Pianist/composer Marta Sanchez turned pandemic lockdowns into deep self-encounters whose complex, emotional, and bittersweet reckonings she offers up in her latest release, SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum).
Marta Sanchez
SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) (Whirlwind Records)
A review
It was tenor saxophonist Roman Filiú’s name that caught my eye when Spanish American Art Museum, the latest release from pianist/composer Marta Sanchez, came across my desk. I’m always happy to encounter Filiú, a player of great sensitivity and fluidity, with terrific improvisational instincts. So I dipped into the new album from Sanchez, a native of Madrid, Spain, whom I had not previously heard.
Let me just say, “Thanks, Roman.”
The album features a quintet of highly sensitive, technically accomplished musicians who are musically compatible, both with each other and with Sanchez’s compositions. In addition to Sanchez and Filiú, we have Alex LoRe (alto sax), Rashaan Carter (bass), and Allan Mednard (drums). On one track, the saxes are replaced by Camila Meza (vocal and guitar) and Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), with the addition of Charlotte Greve (synths).
The music—brainy, emotional, energetic—will not yield its treasures to cursory attention. It requires the listener’s active participation and will reward repeated listenings. Deeply felt and complex, the compositions took shape during the course of the pandemic lockdowns, which Sanchez used to take stock of what is important in her life. They reflect her weaknesses and strengths, her aspirations and her losses.
Sanchez understands that feelings are not monolithic, but multidimensional, and her compositions tease out those dimensions, which can ring sympathetically or clash with one another. So, for example, in the opener, “The Unconquered Vulnerable Areas,” she reveals not only her vulnerability, but also her fear of and fascination with it, and her impatience with herself for her inability to overcome personal weaknesses. Those dimensions come through in bold, detailed compositions that often feature the two saxes in counterpoint over an expressive rhythm section supporting and commenting on the twined lines. The thoughtful, complex, and sensitive play of her colleagues give full voice to her reflections.
Highlights are plentiful. “Dear Worthiness,” which opens with the saxes fluttering like leaves on a tree, offers complex improvisations from Sanchez, Filiú, and LoRe. “The Eternal Stillness” opens with a compelling bass solo and offers Sanchez’s limber lines in her solo. “If You Could Create It” rides a special rhythmic energy, and “When Dreaming Is the Only” opens with a single pounding note on the piano, which recurs at the end, and gives voice to cabin fever and determination. “Marivi,” with Meza and Akinmusire, offers a tribute to Sanchez’s mother, who passed away during the lockdown, and “December 11th,” the date of her passing, with its tolling piano under the saxes, attempts to absorb the void.
Intelligent and heartfelt, Spanish American Art Museum voices a compelling composer, pianist, and bandleader.
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© 2022 Mel Minter