Antonio Sanchez Birdman

The Evolution of Antonio Sánchez

“I started kind of realizing that I had all this power down there in my studio, and I could do things as if I was a mad scientist in my laboratory. And it was so liberating that of course I wanted to keep doing music this way — and that’s how Shift was born.” Antonio Sánchez — NPR

An award-winning career

In his career spanning more than eighteen years, Grammy Award-winning artist Antonio Sánchez is one of the most sought-after drummers on the international jazz scene. Known as a “drummer's drummer,” Sánchez has been playing the drums since the tender age of five. He has recorded and performed with many of the most prominent artists in jazz, including Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Michael Brecker, Charlie Haden and Toots Thielmans.

“Antonio is an exceptional musician in addition to being an unbelievable drummer,” says twenty-time Grammy Award–winner Pat Metheny.

Sánchez’s international acclaim skyrocketed after scoring Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman in 2014, but it was his follow-up project Bad Hombre that gave birth to his political alter ego and new musical voice.

A Bad Hombre

In response to the fraught political climate of the 2016 elections, Bad Hombre was named after an infamous quip from former president Donald Trump about Mexican immigrants living in the United States: “We have some bad hombres here, and we’re going to get them out.”

Sánchez began expressing the anxiety of that political moment through his drumming, and that led to the completed project, Bad Hombre. He continued to explore issues of social injustice and the immigrant journey on projects such as Lines in the Sand and his latest, Shift (Bad Hombre, Vol. II).

Cross genre collaborations

Shift (Bad Hombre, Vol. II) continues Sánchez’s collaborations with artists such as Trent Reznor, Kimbra, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dave Matthews and even his own ninety-seven-year-old grandfather, the renowned actor Ignacio López. Sánchez says he wanted to work with artists from different genres with the goal of reimagining or shifting their work. Sánchez plays virtually every instrument on the album, which showcases him as not only drummer, producer and social commentator, but conceptualist, multiinstrumentalist, and mad scientist.

See Sánchez live on November 3

Join us on Thursday, November 3, at 8 pm for an exciting evening with Antonio Sánchez and Bad Hombre and experience their mad science for yourself!