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 Obsesión, Sanchez engaged a string orchestra for a program of material by Latin and South American composers. On Melaza, 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.

The name of the album refers to the sociopolitical history of Puerto Rico and its African immigrants. Melaza 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 Melaza is not just for dessert anymore. --Neil Tesser