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Sands shows off his immense abilities along with his affinity for different styles. Well-thought-out and arranged album of both a traditional and personal celebration of the holiday season. Read More.
WBUR
Christmas Stories is his tenth album as a leader and his fourth for his current label, Mack Avenue. It is not a rehash of traditional Christmas songs per se, though there are five of those favorites here, but all are reimagined in a personal manner. The other five are original compositions relating to winter and the holiday season — Read Article Here AllAboutJazz.
Christian Sands Christmas Stories (Mack Avenue Records)
MOST ADDED JAZZWEEK w/+10 TOTAL REPORTS! (11/27 Chart)
MOST ADDED JAZZWEEK w/+13 TOTAL REPORTS! (12/04 Chart)
INCREASED AIRPLAY JAZZWEEK w/+29 NEW SPINS! (12/04 Chart)
#1 MOST ADDED NACC JAZZ (11/21 Chart)
Christmas Stories arrives nearly four years after pianist Christian Sands released the NAACP Image Award-winning, Grammy-nominated post-bop masterpiece Be Water. Sands has been playing in-demand Christmas gigs for Jazz at Lincoln Center and elsewhere around the world. While this music is lighthearted, the pianist and his octet -- vibraphonist Stefon Harris, saxophonist Jimmy Greene, guitarists Max Light and Marvin Sewell, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, percussionist Keita Ogawa, and drummer Ryan Sands -- treat this music quite seriously, making it a vehicle for jazz improvisation as well as holiday reverie. - AllMusic Thom Jurek
“Be Water II” now nominated for the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards for Best Instrumental Composition.
“…having successfully made the case for his breadth of style, Sands is free to follow his music where it leads.” - NPR
“…Christian Sands plays with a restrained touch and a rolling command across the entire keyboard.” - The New York Times
“Sands is skilled, soulful and melodic…” - VICE Noisey
“On his breathtaking new album “Be Water, the pianist Christian Sands is inspired by the calm and power of water and ponders the possibilities that arise from the echo of its fluidity and malleability… The music of “Be Water” flows with the mesmerizing calm and awe-inspiring power of its namesake. On his conceptually most ambitious album to date, Christian Sands take note of Bruce Lee’s wisdom and really allows his creativity to transform and take on a dazzling variety of shapes”. - Jazz-fun.de Magazin fur Jazz Musik - Germany
A Neon Jazz Interview with Christian Sands - Jazz & COVID-19 - Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interviews with Jazz Pianist Christian Sands… Enjoy a candid conversation with him on June 1, 2020 about his newest 2020 CD “Be Water” and the strange new COVID-19 world…
@ChristianSandsJazz
