Brandon Sanders: The Tables Will Turn

Fifty-three-year old drummer/composer Brandon Sanders is an interesting story. As a student at the University of Kansas, he walked on the basketball team, earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree, then decided he wanted to learn how to play the drums. At age 25 he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music, where he met and befriended vibraphonist Warren Wolf. Sanders moved to New York City in 2004 and has been playing around the area since while maintaining a full-time job as a school counselor. On his second album as a leader, he’s joined by Wolf, saxophonist Chris Lewis, pianist Keith Brown, and bassist David Wong for nine selections. The three Sanders originals (“Miss Ernestine,” a medium blues dedicated to his grandmother, who owned a jazz club in Kansas City; “Central and El Segundo,” referencing an intersection in his old Compton neighborhood; and the danceable title track) all display his comfort with different drum grooves. Vocalist Christie Dashiell guests on two songs, the Michael Jackson hit “Human Nature” and Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss,” and on both selections she displays her Grammy-nominated skills. There’s nothing fancy here, here, just solid straight-ahead music from a musician who has been referred to as “The Swingman.” Good stuff.