Bobby Sanabria

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Review:

This is the Hundredth and thirtieth in a series of special Jazz on the Tube reviews of live stream performances.

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Bobby Sanabria has done a great deal in his careers as a drummer, percussionist, composer-arranger, educator and bandleader to help Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz.

Born and raised in the South Bronx of New York, Sanabria has worked with virtually every significant artist in Afro-Cuban jazz including Mario Bauzá, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Paquito D’Rivera, Candido, Ray Barretto, Chico O’Farrill, Francisco Aguabella, and Celia Cruz, not to mention Henry Threadgill, Roswell Rudd, David Amram, Charles McPherson, Jon Faddis, Randy Brecker, and Charles Tolliver among countless others.

Bobby Sanabria has led several notable albums of his own (including Live & In Clave, 50 Years of Mambo: A Tribute to Perez Prado, Kenya Revisited Live, Tito Puente Masterworks Live, MULTIVERSE, Que Viva Harlem, and West Side Story Reimagined.

On his LiveStream from Sept. 11, 2020, Bobby Sanabria (on drums, timbales and percussion) performs with a quartet comprised of Peter Brainin on tenor, soprano and flute, keyboardist Silvano Monasterios and electric bassist Ian Stewart.

On such numbers as “Mambo Inn” (mistakenly listed as “Bebop”), the charming “Danzon,” “Darn That Dream” (a feature for the tenor-saxophonist), the swinging uptempo “Blues In The Closet,” “La Negra Tomasa” (on which Sanabria sings), and the spirited closer “Compadre Pedro Juan” (which becomes “St. Thomas” and finally “The Saints”). Bobby Sanbria and his versatile quartet put on an entertaining and very musical show.

– Scott Yanow