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Christian Sands: Reach Further

By Mike Jurkovic
July 5, 2018
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With full gale Monk-ian intensity and flair, pianist

Christian Sands

piano
b.1989

" data-original-title="" title="">Christian Sands' five song EP, Reach Further bursts open with "J-Street" like the grandest, most swinging first flower in the new jazz garden. Then you hit repeat. Repeat again. Then you remember there are four more songs and the garden bursts with color.

Comprised of two brazen studio originals recorded for but left off 2017's seminal Reach and three utterly dynamic, immediate, and fun live tracks, recorded in March 2018 at L.A.'s Blue Whale Club, the EP serves to propel Sands' star ever upward through the growing, glowing universe of hotly progressive piano talent—

Emmet Cohen

piano
b.1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Emmet Cohen,

Cameron Graves

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Cameron Graves,

Victor Gould

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Victor Gould,

Theo Hill

piano
b.1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Theo Hill...

Yet, as memorable as the two studio tracks are—the aforementioned "J-Street" and the buzz-worthy "We See," recorded with bassist

Yasushi Nakamura

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Yasushi Nakamura and drummer

Marcus Baylor

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Marcus Baylor—it's the live tracks, once again employing Nakamura with drummer

Jerome Jennings

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Jerome Jennings, that take this recording to exciting new levels of piano trio interplay and spontaneity.

Recorded with urgent clarity, the tracks put the listener in the club hootin' n hollerin' while marveling at the intuitive malleability of "Reaching for the Sun," ??yeme!," and "Song of the Rainbow People," powerhouse songs from the mother album. Sands bends the music to suit his will, then lets go of the reins for Nakamura and Jennings to follow their own propulsively marvelous paths, without destroying the sheer uncomplicated, ecstatic joy of listening to three guys create with unbridled joy and an audience locked into their every funhouse turn. There is no turn of phrase or musical invention known that Sands, in his search for definition, well-crafted tunes, and their indispensable performances, does not dare one and all to follow, thereby packing as much excitement into these five tracks as most albums triple that length. Required listening.

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Track Listing

J Street; We See; Reaching for the Sun; ??yeme!; Song of the Rainbow People

Personnel

Christian Sands

piano

Christian Sands - piano; Yasushi Nakamura - bass; Marcus Baylor - drums; Jerome Jennings -drums

Album information

Title: Reach Further | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: Mack Avenue Records

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Christian Sands Concerts

Oct 5 Sun

Wildflowers: Kurt Elling with Christian Sands

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
Half Moon Bay, CA

Mar 12 Thu

Christian Sands

New Orleans Jazz Market
New Orleans, LA

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