless rhythmics that gives a crucial thrust to creativity, and refined, flowing tracks with an exquisite balance of poignancy and formal exactness. Listening to Channels Of Energy is a unique opportunity to plunge into the most genuine, fully-fledged and exciting jazz: eight tracks that range freely through different sonic worlds in an alternation of fine solos, engaging interactions among the orchestra sections, highly inspiring backgrounds and sophisticated dynamics. Antonio Sanchez plays his drums like an orchestra. Vince Mendoza masters his orchestra as if it were a single instrument. The WDR Big Band orchestra interacts with the drums and conductor as if they were a single musician, passing through the excellent arrangements with elegant confidence. Antonio Sanchez, Vince Mendoza and the WDR Big Band form a trio. Channels of Energy is played by a trio, a trio to the nth degree, a recording of impressive, exquisite beauty that leaves listeners breathless.
Track Listing:
Disc 1
1. Minotauro 8:43
2. Nooks And Crannies 9:21
3. Nighttime Story 8:04
4. The Real McDaddy 10:26
Disc 2
1. New Life 11:00
2. Grids And Patterns 10:04
3. Imaginary Lines 9:35
4. Channels Of Energy 14:15
Personnel:
Antonio Sanchez: drums
WDR Big Band
Vince Mendoza: arranger, conductor
Johan Hörlen, Karolina Strassmayer, Pascal Bartoszak: alto saxophone
Olivier Peters, Paul Heller: tenor saxophone
Jens Neufang: baritone saxophone
Wim Both, Rob Bruynen, Andy Haderer, Ruud Breuls, John Marshall, Tom Walsh, Rüdiger Baldauf, Lorenzo Ludemann, Martin Reuthner, Jan Schneider: trumpet
Ludwig Nuss, Shannon Barnett, Andy Hunter: trombone
Mattis Cederberg: bass trombone
Omer Klein: piano
Paul Shigihara: guitar
John Goldsby: bass
Recorded 5 – 10 December 2016 at Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln – Studio 4, Cologne (Germany)
Recording Producer/Mixing: Christian Schmitt
Recording Engineer/Mixing: Reinhold Nickel
Photos by Elisa Caldana
Review:
Longtime Pat Metheny drummer Antonio Sanchez, who wrote the all-percussion soundtrack for the 2014 film Birdman, teams up with arranger and conductor Vince Mendoza for a dazzling outing alongside Germany’s crackerjack WDR Big Band. The tunes come from Sanchez’s previous albums New Life (2013), Three Times Three (2015) and The Meridian Suite (2015), but Mendoza enlivens and colorizes them with masterful voicings, catchy counter-lines and patient, emotional builds that occasionally recall Maria Schneider’s work. Playing his kit like an orchestra and writing for the orchestra like it was a giant drum kit, Sanchez develops asymmetrical, percussive ideas with fluid intelligence, ranging through hypnotic repetitions, punchy swing, dreamy musings and even the free-jazz episode from Meridian’s “Magnetic Currents” (merged here with the title track).
Joyous details abound, including the ear-tickling bass trombone/muted trumpet timbre on “Nooks And Crannies,” Paul Shigihara’s poignantly countrified electric guitar on “Nighttime Story,” Paul Heller’s soulful tenor saxophone on “New Life” and Sanchez’s painterly drum solo on the final cut, which twists attractively into tough, dissonant bitonality.
On other albums, Sanchez’s jazz-rock feel sometimes can edge toward tightness. Mendoza and the WDR Big Band keep him loose and bring out a flood of emotion.
Paul de Barros (DownBeat)
