“NPR Music’s #1 Songs and Albums of July”

Classic-rock songs often turn into cultural signposts for no clear reason — what does this 1969 Blind Faith epic really mean, anyway, with its obtuse lyrics and addictive, endless vamping? The pianist Christian Sands and his trio make the song matter again. Yasushi Nakamura's exploratory bass line opens the way for Sands's touch on the keyboard, at first light, then increasingly driven by Clarence Penn's kicking drum. In their hands, the song is about questing itself: its loneliness and excitement, the determination it requires, the way the final destination ultimately doesn't matter. Music is the best place to find yourself, getting lost. — Ann Powers

Christian Sands – “Be Water”

Barely out of his 20s, Christian Sands is an extraordinarily complete musician. It isn’t just the quality of his playing, although he has the most deft and sensitive touch at the keys; or his compositions, although they are remarkably accomplished for one so young. And it isn’t even his rapid ascent through the ranks of contemporary jazz, which has seen him sharing stages with everyone from Christian McBride to Wynton Marsalis.

No, it’s the fact that he has developed ideas about music from fields as diverse as film and martial arts. Take this new album – his eighth as leader (he recorded his first at the age of 11). “Be water” is no random phrase but a concept that informs Sands’s whole outlook on music and life in general. While studying martial arts, he was struck by a suggestion of Bruce Lee’s – that in order to be an effective fighter, you must be like water, adapting yourself to the shape of whatever vessel you find yourself in.

WBGO - “Take Five”

Billy Childs, “Leimert Park”

Billy Childs is known for the elegance of his designs; he’s a composer, arranger and producer with a feeling for the dignity of form. But of course, Childs is also a terrific pianist and keyboardist, and sometimes it’s all too easy to let that part of his identity slip to the side. Not so on a new album, Acceptance, which Mack Avenue will release on Aug. 28.

Christian Sands: Be Water (Mack Avenue)  A review of the pianist’s third album on Mack Avenue

Empty your mind,” Bruce Lee said famously (by way of his friend, screenwriter Stirling Silliphant). “Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle … Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

The Month In Jazz – July 2020

Christian Sands, Be Water (Mack Avenue)

Pianist Christian Sands’ latest album was originally supposed to come out in May, but then jazz caught the ’rona and a bunch of records were delayed. Anyway, it’s out now and it’s really good. The core band features bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Clarence Penn, with guests — trumpeter Sean Jones, trombonist Steve Davis, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and guitarist Marvin Sewell — showing up here and there. This track, a version of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” begins with almost detuned bass thumps, but when Sands strikes the keys, he’s playing in an almost New Orleans rock/R&B style, reminding me of Leon Russell and/or Dr. John. Nakamura’s solo is forceful, like he’s trying to yank his fingers loose of the strings, accompanied by subtle shaken percussion before the piano comes pumping back in. This is a heavy, committed performance from everyone involved, transforming this song into something transcendent.

Review: Pianist Christian Sands’ ‘Be Water’ flows freely

The metaphor suggested by the title of Christian Sands’ new album is apt.

The jazz pianist says he was trying to be freer and more flexible on “Be Water,” and it shows. The set’s 10 cuts explore a wide range of moods and instrumental combinations, with Sands’ trio at the core.

Much of the material is built on the same pattern of tension and release found in a body of water. That begins with the opening “Intro,” which settles on the tonic chord after nearly four minutes of shimmering undulation.