Poncho Sanchez is no stranger to the tribute album. During the course of his nearly four-decades-long career, filled with legendary encounters and collaborations with some of his musical idols — jazz titans such as Cal Tjader, Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, Mongo Santamaria and Tito Puente — he’s released several of them. On his latest,
Trane’s Delight (Concord Picante), the master conguero honors his earliest jazz influence, John Coltrane. “He’s been one of my heroes since I was like 12-years-old,” Sanchez says.
After a seven-year recording hiatus, the Grammy-winning percussionist and his longstanding ensemble, the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band — trombonist and musical director Francisco Torres, trumpet and flugelhorn master Ron Blake, saxophonist Robert Hardt, pianist Andy Langham, bassists Rene Camacho and Ross Schodek, and percussionists Joey DeLeon and Giancarlo Anderson — have come out swinging with their usual energetic potency, with the bandleader conjuring the exhilarating rush he felt while listening to his first Coltrane album, 1962’s
Coltrane. “Man, when I put that needle on that record, I sat back with my mouth open going like, ‘Wow!’” Sanchez recalls. “It really threw me off because it was pretty heavy for a 12-year-old kid in eighth grade listening to something like that. It was an experience that stayed with me for the rest of my life.”
On
Trane’s Delight, within a Latin-jazz framework, Sanchez and his band reimagine three seminal Coltrane tunes, six standards associated with the late saxophonist — including “The Feeling of Jazz,” a Duke Ellington composition first recorded on 1963’s
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane — and two Sanchez/Torres originals that pay homage to Coltrane while showcasing the band’s wide range of influences. “I don’t credit myself as being a great songwriter,” Sanchez quips. “I only do it under pressure.”
Coltrane’s “Liberia” is played as a mambo, while “Blue Train” is set to the cadence of a
cha cha chá. “Giant Steps,” another signature Coltrane composition, swings, crackles and pops at a breakneck, rumba-like tempo. “Not everybody can play that tune,” Sanchez notes. “That’s rough stuff.”
For Sanchez, the time was right to tap into Coltrane’s inimitable spirit. “Coltrane means life,” he says. “His records sound like hope, like good things are happening to jazz, and to me and the world. It’s so positive, man.” —
Lissette Corsa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYOORQKXyzQ
