Melaza

Melaza

The sparkling Puerto Rican saxist David Sanchez wields a saxophone style to rival that of any modern player, but he deserves attention for reasons having little to do with technique. Utterly comfortable with both hard-bop jazz and the Afro-Latin rhythms of the Caribbean, Sanchez--like Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandoval (two of his first employers) and pianist Danilo Perez (a frequent collaborator)--blends the two traditions like a musical Cuisinart. What's more, with each album he digs deeper in exploring not only his roots, but also this panoramic fusion. On the Grammy-nominated <i>Obsesión</i>, Sanchez engaged a string orchestra for a program of material by Latin and South American composers. On <I>Melaza</I>, he concentrates on the broad range of folkloric rhythms of Puerto Rico, using them to energize new jazz compositions and thus introducing such beats as the bomba and the plaintive plena.<p> The name of the album refers to the sociopolitical history of Puerto Rico and its African immigrants. <I>Melaza</I> in English means "molasses," and Sanchez means to draw analogies between black workers' efforts in harvesting sugar cane and the process of making music: in both cases, he writes, "you work very hard and sacrifice a lot for something that surprises you as a sweet, rich result." That imagery applies splendidly to this, the most exciting of the five albums under his name--and thus the most faithful to his inspiring live performances. Much of the magic results from the addition of a second horn, a piquant alto saxist going by the name Zenon, which allows Sanchez to expand the harmonies and colors of his compositions. The second horn also provides a different voice behind which Sanchez's scintillating rhythm section (starring longtime associates Edsel Gomez on piano and Adam Cruz on drums) can rally in accompaniment. The album also attests to a growing finesse on the part of producer Branford Marsalis, who guests on a couple of tracks but mainly has contented himself with keeping the entire project on target. Together, he and Sanchez prove that <I>Melaza</I> is not just for dessert anymore. <I>--Neil Tesser</I>