Recommended: Marta Sanchez Quintet – “Partenika”

An album that just keeps getting better to my ears the more I revisit it is Partenika, the 2015 release from the Marta Sánchez Quintet.  I love how title-track “Partenika” switches between a fluttering dance and a two-note refrain, a sense of a meditative recovery of breath between flurries of dance.  I love all the furious rush hour action of “Patella Dislocation,” of many objects moving in many directions.  The searing lyricism of “Balada Del Momento” with its unassuming delivery, I find massively appealing.  The lighthearted “Yayyy” flits about and seems, at times, to come from all directions, and I adore the way it’s as pleasant as an afternoon stroll through the park.  I’m gripped each time by the drifting ambiance and storyteller solos of the song “Andy.”  The poetic “Small Game” grabs me tight right from the first note, becoming a warm embrace as the quintet allows the song to slowly unravel.  And how could I not fall for the sing-song “El Paso De Los Años” and the way it finds the sweet spot between catchiness and complexity?  But most of all, more than any other track on this excellent album, I love the very first, “Opening,” and its delicately woven melody, its thick washes of harmony and its enveloping ambient tone, the kind of susurration that originates from a beating heart and comforts with euphoric displays of liveliness.

Just a wonderful recording.

Your album personnel:  Marta Sánchez (piano), Jerome Sabbagh (tenor sax), Román Filiú (alto sax), Sam Anning (bass) and Jason Burger (drums).

Released in 2015 on the Fresh Sound New Talent label.

Listen to more album tracks on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Brooklyn scene.

Cool cover art by Tayla Nebesky.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon