Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Angelica Sanchez: Sparkle Beings

7

Angelica Sanchez: Sparkle Beings

By

View read count
Angelica Sanchez: Sparkle Beings
A famous philosopher once said "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." This is something of a problem for a reviewer. If the music is stunning—unexpectedly so—then the logical thing is to simply write that. But then it is possible to end up end up well out of one's depth.

If the rhythm section is Billy Hart and Michael Formanek, well, things simply get better as you go on from there. Angelica Sanchez is a pianist of great depth and imagination and deserving of the superlatives that are sometimes carelessly tossed around in reviews. For anyone whose taste runs to both Ravel and Carl Ruggles, this recording may give cause for pause. In a good way. About matters of technique and the like it is best to defer to a pianist. But the recording overall is simply beautiful and will repay (and withstand) repeated listenings.

Some of Mary Lou Williams' later work may not be as familiar as, say "Roll Em," and really verges on the avant-garde. "A Fungus Amungus" is one of those things. Sánchez really stretches out, from the dissonant introduction to a sly swinging interlude of Hart and Formanek which somehow resonates with Wayne Shorter's "Witch Hunt" and then on to a repeated, choppy figure in an odd meter. "Generational Bonds" features Hart's subtle brushwork as the piano gently meanders along and eases into four— the shifting rhythms make sense as improvised. Sanchez does like repeated figures, but as stable anchors before she goes elsewhere, including a blues lick or two. "Sparkly Beings" almost opens with an audible sigh. It is music for seeing spirits, literally. It may be a tad ornate and mannered, but this is, after all, risk-taking, improvised music. Here Sánchez and Formanek start a figured trade into an open form and start pushing back into four once more, maybe halfway through. They end up there too. All part of the chase.

Do not be deceived. This is not some kind of lost-in-the-woods Mexican abstract music, references to the volcanos Popo and Izta ("A Sleeping Lady and the Giant that Watches Over Her")or "Preludios" notwithstanding. It is challenging modernist music, and superbly listenable as well.

Track Listing

A Fungus Amungus; Generational Bonds; With (Exit); Phantasmic Friend; Preludio a un Preludio; Sparkly Beings; Sleeping Lady and the Giant that Watches Over Her.

Personnel

Album information

Title: Sparkle Beings | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Sunnyside Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.