Press

Daily Hampshire Gazzette, Sept 3, 2022 A musical melting pot: Composer David Sanford…

Press Release: American Academy of Arts and Letters, May 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/arts/music/best-classical-music-opera-recordings.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/arts/music/david-sanford-music.html

https://jazztimes.com/features/lists/david-sanford-roller-coasters/

“Mr. Sanford’s big-band bona fides have long been established. But this [Black Noise/Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor] is the first full-length recording that documents his approach to the orchestra, which encompasses Boulez-influenced harmony and Mingus-style propulsion. This latest triumph doubles as a leading question: Why isn’t every major orchestra in America commissioning him?” – Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, December 12, 2019 - Full Article - 

“[Sanford’s] music, perhaps reflecting in part his African American roots, transcends standard genre boundaries. I do not here mean ‘crossover’: it is far too uncompromising (and slyly humorous) for that label!” – Guy Rickards, Gramophone, July 2019

“Both raucous and exquisitely poised, the music [Miller Theater, 2007] was decked out with some broadly perceptible reference points – including traces of classical modernism, jazz improvisation and the attack of punk. Yet it was the composer’s way of combining these surface-level traits that proved most memorable” – Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, April 13, 2019 - FULL ARTICLE -

“…the modern big band is definitely in the good hands of a master composer and arranger…An originality that is refreshing and awe-inspiring” – Tony Zambito, JazzBuffalo Review, March 13, 2016 - FULL ARTICLE -

“Hi Dave, Just got turned on to your amazing work via Michael Pratt at Princeton. Kudos! Hope our paths cross someday.” – Rudresh Mahanthappa (unsolicited email, April 15, 2016)

“Sanford writes challenging charts steeped in jazz, funk, and modern classical music. And his players tear through them like an elephant through a bag of peanuts. – Alexander Gelfand, Jazziz, January/February, 2008

“…Live at the Knitting Factory, is a compelling collection of pieces incorporating everything from old-school Ellington cool to dramatic, nerve-jangling modernism…it’s safe to expect that even that large space [Chapin Auditorium at Mount Holyoke College] will be filled to capacity with soundwaves, and listeners will experience the kind of live fireworks that create something more akin to an event than a concert.” – James Heflin, Valley Advocate, October 18-24, 2007 - FULL ARTICLE -

“This is a progressive big band that operates more in the freewheeling manner of many European big bands, crossing into the contemporary classical music camp without a care and often with complexity and wildness…a memory of Dizzy Gillespie bop at its most flamboyant juxtaposed with Webern-like abstraction” – Richard S. Ginell, AllMusic Review, 2007

“To call the Pittsburgh Collective a big band is a bit like calling the New York Philharmonic an opera outfit…A new kind of fusion is going on in [their] music, but also, perhaps, a new kind of analysis, in which the origins of jazz – the fusion music of a century ago – are being creatively explored.” – Paul Griffiths, Miller Theater program notes, October 2007