Angelica Sanchez Nonet - Nighttime Creatures

October 23, 2023

Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2023

Personnel - Angelica Sanchez: piano; Michael Attias: alto sax; Ben Goldberg: contra-alto bass clarinet; Chris Speed: tenor sax, clarinet; Thomas Heberer: quarter-tone trumpet; Kenny Warren: cornet; Omar Tamez: guitar; John Hébert: bass; Sam Ospovat: drums.

Fascinated by the darkness of the woods, the creatures that inhabit it, and the occasional moonshine from which it borrows some light, pianist and composer Angelica Sanchez presents new compositions that took her six years to write and arrange. Here, she forges ahead in the acoustic nonet setting with a consistency and quality that is visible throughout. Nighttime Creatures is a testament to her strong musical relationship with the musicians that follow her and her art of composing for a large ensemble, all the while leaving space for individual improvisation. Who wouldn’t do that with a band that incorporates top improvisers such as altoist Michael Attias, tenorist Chris Speed, and clarinetist Ben Goldberg?

The title track opens the recording with a strategic balance between highly articulated counterpoint and synchronization. The relaxed narrative is filled with stargazing melodies, mysterious atmospheric suggestions, and firm harmonic sequences that galvanize Goldberg for a delicious contra-alto bass clarinet solo. He’s followed by Attias, whose agile language invites trumpeter Thomas Heberer for an impromptu chat.

“Cloud House” begins with Speed’s tenor lines and later incorporates unimposing piano remarks and the confident bass notes of John Hébert as support. The atmosphere is entrenched with both metaphor and lucidity, and the music becomes sultry at different junctures, just to be steamed up by a tone-defiant solo by Goldberg before ending in radiant orchestral lusciousness. “Land Here” brings in more angularity, passing through a crescendo before landing safely, while “Astral Light of Alarid”, written for Sanchez’s late father, waltzes and explores other rhythms with feeling, sometimes with Latin traces. The pianist delivers a fine statement infused with glaring motifs on this one.

Showcasing the influence of and admiration for pianist Carla Bley, “C.B. The Time Traveler” is set in motion with a lazy flow that gives it a melancholy tone. This rhythmically interesting effort mutates along the way, offering a fluid, slightly funkified groove, concurrent improvs by Goldberg and guitarist Omar Tamez, and accelerations for a bustling finale packed with melodic intersections. Also influenced by Bley’s concept of chronotransduction, is “Wrong Door For Rocket Fuel”, whose tones reminded me of those of the Pink Panther theme but with cross-cutting phrases layering melodic movements like lapping waves.

Admirably and sumptuously arranged, Duke Ellington’s “Lady of the Lavender Mist” contains wonderful movements and solos that can captivate most straight-ahead jazz listeners. The record concludes with “Run”, a rampant association of exuberant sounds that brought to mind Mingus’ swinging fun pieces, all with just enough avant-garde jazz push to make them special.

Making us hypnotized and alert at the same time, this album is a great place to start if you’re not familiar with Sanchez’s music as it represents a big, beautiful picture of what she can do.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Nighttime Creatures ► 02 - C.B. The Time Traveler ► 11 - Run

Angelica Sanchez & Marilyn Crispell - How to Turn the Moon

October 1, 2020

Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2020

Personnel - Angelica Sanchez: piano; Marilyn Crispell: piano.

Angelica Sanchez and Marilyn Crispell, two powerful pianists and disciples of the spontaneous jazz, join forces for the first time on record. How To Turn the Moon features 10 tracks - seven short-form compositions by Sanchez, who penned them to be expanded in conjunction with Crispell, her former mentor, and three impromptu moments filled with synergistic stimulation and deep musical understanding.

The opener, “Lobe of the Fly”, accommodates both parallel and contrapuntal segments, evolving into a four-hand improvisational romp filled with chromatic developments and swift configurations that interlace splendidly. The piece was named for the intricate drawings of an optic lobe of a fly by Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Neuroscience was also at the base of “Calyces of Held”, whose profound introductory reflection by Sanchez falls into a nuanced arpeggiated ostinato that serves as a foil to Crispell’s harmonic dissonances and unbounded melody. An understated tension is engraved on the prevailing calmness, and a different rhythmic figure populates the final section, dissolving gradually as it is reshaped to merge with the its counterpart.

The lugubrious, well-aligned riff professed at the end of “Ceiba Portal” lingers in the mind. This piece consents convergence, but also shows off the staggering polyrhythmic adventurism of the pianists, whose circularity and interaction almost suggest a telepathic sort of connection. This is also confirmed with a trio of free improvisations - “Space Junk”, “Windfall Light” and “Rain in Web”, with the latter being the most luxuriant of them all in terms of action-reaction dynamics.

Ingenious piano layers combine on the concluding “Fires in Space” for a terrifically rhythmic effect. Under Crispell’s firmly locked balletic pulse, Sanchez’s phrasing comes in the form of strong melodic ideas and animated swoops with fair doses of abstraction.

Standing tonally apart from the rest, “Ancient Dream” provides far-ranging and detailed resonances that come from the inside of the pianos. Extended techniques with percussive purposes, silences and investigative prepared pianos create an idiosyncratic atmosphere that veers into a well-tempered classical intonation by the end.

Employing their unerring directness and showing an effortless proficiency to create in the moment, Sanchez and Crispell draw forth a range of intriguing sounds that populate this teamwork environment.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Lobe of the Fly ► 05 - Ceiba Portal ► 09 - Rain in Web

Angelica Sanchez Trio - Float the Edge

March 23, 2017

Angelica Sanchez: piano; Michael Formanek: bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums.

As a natural sound explorer, avant-garde jazz pianist Angelica Sanchez couldn’t have found a better company for her intents than bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, two passionate and constantly in-demand adventurers from different generations that form a powerful and pliable foundation.

Float the Edge comprises only originals and was released on Clean Feed Records, a label that has been serving as recipient for the pianist’s latest artistic creations.

“Shapishico”, a mythical creature of the Amazonian jungle, is painted here with fine strokes of modernity instead of any ominous or mysterious sound portraiture. Tension and delicacy coexist in Sanchez’s ruminative prowls, triggering instinctive reactions in her associates, who swing along with plenty of freedom. It’s a gripping opening at the minimum.

In the title track, Sanchez scatters harmonics and knotty phrases over the dense texture weaved by Formanek’s buzzing arco and Sorey’s unflinching percussive craftsmanship.

The lucid “Hypnagogia” tries to step on the threshold of consciousness by setting up a watchful scenario composed of intriguing piano voicings, gliding bass gravitations, and elongate sounds of brushed cymbals to maintain us alert.

“What the Birds Tell Me” boasts a solo piano intro that’s simultaneously dreamy, mystifying, and contemplative in its conception. This floating ambiance is maintained, even after Formanek and Sorey add some more textural layers.

Inspired by the 1979 science fiction novel Shikasta by Doris Lessing, “Sowf (Substance of We Feeling)” is an elastic piece whose bass intro lands on a simple-yet-effective groove that is immediately enhanced by Sorey’s brilliant brushwork. With Sanchez’s brisk lines, the tune acquires a steaming pulse that doesn’t last too long. Step by step, the trio seamlessly changes direction, anchoring this time in a swinging groove that materializes with a fun boppish feel and rhythmic figures atop.

Moved by audacity and colored by a wise sense of action-reaction, “The Traveler” and “Black Flutter” flourish with extemporaneous interactions full of energy and inventiveness. The former seems an acerbic variation of “Caravan”, inviting us to a blind dance of pure astonishment; the latter, closes the album resorting to Coltrane’s epic tones.

Float the Edge spills thrills, overflowing with a spectral expressionism that is more enchanting than rebellious.
This music is filled with beautiful moments of clarity and open-ended dialogue. Listeners with avid ears will want to keep an eye on the following moves of Angelica Sanchez Trio.

Label: Clean Feed, 2017
Favorite Tracks:
04 – Sowf ► 07 – The Traveler ► 08 – Black Flutter