With his skills honed from his days in Christian McBride’s trio, pianist Christian Sands has carved out an impressive niche. This time out he adds keyboards, a Hammond and even his own voice along with his own core trio of Yasushi Nakamura/b and Clarence Penn/dr while adding guests including Marvin Sewell/g a horn section of Marcus Strickland/ts-bcl, Steve Davis/tb and Sean Jones/tp and a guest appearance by a string quartet.
The theme of the album is based on quotes from Bruce Lee, with his lecture part of the hip title track as well as the parlored strings of a second part. Nature sounds take place along with guitar and piano on the impressionistic “Intro” and the pretty “Still” that features Sewell on guitar. Nakamura’s bass gives a sleek line to “Steam” and the Sands leads into a clever take of the Blind Faith pieces “Can’t Find My Way Home” while he’s rhapsodic on the dramatic “Crash” and classy on the post bopper “Sonar”. Impressive impressions.