ALBERT SANZ
pianist,composer:
Albert Sanz is a very special musician. His spanish and
southamerican musical background mixed with his knowledge of
the afroamerican jazz tradition and the european classical tradition make him a unique,
lyrical and inventive voice on the piano.
As a composer Albert has the ability to make the old seem new.
Albert's sixth and latest recording as a leader is "O que será" (Unit Records),
a tribute to the great brasilian songwriters Chico Buarque and
Ivan Lins, and it features Miles Davis's drummer Al Foster and Javier
Colina on bass.
From his previous recordings, "Des d'aquí"( Satchmo Jazz) received the
award of best spanish jazz record of the year by "cuadernos de jazz" and
his big ensemble recording "El Fabulador" ( XàbiaJazz) was voted
second best spanish jazz record of the decade. His record "Kalifactors"(
Fresh Sound New Talent) was the climax after his studies on a full
scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston and his further
development in New York led him to record "Los Guys"( Fresh Sound
Records) with his own compositions played by Chris Cheek, Larry
Grenadier and Jeff Ballard live in NY.
As a composer "he seems to revel in the unexpected. His tunes move
in utterly delightful ways, with enough harmonic activity to
challenge the improviser and attractive melodies to pull in the
listeners"( all about jazz NY)
As an accompanist "Sanz seems happy to inhabit the shadows, to
provide others with the classiest support they could dream of:
delicate comping, consummate punctuation, sinuous counter-
melody" (Sebastian Scotney, Londonjazznews) .
He has toured and/or recorded with the bands of Kurt Rosenwinkel, Silvia
Perez Cruz & Javier Colina, Jorge Rossy, Guillermo Klein, Perico
Sambeat, Jorge Pardo and Antonio Serrano to name a few.
Albert was born in Valencia and grew up in a very musical family. He received
the Sgae "Tete Montoliu award" for the jazz revelation artist and the Turia
award as a musician of the year. He currently combines touring , with both his own and other artist's projects, and teaching .