Carnegie Hall

Four-time Grammy winner Antonio Sánchez is a conservatory-trained classical pianist, the composer and performer of the score for the Oscar-winning film Birdman, and one of the most inventive and heralded drummers on the planet today. Born in Mexico City, Sánchez began playing drums at age five and began performing professionally in his early teens in Mexico’s rock, jazz, and Latin scenes. He was also a gymnast on Mexico’s junior national team. After pursuing a degree in classical piano at Mexico’s National Conservatory of Music, he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory. Shortly after moving to New York City in 1999, Sánchez was scooped up by Pat Metheny, with whom he recorded nine albums and toured for 18 years. He has also performed with Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Michael Brecker, and Charlie Haden (among others). On several occasions, Sánchez has been named Modern Drummer’s Jazz Drummer of the Year. His popularity soared when he scored Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film Birdman, winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Recent projects include his critically acclaimed The Meridian Suite, his sociopolitical electronica and drums exploration Bad Hombre, and Lines in the Sand, in which Sánchez turns his political anger into a moving musical statement as a protest against injustice in our current political climate and as a tribute to every immigrant’s journey. In 2022, Warner Records released SHIFT (Bad Hombre Vol. II). The much-anticipated recording featured Sánchez collaborating with a diverse roster of artists, from Trent Reznor to Lila Downs, Meshell Ndegeocello to Dave Matthews.

Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer, and producer Joe Lovano is fearless in finding new modes of artistic expression. Born in Cleveland in 1952, he attended the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston and was later awarded an honorary doctorate. A founding member of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, Lovano has held the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance at the college since 2001. From 1991 through 2016, Lovano released an unprecedented 25 records as a leader for the historic Blue Note Records. In 2019, he released his debut album as a bandleader of Trio Tapestry with Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi on ECM Records. In the years that followed, Lovano released three additional albums on the ECM label: Roma, a collaboration with Enrico Rava; Arctic Riff, with the Marcin Wasilewski Trio; and the sophomore release from Trio Tapestry, Garden of Expression. In 2021, Lovano released Other Worlds, his third album with Sound Prints, a quintet he co-leads with trumpeter Dave Douglas. The next year brought a collaboration with guitarist Jakob Bro, Once Around the Room: A Tribute to Paul Motian. Most recently, Lovano released his third Trio Tapestry recording, Our Daily Bread. Lovano has performed and recorded with a long list of jazz greats, including Woody Herman, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Mel Lewis, Bob Brookmeyer, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Tony Bennett, Abbey Lincoln, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Gunther Schuller, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Ed Blackwell, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Hank Jones, David Liebman, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Judi Silvano, Ravi Coltrane, Chucho Valdés, Ornette Coleman, and Diana Krall.Lovano has created an extensive body of work for his own ensembles, including strings, woodwinds, his horn-rich Nonet, the Classic Quartet, and Trio Tapestry, in addition to exploring new horizons within the world of music as a soloist, bandleader, and composer.

A world-class soloist, accomplished composer, and formidable bandleader, Grammy Award–nominated saxophonist Chris Potter has emerged as a leading light of his generation. Potter’s music showcases limitless creativity and a vibrant sense of swing, prompting critics, musicians, and fans alike to cite him as one of the finest saxophonists today. The New Yorker calls Potter “a tenorist who can remind you of Joe Henderson at his craftiest; he employs his considerable technique in the service of music rather than spectacle.” With his 2019 Edition Records release Circuits, Potter made a return to groove, echoing music from his Underground era. Joined by keyboardist James Francies and drummer Eric Harland, Potter’s new music thrives on the band’s chemistry, blending a vibrant soundscape of electronics, melodies with unforgettable hooks, and surprising turns of phrase—all played with relentless energy.

One of the finest pianists of his generation, having recorded 13 albums as a leader, Joey Calderazzo has traveled the road from child prodigy to in-demand session musician to elite member of the finest ensembles in jazz. He’s accompanied the music’s geniuses, from Michael Brecker and Branford Marsalis to Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland. Throughout his journey, Calderazzo has boldly explored his own psyche and his place in the world as a composer, improviser, band member, and leader. Calderazzo’s long-running trio, which recently recorded Live from The Cotton Club Tokyo, Vol. I, is his place of relaxation and exploration, where improvisation is key, freedom is the norm, and swing is absolute. Joined by bassist Orlando le Fleming and drummer Donald Edwards, Calderazzo examines original material and choice cover renditions in a live performance inspired by his prodigiously broad approach to jazz. Early in his career, after groundbreaking records with saxophone legend Michael Brecker and solo recordings on Blue Note Records, Calderazzo experienced an epiphany that changed his piano playing and compositional direction. Ever since, his breadth and depth as a pianist have been astounding. A single solo, either with his trio or the Branford Marsalis Quartet, can allude to myriad generations of jazz piano giants, filtered through his keen, hard-swinging lens and joyous touch. With experience comes knowledge, patience, and wisdom that allows him to embody swinging blues and post-bop, traditional jazz, and boundary-exploring improvisation.

As one of the most admired, accomplished bassists working in jazz today, Larry Grenadier has been praised as “a deeply intuitive” musician by The New York Times and an instrumentalist with a “fluid sense of melody” by Bass Player magazine. He has created an expansive body of work in collaboration with many of the genre’s most inventive, influential musicians, from early days playing with sax icons Joe Henderson and Stan Getz to what has been decades performing alongside pianist Brad Mehldau, from extended experiences working with the likes of Paul Motian and Pat Metheny to co-leading the cooperative trio Fly (with Mark Turner and Jeff Ballard), and quartet Hudson (with John Scofield, John Medeski, and Jack DeJohnette). Throughout a performing and recording career that now spans three decades, it has been not only Grenadier’s instrumental virtuosity and instantly recognizable tone that have made him such an in-demand collaborator, but also his uncommon artistic sensitivity, imagination, and curiosity. His solo bass recording on ECM Records, The Gleaners, presents a collection of originals by the bassist alongside pieces by George Gershwin, John Coltrane, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Paul Motian, and his wife and frequent collaborator, Rebecca Martin.