David Sánchez plays the Tenor Saxophone
A burnished horn twisted
as if by a French curve plays
its deep and dense colours
pronounced
in the deep and dense context
of the African soundscape
experienced through the filter
of line and sketch
drawn between Puerto Rico,
Haiti and Jazz,
moulded into an artifice
of plump melodies and harmonies
rocked by the thunder of
barril de bomba
and other rousing percussion
so summarily unique.
A story; a sequence of stories
a cultural topography hunted,
haunted by a terrible history
impelling that frayed feeling
propelled by heart and mind…
So utterly unique
the tonal colours
that Mr Sánchez is able to drive
expel from his lungs
and other parts of his body
his heart and mind
to make black dots leap off the page.
The “Morning Mist” and “The Land of Hills”
not simply a morning mist
and a land of hills,
but the “Morning Mist
and “The Land of Hills”
all of this coming
with as a magical windfall:
Mr Sánchez delivers a phrase
notes fibrillating
rising in a glimmer of sorts
a furtive glissando pursued
by an elaborate arpeggio
and a dizzying run
suddenly punctuated
by a brief moment of dancing silence
as if he wants you,
the listener,
to savour the breath of air
in the quietude of that moment
just as he did
in creating it for you.
© Raul da Gama, May 25th 2019
