artist info

For more than three decades, conguero Poncho Sanchez has stirred up a fiery stew of straightahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. Throughout his career Sanchez has held aloft the torch lit by such innovators as Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente and Cal Tjader, embraced by each of those icons and entrusted to carry forward the traditions of Latin Jazz.

Sanchez's influences are numerous, and his catalogue is rich with his homages to several of his mentors -- Santamaria, Puente and Tjader among them. But alongside those Latin pioneers, among the more prominent figures that inform his music is the iconic saxophonist John Coltrane. On his latest Grammy-nominated album Trane's Delight, Sanchez pays tribute to the late jazz legend with Latin-tinged re-imaginings of Coltrane classics as well as new pieces composed in honor of the tenor titan.

Trane's Delight continues Sanchez's remarkable 37-year relationship with Concord, a rich legacy that has now yielded 27 albums. The album features the conguero alongside his longtime band; trombonist and musical director Francisco Torres, trumpet and flugelhorn master Ron Blake, saxophonist Robert Hardt, pianist Andy Langham, bassists Rene Camacho and Ross Schodek, and percussionists Joey DeLeon and Giancarlo Anderson.

With Trane's Delight, Poncho Sanchez continues to honor the giants whose music has helped shape his own, while building upon the rich legacy they've left behind. As this celebratory and heartfelt album exemplifies, he's long since joined the ranks of the luminaries to whom he pays such profound tribute. Sanchez's deeply personal reimagining of the jazz canon, as well as his own spirited original compositions, affirm his place at the forefront of Latin Jazz's trailblazers.