Product Description

Migration is an album where Antonio Sanchez, one of today s most sought-after drummers, debuts as leader and calls on two contemporary jazz stars, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny, to participate. In fact, Sanchez has played in their groups for years. The album also features contributions by bassist Scott Colley, and saxmen Chris Potter and David Sanchez.
Migration is jazz at a highly energetic level, but at the same time rich with expressive overtones. The drummer shows real quality as a leader, guiding his band members along personal, multicoloured, trajectory sounds and to extract the very best from them. The heart of the album is represented by four tracks performed in quartet (Did You Get It?, Challenge Within, Greddy Silent and Inner Urge), where the two sax players, both on tenors, dominate the scene. In Sand, Pat Metheny s guitar is added to the base nucleus, in an arioso and lyrical composition that he wrote expressly for this recording. Ballade is reserved for trio with Potter, who proves himself a first-rate soloist even on soprano. Also performed
in trio is the opening track of the CD, One For Antonio, a homage to the drummer written by Chick Corea. The finale is instead entrusted to Sanchez and Metheny performing the famous notes of Solar by Miles Davis: the best way to conclude an album that from the beginning to the end doesn t show any slack in taste nor decrease in tension.

Track Listing

1. One for Antonio
2. Did You Get It?
3. Arena (Sand)
4. Challenge Within
5. Ballade
6. Greedy Silence
7. Inner Urge
8. Solar

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106103 in Music
• Released on: 2007-08-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Great debut
I love Antonio Sanchez's playing with the Pat Metheny Group. But, what really impresses me with his debut, is his ability to write tunes! It doesn't sound like a "drummer's album" or a typical album by a drummer. Not only are the tunes great, the musicianship is also. He has put together a great band that knows what to do with his tunes and take them to the next level. Antonio Sanchez contributes 4 tunes while Pat Metheny and Chick Corea each contribute a tune and there are 2 covers. Despite the fact that Chick only plays on one tune and Pat on two tunes, the album flows well - you don't really notice the change in the lineup. Great debut from a great drummer.

A drummer's solo debut
I have huge respect for Antonio Sanchez as a drummer. I've heard his work on a couple of projects, most notably the newer stuff from the Pat Metheny Group, and I've also seen him play live. He is truly incredible. I was very excited when I learned he was putting out a solo CD and I ordered it without hesitation.

The Chick Corea-penned opener "One For Antonio" is, as one would expect, a brilliant tune, as is the truly beautiful three-part Pat Metheny tune "Arena (Sand)", and even the Miles Davis classic "Solar" gets a decent workout here. The rest of the album however, comprises of the dry, drum, bass & sax trio stuff that just gives me migraines (although there are two saxes in this case, often playing together). David Sánchez and Chris Potter are rightly described on the inner-sleeve notes somewhere as "two of the best [current] tenor saxophonists in the world under 40" and I agree with that. They are two of my all-time favourites (and I also like bassist Scott Colley) but I just cannot get into what they've done here. It's all a lot of riffing over 'dum, dum, dum' basslines and little or no melodies that I could hear and grab a hold of, except maybe on "Challenge within", which I also quite like. It's also worth noting that Potter plays soprano saxophone on "Ballade", which is another good tune.

What I had no way of knowing until I had actually bought the CD was that Corea only plays on the one track he wrote and that Pat also only plays on two ("Arena" and "Solar"). If I had known this fact, I would probably have decided to leave the CD alone. I was hoping for an album of pure enjoyment. I didn't get it. Sanchez will no doubt go on to be a great bandleader in his own right but I'm more into people like Brian Blade and Peter Erskine at the moment.

But that's just me. Though I'm sure there are those who will be absolutely thrilled by what's on offer here, sadly, I'm not one of them. I was tempted to flog it on eBay but on consideration, decided to keep it due to the five tracks I've mentioned. Maybe the other three will grow on me in time.

I doubt it though.

Maybe too much sax
I have followed Pat Metheny and his bunch for a long time and my appreciation for them keeps growing. Antonio Sánchez might be the best "fusion" drummer I have heard (hard to say, for Weckl, Bruford and Peart, among a few others, are also superb). This record is great, especially Arena, penned by Metheny himself, with just about the pefect mix of vistuosity and feeling that creates great jazz (and music in general). My only complaint is that perhaps the two (great) sax players simply play too much, and thus create a bit of an assimetry that affects the overall balance.