Though Antonio Sanchez is best known as a jazz drummer, composer, and producer, those roles merely hint at the depths of his creative vision. In 2017, Sanchez released the solo Bad Hombre. Titled after a racially derogatory remark made by Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, the set offered intense sociopolitical critique. It was fueled by an individually developed approach to electronica while exploring various ways to play, record, and produce drums. The set earned a Grammy nomination in 2018. Five years ...
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Though Antonio Sanchez is best known as a jazz drummer, composer, and producer, those roles merely hint at the depths of his creative vision. In 2017, Sanchez released the solo Bad Hombre. Titled after a racially derogatory remark made by Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, the set offered intense sociopolitical critique. It was fueled by an individually developed approach to electronica while exploring various ways to play, record, and produce drums. The set earned a Grammy nomination in 2018. Five years and several releases later, Shift (Bad Hombre, Vol. 2) showcases Sanchez as a drummer and producer, but also as a conceptualist and multi-instrumentalist, in a series of cross-cultural collaborations with a dazzling, star-studded cast. His concept features drums and voices as equals as a grand experiment in texture, yet he also plays guitars, basses, synth, oud, ukulele, and mandolin. The guest list includes his 97-year-old grandfather, Mexican actor Ignacio López Tarso, Dave Matthews and Pat Metheny, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Ana Tijoux, Lila Downs, Meshell Ndegeocello, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Silvana Estrada, Becca Stevens, Portugal's Maro, Kimbra, and Croatian-American vocalist Thana Alexa, among others.Shift was mostly recorded remotely during the pandemic. Sanchez took advantage of quarantine to enlist his busy collaborators. As on the first volume, Tarso, his nonagenarian grandfather, bookends the set with spoken word above intensely layered sound collages combining mariachi, processional, and sporting event music. Former boss Pat Metheny and songwriter Dave Matthews participate in a futuristic read of the latter's "Eh Hee" (here retitled "2.0") joining clattering beats, zigzagging synths, samplers, and distortion. Matthews' chanting and singing engage both Sanchez's freaky basslines and Metheny's squalling polytonal guitar. Single "Mi Palabra" weds a slow, rubbery hip-hop beat with Tijoux's silvery, polyrhythmic rapping, as horns, ambient sounds, and synth bass frame her nocturnal delivery. "The Bucket" features Brooklyn-based vocalist/songwriter Becca Stevens, whose ethereal singing contrasts with and accents Sanchez's cascading layers of drums, cymbals, piano, and reverb in what amounts to a cinematic hymn. He plays all instruments but synth on "I Think We're Past That Now," which is played by Ross with lyrics and vocals from Reznor. With additional mixing from Alan Moulder, it sounds like a deeply paranoid, unissued NiN track. "Risa de Mujer," with Downs, has slow, tribal drumming and moody synths that accentuate her entrancing, resonant vocal. "Comet, Come to Me" offers a new take on the title track to Ndegeocello's 14th album, wedding dub basslines, Latin and Caribbean rhythms, and noir-ish funk under her dreamy, poignant vocal. "M-Power," with Rodrigo y Gabriela, stitches progressive and Latin rock, jazz fusion, and neo-classical with Sanchez's jagged electronica and triple-timed beats in a sonic tour de force. Ultimately, there is nothing remotely substandard among these 16 cuts. Material, performances, and production are all inspired, making Shift (Bad Hombre, Vol. 2) one of the most compelling, varied, and virtually unclassifiable releases to emerge thus far in 2022. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi
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