Angelica Sanchez - Chad Taylor: A Monster Is Just An Animal You Haven't Met Yet

Angelica Sanchez and Chad Taylor's collaboration on the album A Monster is Just an Animal You Haven't Met Yet is a serendipitous blend of jazz's past and future wrapped in a package so enigmatic that it might as well come with its own set of riddles. The duo, comprising Sanchez's deft piano work and Taylor's percussive wizardry, crafts a sonic landscape as unpredictable as a weather forecast in the Bermuda Triangle.

From the first note it is evident that this is not your grandfather's jazz album, unless your grandfather was a time-traveling avant-garde musician. Sanchez and Taylor seem to communicate through their instruments with a language that is part jazz, part telepathy and entirely captivating. The album's title, which sounds like a line you would hear from a particularly philosophical zookeeper, serves as a fitting metaphor for the music within. Each track unfolds like a creature from a distant realm, at first unfamiliar and a bit intimidating but revealing a beauty that only comes from truly listening and understanding.

The compositions weave through landscapes that are sometimes serene, often complex and always fascinating. Sanchez's piano is both the compass and the map, guiding listeners through uncharted territories with a soothing and exhilarating confidence. Meanwhile, Taylor's percussion is the heartbeat of the journey, providing not just rhythm but a pulse that feels alive, almost sentient.

One of the standout tracks, "Animistic," plunges the listener into a world where the line between the animate and inanimate blurs, a place where Sanchez's piano keys breathe life into the air around them and Taylor's percussion pulses with the rhythm of the earth. The track is a sonic embodiment of animism—the belief that objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Sanchez's piano work on "Alluvial" flows like a river through changing terrains—now gentle and meandering, now rushing and forceful. Her ability to capture the essence of water in motion and render its strength and serenity through the keys is nothing short of remarkable. Taylor, in turn, mirrors this fluidity with percussion that ebbs and flows, building layers of rhythm that feel like waves crashing and receding along a shoreline.

In A Monster is Just an Animal You Haven't Met Yet, Sanchez and Taylor have crafted an album that defies easy categorization. It is a reminder that the unknown is not to be feared but explored with an open heart and eager ears. This album does not just push boundaries; it questions whether those boundaries ever existed in the first place. It is a musical expedition that proves that monsters are just friends we have not made yet and, by the end, Sanchez and Taylor are not just musicians. They are benevolent beast tamers, inviting us all to embrace the wild side of jazz.

Comments