Lasting Impression Brandon Sanders

• 1 8/4 Beat 07:23
• 2 Lasting Impression 04:23
• 3 Our Love Is Here to Stay 06:21
• 4 Shadoboxing 06:19
• 5 Tales of Mississippi 04:45
• 6 Soul Eyes 06:00
• 7 No BS for B.S. 05:52
• 8 Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do) 04:20
• Total Runtime 45:23

Info zu Lasting Impression

Brandon Sanders returns to Savant Records, and his new recording is something to get excited about. After turning critics' heads with two previous recordings, Brandon is stepping it up with his new project that's all energy and heart. Part of the buzz comes from the stellar lineup. Joining the session is pianist Eric Scott Reed, certainly a name that carries serious weight in jazz today. Reed is one of those rare players who can make any ensemble shine, and his chemistry with Brandon is remarkable, to say the least. Also on hand is Jazzmeia Horn, the Grammy-nominated vocalist with the voice that's been compared to Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan. Joining forces with Sanders once again, she's featured on two tracks, and her singular style-which combines the timeless with the futuristic-brings a whole other dimension to the music.

With music by the Gershwins, Mal Waldron, Eric Scott Reed and the leader himself, this is more than just another album-it's the sound of Brandon Sanders coming into full focus. The entire album is rooted in tradition, shaped by experience, and voiced with a clarity that marks him as an important presence on the US jazz scene.

Brandon Sanders, drums
Jazzmeia Horn, vocals (tracks 3, 8)
Eric Scott Reed, piano (tracks 1-7)
Stacy Dillard, tenor saxophone
Warren Wolf, vibraphone
Eric Wheeler, bass (tracks 1-7)
Ameen Saleem, bass (track 8)
Tyler Bullock, piano (track 8)

Brandon Sanders
As far as drummer Brandon Sanders is concerned, everyone should have a grandmother who runs a jazz club. It was at the Casablanca, his grandmother’s boite in Kansas City, that he was first exposed to the music that changed his life. During summer visits from his home in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s through the late ’80s, young Brandon not only encountered the music of such greats as Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, and Lou Donaldson, he also learned about their lives from the stories his grandma told him.

At 52, Sanders may be long removed from those formative days, but on his splendid debut album, Compton’s Finest, the influence of his grandmother, Ernestine Parker, can be detected in his stylistic foray into bop tradition and his ease with iconic tunes like “Body and Soul” and “Monk’s Dream.” The album may be the work of a late bloomer, but its emotional depth is the mark of a seasoned veteran.

The recording, which features vibraphone great Warren Wolf and young singing star Jazzmeia Horn, also draws from Sanders’s parallel career as a social worker. “It’s about trying to lift people’s spirits,” he says. “That’s what I try to do as a social worker. It’s about making sure that people leave feeling different than when they came in.”

With his understated, whispery light touch on the drums, Sanders breathes fresh life into the standards, which also include “In a Sentimental Mood” and “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise.” And with a strong band including tenor saxophonist Chris Lewis, pianist Keith Brown, and bassist Eric Wheeler, the drummer shifts into a pop mode on the Michael Jackson hit “I Can’t Help It,” which, with Horn at her most alluring, boasts an Earth, Wind and Fire vibe.

Compton’s Finest, named for the town in which Sanders came of age, includes two original tunes by him. The bluesy title track reveals his deep streak of humanism in striving to rescue the image of Compton from its portrayal in films and rap songs. “When people think of Compton, they think negative thoughts, right?” he says. “I wanted to show that there is a positivity in Compton, that people have come out of there and done positive things.”

His other original, “SJB,” a cheery, Horace Silver-style hard bop tune, pays homage to a friend whose perseverance through difficult times “inspired me to push through and make things happen, no matter how challenging the circumstances may have seemed.”

And then there's the band’s lovely, prancing treatment of the Kenny Barron classic, “Voyage,” one of Sanders’s favorite compositions, which speaks to his sense of flow. “I was a deejay when I was like 14 or 15 and ever since, my whole objective has been to get the listener to go from tune to tune, like, you know you can’t stop.”

“Brandon Sanders, a Harlem favorite, is a swinging drummer who always establishes a good feel for whatever group he’s playing with.” - Lewis Nash

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