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First of all, if you're not into technical musical performance, get out of here!
For those who chose to keep on, know that this thread will be about jazz music. Say what you want about jazz, it is an art form often based on musical prowess and "athletic" performance of musicians. Needless to say, Jazz musicians are among the best at their instrument and have no rivals in any other kind of music. Without further ado, I must introduce you to one of the greatest drummer of all time, Antonio Sanchez. If you have never heard of him before, don't panic: he's notorious into the jazz world but pretty much unknown to the mainstream.
Antonio Sanchez doing what he does best.
His big break came two years ago when he was asked by Alejandro Gonzales Iñarritu to compose and play a "drum-only" soundtrack for his movie "Birdman". It won the Sound Stars Award for best Film Score at the 2014 Venice Film Festival and got nominated for the 2014 Hollywood Music in Media Awards for best original Film Score. If you have seen Birdman, it is an unconventional movie and the soundtrack is unique and hard to grasp. It makes the movie what it is, a hidden masterpiece.
Now, my story with Antonio Sanchez is peculiar. It dates back to 2004 when I went to see a Jazz performance. The show was in a Montreal resto-bar called "The Upstairs", one of the most well-known Jazz venue in Montreal. We were not going to see Antonio Sanchez, we were going to see Ben Monder, a Jazz guitarist who happens to be my friend's guitar teacher. Monder doesn't come to Montreal often so we saw pretty much every single one of his shows from 2002 to 2016. That time, there was a strange name on the billboard: Antonio Sanchez on drums...
This is not Cain Velasquez on guitar, this is Ben Monder...
First came the laughs: "Ah, Antonio Sanchez, they must have hired him from Mexico to save money!" But my friend knew better: "don't talk too fast, this guy drums with Pat Metheny on a regular basis." It got us intrigued so we proceeded to our assigned table. Lucky for us, we reserved a table early and the manager knew us so he placed us right in front of the stage. As a matter of fact, we were on "stage left" side, right beside the drums. If I wanted to, I could reach and touch the hi-hat, just to tell you how close we were.
So the show began. My first complain was that from where we were, I couldn't see the guitarist very good. In fact, he was hidden behind the 16 pieces drumkit. It didn't take long for me to forget about the obstructed view: when Antonio Sanchez rushed into him first solo, my head exploded. I was not prepared to see such skills: not only was he the fastest drummer I had ever seen but he was creative and artistic, very rare traits for a drummer. For example, he would play on his snare with a reversed stance and hit the hi-hat with the other side of his stick. Follow me here, his stick is still hitting the snare with the "pointy" end but he uses the rebound to make the other end hit the hi-hat. That is just one if his unique technique.
The infamous "two-pedals" solo.
He also likes to put two pedals one beside the other. He can then switch from one to the other: the first one controls the hi-hat, the second one controls a cowbell. He would use these two in a combined motion to further enhance his sound. Needless to say, he's very hard to follow. It's not by luck that he's Pat Metheny's main drummer since 2000: he has appeared on 8 albums, 3 of which were awarded a Grammy. If you have any idea who Pat Metheny is, then you know he's not only known for his musical skills, he's considered a musical genius. He experimented with pretty much every musical approach from Jazz to New Age with various incursions into World music and Latin Jazz.
Guitarist Pat Metheny with drummer Antonio Sanchez and saxophonist Chris Potter.
I could go on and talk about this guy for hours. His impact on the way I listen to music is immense. From as long as I can remember, I was always a big fan of drums. One of my favorite band of all time is Canadian power trio Rush, a band known to rely on one of the best drummer in the world. I'm also a big fan of Tool and I used to like Primus before they changed their ways. All these band rely on powerful, technical drumming but none of them even come close to the drum mastery of Antonio Sanchez.
If you want to know more, I will include some links and a lot of videos. Feel free to browse among them: some are easy to listen, others are harder but much more rewarding in the end. Remember, this is an artistic jazz drummer: don't expect double-bass solos and stuff that will blow you away in 10 seconds. You must listen, watch, let it sound, listen again then re-watch to be fully able to appreciate the magnificent drumming skills of Antonio Sanchez!
http://www.antoniosanchez.net/news.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Sánchez_(drummer)
11 minutes drum solo back in 2003
7 minutes drum solo back in 2002
10 minutes drum solo, date and venue unknown.
For those who chose to keep on, know that this thread will be about jazz music. Say what you want about jazz, it is an art form often based on musical prowess and "athletic" performance of musicians. Needless to say, Jazz musicians are among the best at their instrument and have no rivals in any other kind of music. Without further ado, I must introduce you to one of the greatest drummer of all time, Antonio Sanchez. If you have never heard of him before, don't panic: he's notorious into the jazz world but pretty much unknown to the mainstream.
Antonio Sanchez doing what he does best.
His big break came two years ago when he was asked by Alejandro Gonzales Iñarritu to compose and play a "drum-only" soundtrack for his movie "Birdman". It won the Sound Stars Award for best Film Score at the 2014 Venice Film Festival and got nominated for the 2014 Hollywood Music in Media Awards for best original Film Score. If you have seen Birdman, it is an unconventional movie and the soundtrack is unique and hard to grasp. It makes the movie what it is, a hidden masterpiece.
Now, my story with Antonio Sanchez is peculiar. It dates back to 2004 when I went to see a Jazz performance. The show was in a Montreal resto-bar called "The Upstairs", one of the most well-known Jazz venue in Montreal. We were not going to see Antonio Sanchez, we were going to see Ben Monder, a Jazz guitarist who happens to be my friend's guitar teacher. Monder doesn't come to Montreal often so we saw pretty much every single one of his shows from 2002 to 2016. That time, there was a strange name on the billboard: Antonio Sanchez on drums...
This is not Cain Velasquez on guitar, this is Ben Monder...
First came the laughs: "Ah, Antonio Sanchez, they must have hired him from Mexico to save money!" But my friend knew better: "don't talk too fast, this guy drums with Pat Metheny on a regular basis." It got us intrigued so we proceeded to our assigned table. Lucky for us, we reserved a table early and the manager knew us so he placed us right in front of the stage. As a matter of fact, we were on "stage left" side, right beside the drums. If I wanted to, I could reach and touch the hi-hat, just to tell you how close we were.
So the show began. My first complain was that from where we were, I couldn't see the guitarist very good. In fact, he was hidden behind the 16 pieces drumkit. It didn't take long for me to forget about the obstructed view: when Antonio Sanchez rushed into him first solo, my head exploded. I was not prepared to see such skills: not only was he the fastest drummer I had ever seen but he was creative and artistic, very rare traits for a drummer. For example, he would play on his snare with a reversed stance and hit the hi-hat with the other side of his stick. Follow me here, his stick is still hitting the snare with the "pointy" end but he uses the rebound to make the other end hit the hi-hat. That is just one if his unique technique.
The infamous "two-pedals" solo.
He also likes to put two pedals one beside the other. He can then switch from one to the other: the first one controls the hi-hat, the second one controls a cowbell. He would use these two in a combined motion to further enhance his sound. Needless to say, he's very hard to follow. It's not by luck that he's Pat Metheny's main drummer since 2000: he has appeared on 8 albums, 3 of which were awarded a Grammy. If you have any idea who Pat Metheny is, then you know he's not only known for his musical skills, he's considered a musical genius. He experimented with pretty much every musical approach from Jazz to New Age with various incursions into World music and Latin Jazz.
Guitarist Pat Metheny with drummer Antonio Sanchez and saxophonist Chris Potter.
I could go on and talk about this guy for hours. His impact on the way I listen to music is immense. From as long as I can remember, I was always a big fan of drums. One of my favorite band of all time is Canadian power trio Rush, a band known to rely on one of the best drummer in the world. I'm also a big fan of Tool and I used to like Primus before they changed their ways. All these band rely on powerful, technical drumming but none of them even come close to the drum mastery of Antonio Sanchez.
If you want to know more, I will include some links and a lot of videos. Feel free to browse among them: some are easy to listen, others are harder but much more rewarding in the end. Remember, this is an artistic jazz drummer: don't expect double-bass solos and stuff that will blow you away in 10 seconds. You must listen, watch, let it sound, listen again then re-watch to be fully able to appreciate the magnificent drumming skills of Antonio Sanchez!
http://www.antoniosanchez.net/news.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Sánchez_(drummer)
11 minutes drum solo back in 2003
7 minutes drum solo back in 2002
10 minutes drum solo, date and venue unknown.
