RIJF 2023

Christian Sands

Christian Sands — Steinway Artist and five-time Grammy Nominee — is an emerging jazz force. His abundant piano technique perfectly matches his conception, accomplishing a much deeper musical goal: a fresh look at the entire language of jazz.  Christian says, “My music is about teaching the way of jazz and keeping it alive.”  Whether it’s stride, swing, bebop, progressive, fusion, Brazilian, or Afro-Cuban, Sands develops the past while providing unusual and stimulating vehicles for the present… and for the future.  He expresses himself through an extensive vocabulary of patterns, textures, and structures, all the while maintaining a strong sense of understatement, sensitivity, taste, and swing — hallmarks for as long as he has been playing.

On his stunning new album, his third for Mack Avenue Records, “Be Water”, Sands takes inspiration from water’s tranquility and power and muses on the possibilities offered by echoing its fluidity and malleability. Through ten gorgeous and thrilling pieces, Sands alternately conjures the serenity of a sun-dappled lake and the drama of a relentless thunderstorm. The release date was July 17, 2020.

Since arriving on the scene, Sands has shared the stage with such jazz luminaries as Wynton Marsalis, Diane Reeves, Shelia E, Warren Wolf, Tia Fuller, Gary Burton, Stefan Harris, Teri Lynne Carrington, Jason Moran, Geri Allen, Ben Williams, Randy Brecker, Steve Johns, Avery Sharpe, James Moody, Bill Evans (sax), Russell Malone, Terrance Blanchard, Louis Hayes, Patti Austin, Marcus Baylor, Craig Handy, Carl Allen, Kirk Whalum, and Wycliffe Gordon.

The power and prowess of his playing have taken him from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to the world-renowned Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, to New York’s celebrated jazz clubs such as the Village Vanguard, Jazz Standard, Blue Note, and Dizzy’s Club; to international jazz clubs all over the world.