Christian Sands: Embracing Dawn

Way back in the mottled history of the 1950s and '60s, record biz guys in sharkskin might kick down a DJ's door and bark: "You gotta to hear this single!"

But who truly listens to and what exactly is a single these days? Add in the disturbing though elusive truth that any single can take any physical or temporal shape and the evidence just points to one thing: First impressions have doomed many a pundit.

If that fortune cookie rumination were not gospel this whole review would have called pianist Christian Sands to the carpet for being too pretty for a talented guy like him. Too much center lane: The pretty but predictable "Serenade of An Angel." The dreamy though usual "Good Morning Heartbreak" wherein Sands—accompanied by vibraphonist Warren Wolf—comes on all suave and Lawrence Welk-like. Consider the sweetly tumescent "Divergent Journeys," the schmaltzy title track, and the neo-classical aires that engulf "Braises de Requiem I (The Embers Requiem, Mov. I)" and Embracing Dawn gets a little too borderline for comfort.

On the flip side is the fierce and blisteringly good single, "MMC" (or "Mom's Mac n Cheese")." The down-home funk of "Thought Bubbles II (Do Not Disturb)," the dynamite keg dynamics of "Ain't That the Same." It becomes a sheer joy to hear Sands, guitarist Marvin Sewell (Greg Osby, George Benson), bassist Yasushi Nakamura and Sands' little brother, Ryan Sands, rip and riff royally to their hearts' content. It is as uplifting as all hell. So too is the hushed, deceptive blues informing "Thought Bubbles I (Can We Talk?)," as Sands, Nakamura and little brother go back to trio with late night, early bayou morning written all over them.

Embracing Dawn is a schizo affair. But what else can one expect from heartbreak? (Sands calls it his break-up record.) Keeping in mind that—as one person in the former party of two goes one way and the other the other—the album could have rightfully been entitled "Divergent Journeys." That may have been truer to the emotional point. Because when Embracing Dawn is great, it is just that. But when it gets gooey it gets real gooey. Like heartbreak. Like anything undeniably human.