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SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum)

by Marta Sanchez

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    High quality, 180 gram, 12" 2x Gatefold LP (3 sides of music - A, B, C, + etched D side with Whirlwind logo mark) - comes with download code containing the digital album in multiple formats

    Includes unlimited streaming of SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $39 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    High quality, 6 panel digifile with a velvety soft-touch laminate finish

    Includes unlimited streaming of SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $14 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Comes with album artwork booklet PDF + album cover photo as a jpg
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

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about

PERSONNEL

Alex LoRe - alto saxophone
Roman Filiu - tenor saxophone
Marta Sanchez - piano
Rashaan Carter - bass
Allan Mednard - drums
Camila Meza - voice and guitar (5)
Ambrose Akinmusire - trumpet (5)
Charlotte Greve - synths (5)

ALBUM CREDITS

Recorded by Chris Allen at Sear Sound
(March 15/16, 2021)
Mixed by Dave Darlington
Mastered by Dave Darlington
Produced by Marta Sanchez
Executive Producer - Michael Janisch
Liner Notes - Michael Formanek
Photography by Kimberley M Wang
Graphic Design by Dave Bush

credits

released February 25, 2022

ABOUT THE ALBUM

Marta Sanchez’s creative voice is strikingly original – circling rhythms, elaborate forms and criss-crossing counterpoint distinguishes her sonic signature on the crowded New York contemporary music scene. Following three critically acclaimed quintet releases, the Madrid-born pianist-composer presents SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) on Whirlwind Recordings, an album driven by emotional candour and boundary-pushing compositions.

A talented cast realises her knotty, technical writing – frontline partners Alex Lore and Roman Filiu meet Sanchez, Rashaan Carter andAllan Mednard on backline duties.

SAAM riffs on the Smithsonian American Art Museum, on an album that’s an exhibition of Sanchez’s life in musical form: “It’s made up of all the elements of society from both countries [Spain and America] that impact my life and make me who I am.” Matters internal and external are realised in musical expositions of complex feelings. The pieces took shape in lockdown, as Sanchez exchanged fortnightly composition tasks with a pen- pal. “Those compositions express all the phases I was going through at that time. I was reflecting super deeply on what’s important, and how we might give some sense to life.”

Most of the album draws on those precisely realised emotions. The colouristic, texturally driven opener ‘The Unconquerable Areas’ describes parts of herself “that are still vulnerable. These weak parts of myself; even though I’ve been dealing with them for a long time, they’re still there.” Similarly reflective is ‘Dear Worthiness’, a “sad ballad that reflects on my self worth” – it features beautifully lithe melodies, but melancholy is never far away. ‘SAAM’ cuts through that smoothness, in a jagged, Schoenberg- inspired outburst full of intense feelings and dense clusters, built around an essential pain.

A different form of pain features in ‘The Eternal Stillness’ – mournful sighs and cries emanate from the saxophones, as layered textures shift underneath. Then something very different comes along – ‘Marivi’, featuring Ambrose Akinmusire and Camila Meza, offers a warm tribute to Sanchez’s mother, who died during lockdown. “I tell her things I could never tell her,” says Sanchez of the lyrics. “I loved my mum but it was really hard to tell her the deep things.”

‘If You Could Create It’ strikes a lighter tone, with cascading torrents of tenor sax sound, before ‘The Hard Balance’ offers reflection, both musically and personally – the track is finely balanced on an intricate polyrhythm, that reflects the difficulties of maintaining a work-life balance. ‘December 11th’ is the day Sanchez’s mother died, a personal tribute featuring an extended, heartfelt piano solo.

The album concludes with ‘When Dreaming is Only’, the most complex tune on the album; insistent piano rhythms and duelling saxophones give way to a band texture that’s bustling, brimming with energy. “Sometimes I just take the vibe, compose the atmosphere, and sometimes I focus on something super specific.” Sanchez’s ability to tap into emotional expression through detailed instrumental music is without parallel – this collage of moods and feelings is testament to that.

PRESS HIGHLIGHTS

"The harmonic complexity of the pianist’s compositions feel deceptively breezy when they’re anything but that."
The Quietus

"A fine pianist who is a particularly inventive arranger-composer... SAAM serves as an excellent introduction to her writing."
DownBeat Magazine

'the combination between rhythmic drive, the spontaneity of the soloists and the way each composition contributes to the overall album flow makes for a compelling performance."
★★★★ Jazzwise Magazine

"Powerful without ever being loud, Spanish and American as its title suggests, complicated in its construction but clear as can be in its emotional power. All the dualities resolve in the hands of an artist as fine as Marta Sanchez."
Pop Matters

"Ms. Sánchez’s music is accessible and lovely, yet built on stark contrasts. One rhythm rubs against another. Multiple melodies coexist. Gentle passages get interrupted by sudden crashes."
Wall Street Journal

"Sanchez expands her creativity both technically and thematically. A bold addition to Sanchez’s superb discography, the album is testament to her maturing musicianship."
Jazziz

"There’s a dreamlike quality to most of the music here. Not fairy tales, mind you—far from, in fact—but there’s a floating narrative in the way the music glides; it’s reminiscent of the way dreams rarely follow rigid sequences."
JazzTimes

"Ultimately, though, SAAM is about what happens when five musicians work as one. That’s when we hear the flourishing of Sánchez’s keenly personal ideas, that’s when her sophistication resounds in an almost breathtaking manner."
Lament For A Straight Line

"Full of tightly interlocking melodies and rhythms that spin and click like gears in a watch... Fantastic."
Stereogum

"Sanchez’s deeply thoughtful, insightful examinations explore what’s right there in front of us, instigating new discoveries. Ultimately, the winding path on which the pianist embarks is as exciting as the final destination."
Best Jazz on Bandcamp

"One of the most consistently satisfying bands in contemporary jazz — largely thanks to the well-ordered complexity and openhearted energy of Sánchez’s tunes, which blur the divide between lead melody and accompaniment, steady pulse and unruly drift."
New York Times

"This is a strong album whose music emanates inextricable feelings derived from a particularly intense time in the life of this gifted Spanish pianist."
JazzTrail

"Everything on SAAM exposes nerves, letting Sanchez signify what she means without artifice, even as she does so with the utmost taste and musicality. Jazz with heart indeed."
Big Takeover

"The music exists in the current mainstream vanguard of New York, where the technical astonishments, particularly the high-octane interplay, are hidden in plain sight behind a sleek, appealing melodic lustre."
The Quietus

"This is an album constructed in the old fashioned way, to tell a story, so there is narrative arc in which each track contributes to the whole."
★★★★ Jazzwise Magazine

“SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) is a poignant evocation of Sánchez' grief, as well as her bold, boundary-pushing musical identity.”
AllMusic

"In SAAM, she [Marta Sanchez] manages to combine that musical complexity with lyrics that go straight to the point."
Al Dia

"Exquisitely calibrated music."
WGBO

"A truly magnificent listening experience."
Goldmine

"Combines rigor and inventiveness with great sensitivity."
Zarbalib

"Marta Sanchez’s creative voice is strikingly original – circling rhythms, elaborate forms and criss-crossing counterpoint distinguishes her sonic signature on the crowded New York contemporary music scene."
Republic of Jazz

"It’s early in the year to be talking about the best jazz albums of 2022, but right now this is on the shortlist."
Lucid Culture

"It’s music of grave dignity and heartbreakingly sublimated emotion, a Zurburan painting brought to life."
John Chacona

"Detailed counterpoint, solo exchanges, and elaborate compositional structures... t's only when the material's carefully scrutinized that its intricacy becomes clear. Yet though the pieces are complex, they sound wholly accessible."
Textura

"The music - brainy, emotional, energetic—will not yield its treasures to cursory attention... Intelligent and heartfelt, Spanish American Art Museum voices a compelling composer, pianist, and bandleader."
Musically Speaking

"You will return time and again to savor its rich colors, vibrant and emotional melodies, and its rhythmic delights."
Step Tempest

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