Lombardi Live! featuring Antonio Sanchez (Episode 17)

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Antonio Sanchez is an amazing drummer and percussionist. In addition to his outstanding work with Pat Metheny, Antonio has received 4 Grammy® Awards and a Golden Globe® nomination for his score for the movie “Birdman”. In this new episode of Lombardi Live!, he and Don discuss the difference between being a great drummer and a great musician while Antonio also relates stories from his days as a student at Berklee.
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Born in Mexico City, 4 time Grammy Award winner Antonio Sanchez began playing the drums at age five and performed professionally in his early teens in Mexico’s rock, jazz and latin scenes.
He pursued a degree in classical piano at the National Conservatory in Mexico and in 1993 enrolled in Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in Jazz Studies.
Since moving to New York City in 1999, Antonio has become one of the most sought-after drummers in the international jazz scene. Following 18 years and 9 albums as one of the most revered collaborators with guitarist/composer Pat Metheny, he also has recorded and performed with many other most prominent artists like Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Michael Brecker, Charlie Haden and Toots Thielmans.
In 2014 Sanchez’s popularity soared when he scored Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) which ended up fetching 4 Academy awards (including best picture) and for which Antonio won a Grammy award. Additional film/tv projects include EPIX network's Get Shorty and Hippopotamus among others.
Sanchez currently has close to a dozen recordings as a leader and solo artist. His recent projects to date include the critically acclaimed, through-composed epic The Meridian Suite, the star studded album Three Times Three, Grammy nominated Bad Hombre -a sociopolitical electronica & drums exploration, Channels of Energy, an ambitious project with the WDR Big Band with arrangements of his works by Vince Mendoza and the most recent 2019 release, Lines in the Sand with his band Migration. Here Sanchez turns his political anger into a moving musical statement of epic compositional proportions as much a protest against injustice in our current political climate and as a tribute to every immigrant’s journey.
To date Antonio has been awarded 4 Grammys, nominations for Golden Globe & Bafta Awards, wins for the World Soundtrack New Artist Discovery and Best Original Film Score Award, 3 Echo Awards (Germany), Hollywood Music in Media Award, the Critics’ Choice Movie Award and 3 Modern Drummer’s Jazz Drummer of the Year, among many other wins and nominations. He has been the featured cover artist for DownBeat, JazzTimes, JAZZIZ, Modern Drummer (twice), Drum!, Musico Pro and Drumhead among others.
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[@WarhawkBeyond2040]

The best drummer to burst on to the scene since Dave Weckl and a true master of the drum kit. Antonio Sanchez is the man!

[@kcorpora1]

He has a better funk feel than Weckl!

[@jasperjenkins7729]

Antonio is insanely Original

[@timursegara9071]

Thank you drum channel for bringing Antonio Sanchez and sharing his experience 🙏🏼🥁🏆🙇🏽‍♂️🕺🏽

[@KBoneZone]

Fantastic musician!

[@Highcastle_of_Tone]

Such an inspirational musician, love all of Antonio’s work.

[@toolfan347]

I worked in the GC drum dept and watched/studied his hudson dvd every time we played it...............played it alot.

[@zarwarrior]

Two of my most influential drummers Terry Bozzio and Antonio Sanchez. Great compositional skills and monumental super creative drumming vocabulary. Since watching Birdman, my drumming peripheral view has widened considerably. Birdman activated my awareness of the power we have in our hands. A power that conveys messages through vibrations and the tonalities of our instrument. My solo drumming technique has grown way beyond, thanks to both gentlemen. I appreciate and thank you, John Lombardi, for this spectacular interview.

[@davidbrugman2171]

Antonio.. you are a great great drummer. I have the DVD of you with Pat Matheny group. What amazing talent you are! Keep up the great work! 👍

[@mr.lindsaymcdonald2065]

A MUST SEE SHOW!!! Such great insight from one of the most amazing drummers on the planet!!!

[@kenmicallefjazzvinylaudiop6455]

Great drummer, man of wisdom.

[@julesdrums6167]

Duuude. You’re awesome man. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Everything he’s saying is so insightful for drummers, musicians, artists, and anyone really. Need to check out this Birdman movie.

[@Lupine.]

I have watched Birdman like 4 times just for the soundtrack.

[@drumchannel]

We admit, us too... 😂

[@williamweiss6128]

Love that very creative soundtrack..

[@tiffanydouglas2686]

@@williamweiss6128 Same here.

[@dlemus30]

Hi from México!!!

[@jasper36]

Just the 1st answer is incredible! So excited to see where this conversation goes.

[@coolhatadventures8111]

Absolutely Antonio, “ If one thinks about a back up plan for a career, ones dream job is not going to happen.”

[@morbidmanmusic]

Didn't work for me, and now I'm 60..., and really good on several instruments. Dreams don't pay all the bills, and when they do, the thoughts run freer. Not the everything he says isn't valid, it it. Just dreams need evaluation, talent, and then.. right place, right time. There is no escaping that.

[@trafalgerdavis7839]

Attitude.... I remember some years ago going to see him at a drum clinic up here in Toronto. He was good and informative, but I did find him a little full of himself. The clinic was in a major music store in the main sort of lobby area, so although there was a crowd for his clinic, the store was running a business and the phones would ring. Sanchez, after like the third ring of a phone says to the store folks that 'If this is going to go on, then this is not going to work', meaning, phones ring and he will not go on with the clinic. Now, I get not being disturbed, or he was having a bad day and had to do a clinic, whatever, but there were little kids in the audience looking at him and learning from him. Learning perhaps to have an 'attitude'. So it is all well and good he mentions having a good attitude and being a pro, but that incident makes his advise a little hypocritical for me. Left a bad taste for me, and since, although he is a very good drummer, turned me off from anything else he does to be honest. There are much better and more learned drummers with much longer credentials and accomplishments - but what makes them great is being humble. Sadly, humility is a lost attribute that usually gets lumped in with weakness, and it is the complete opposite. All well. To each their own.

[@sticktrik]

Yes! I agree!! I do find him a little arrogant & pompous!! If you are going to avocate something then you should be consistent in your behaviour & preaching!!!!

[@yoyohop]

I saw him at a clinic in N CA a few years back. I passed him in the hall before the clinic and he had his head sunk down as he made his way towards the "green room" - really the music store stock room. I got the impression that he was a reclusive, somber type, more comfortable behind the drum set than talking. But the clinic was great and he talked about humbling experiences, such as when he tried to play jazz with his double bass kit and how hard it was to take criticism, even at an advanced stage in his career, that he needed to work on his feel for very simple things. My point is that a top level artist with a truly cheerful disposition is a rare thing. And no one goes into music because they have dreams of someday giving clinics in small town music shops.

[@trafalgerdavis7839]

@@yoyohop #1: Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. It is not a small town, Yoyo. #2. Top level 'artists' may not be a cheerful and sunshine, but they are professionals too and need to act like it, regardless of the audience he is in front of. I saw no Sabian or Yamaha reps holding a gun to his head to do this clinic - he did it to make a living. If Sanchez doesn't like common folks who come and pay money to see and learn from him so he can continue to make a living and work with the greats in the music business, then he should stop doing clinics altogether and get on being an 'artist' with players who can appreciate his 'greatness'. Basically your experience also matches mine. Why he still does clinics after winning an Oscar for the 'Birdman' soundtrack no less, is probably because he likes to impart his knowledge but with a healthy disdain for the people he is conveying his know how to. Or he likes the adoration. He certainly has an ego, like all f us. I also saw Thomas Lang clinic play here in Toronto - at a smaller music shop, no less - and he kicked ass. He is one of the best in the world hands down, and he was funny and smart and - dare I say that nasty word - humble. So, yes, some musicians have personalities that may not be so outgoing or even friendly, but when you are being paid to appear and teach in front of a mixed audience of young ones and pro's, act like you love it at least and get on with life. After all, drummers like Sanchez, Lang and anyone else on a stage or in a studio are also performers. Perform with a good attitude, as Sanchez says, and keep your 'reclusive sombreness' to your private life, or simply don't do these low brow clinics and be a snob. Whatever.

[@santih5043]

This is an interesting thread. I think Antonio has assimilated both the jazz and Afro Cuban styles in a seamless way but, unfortunately, I have never heard him give credit to the Cuban drummers who he so obviously has learned from. In fact, in a video of one of his workshops I felt that he was totally disingenuous when he was asked where he learned the "Latin " rhythms he played. Great drummer, but not a true artist who acknowledges his influences.

[@sticktrik]

Santi H Yes! I also agree with you! Come to think of it…he has never given props to Horacio “El negro “ Hernandez, when he was the first Cuban drummer that exposed the left foot clave technique to North America & the rest of the world!! I find that A.S. is a self centred egoist!! In front of his peers he speaks well and respectful, but he certainly doesn’t practice what he may preach off the bandstand!!!

[@sergiozdrums]

when was this filmed?

[@bestdrummer4607]

good player.

[@FFrrEEddRRiiKK1]

Probably the currently best jazz drummer in the world.

[@sticktrik]

Naw!! Bill Stewart is the best & most Identifiable!! Bill is on another level if your going to talk about Jazz, my friend!!

[@johndeal666]

Dave Weckl is still unparalleled

[@morbidmanmusic]

Any commercials that interrupt the music will never get any sale from musicians. Pay attention retailer.

[@jasperjenkins7729]

p-EAR-t...Not Pert. Sorry.

[@theatremusician]

Brilliant player. One of the best ever. Drum kit sound is complete garbage. Use different heads, tune them better or go with a different kit.

[@morbidmanmusic]

Oh you, with all your funny declarations. Give it a break. Get your own sound if it bothers you enough to comment like that..