Antonio Sanchez (drummer)

Antonio Sánchez (born November 1, 1971) is a Mexican jazz drummer.^[1]

Education

Antonio Sánchez was born in Mexico City and started playing drums at the age of five. By his teen years he had already begun playing professionally. He attained a degree in classical piano from the National Conservatory in 1993 and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to study at Berklee College of Music. After he graduated Magna Cum Laude in Jazz Studies, Sanchez obtained a scholarship for a Masters in Jazz Improvisation at Boston's New England Conservatory.

Career

While Sanchez was still at the Conservatory in 1997, his teacher, Danilo Perez, recommended him to Paquito D'Rivera for the drum chair in Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra, which led to him touring with the orchestra. Later in 1997 Perez invited Sanchez to be a part of his acoustic trio which resulted in extensive touring, and the recording of the Grammy nominated album "Motherland".^[2] The tour resulted in his being heard by legendary guitarist Pat Metheny who invited Sanchez to join the Pat Metheny Group as its drummer after a series of auditions.^[3]

The group recorded two albums with Sanchez. The first one, Speaking of Now, won a Grammy Award in 2003 in the "Best Contemporary Jazz Album" category. A DVD under the same name documenting the tour has been released. The second effort, The Way Up, was released in January 2005. Sanchez has been a part of various quartets and trios under Metheny's direction. The Pat Metheny Trio (Metheny on guitar, Sanchez on drums, and Christian McBride on bass) released Day Trip in January 2008 to wide acclaim amongst jazz critics.^[4]

In 2007 he recorded his first solo effort, Migration. The album includes Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Chris Potter, David Sanchez and Scott Colley. All About Jazz called it "One of the best debuts of 2007."^[5] Sanchez said of the album: "I didn't want people to say this is a drummer's album...I wanted it to be something that could be from any instrumentalist. I thought in terms of music, not how many solos I got and if I blew enough chops or not. I wanted the music to be very melodic and accessible and with a lot of really good interplay."^[6]

Antonio has made New York City his home since 1999 and joined the Faculty of New York University in 2006.^[7]

Discography

Solo

with Pat Metheny

with Avishai Cohen

References

External links

• Antonio Sanchez Homepage

This article uses material from the article Antonio Sanchez (drummer) from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.