Nick Sanders (musician)

Sanders grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana.[1][2] He started playing piano when he was seven years old, focusing on the classical repertoire.[1][3] He attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), a public performing and visual arts high school,[4] graduating in 2006. While at NOCCA, he switched from classical to jazz piano and studied with the clarinetist Alvin Batiste.[5][6] As a teenager, he occasionally played piano with Batiste, including performances at Snug Harbor in the French Quarter.[3] Sanders later earned a bachelor's and master's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC),[7] where he studied with the pianists Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, and Danilo Pérez.[4][5][8] Hersch has compared Sanders to Keith Jarrett.[9]

After graduation, Sanders established residence in New York City.[4][9] While at NEC, Sanders had formed the Nick Sanders Trio with two fellow classmates, bassist Henry Fraser and drummer Connor Baker.[1][10] In 2013, the band released Nameless Neighbors on Sunnyside Records.[11] The album was produced by Fred Hersch. Of the thirteen tracks on the record, ten are original Sanders' compositions.[12] The album was included in The Times-Picayune's "2013 list of best jazz records".[13]

In 2015, Sunnyside Records released the trio's second album, entitled You Are a Creature, which like their debut was produced by Hersch. The recording includes twelve original Sanders compositions and a cover of Ornette Coleman's "The Blessing".[14] In February 2015, the album was included in DownBeat's "Editors' Picks".[14][15] In describing the album, JAZZIZ Magazine's James Rozzi writes, "With his forward-leaning trio... pianist Nick Sanders has culled a set of music as mysterious as the CD's title." Rozzi praises the band's nontraditional style which includes "odd meters, rapidly changing tonalities and stretched-out song forms". He points out that Sanders' through-composed music, which is often "jagged or ethereal", works to further distinguish the band as unique.[16]

In 2016, Sanders released his third studio album with Sunnyside Records.[17] Instead of his usual trio, he partnered with saxophonist Logan Strosahl.[18] Their collaboration features improvisation on several forms of western music from the 14th century to the present.[17] Additionally, several of the tracks are original compositions by either Sanders or Strosahl. The album is named after the Roman god Janus, a two-faced god representing the album's view into music's past and future.[17][18] According to DownBeat critic Yoshi Kato, the "title track showcases the pair's locked-in playing style and instinctive almost sibling-like ability to respond to one another."[17]

• Official website