For those unaware, The Game Changer, Brandon Sanders’ latest Savant recording, finds the drummer doing what he does best: setting the pace, creating opportunities, and elevating everyone around him. Joining the ensemble for this outing are Stacy Dillard, with his uniquely exciting saxophone sound, and the imaginative pianist William Hill III, alongside longtime collaborators Warren Wolf and Eric Wheeler.

With special guest artists vocalist Briana Swann, who brings “a little grit, a dash of soul, and a whole lot of midnight in her voice,” and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, of whom Nat Hentoff wrote “It is the beat of Pelt’s heart... that underscores the future of jazz,” Sanders has assembled a band that brings both seasoned authority and youthful energy to a program of originals and carefully chosen favorites.

Rooted in the hard-bop tradition, The Game Changer draws on a wide variety of musical genres and influences, which Sanders enhances and expands, reflecting his broad musical vision and his belief that it’s all just music.

1. The Game Changer
2. What Is This Thing Called Love
3. James Arthur
4. Sunsets in Santa Monica
5. Isfahan
6. Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars
7. Shrimp and Grits
8. S.M.B
9. Pamela the Queen
10. Footsteps in the Dark

On an album where this extraordinary work grew from a consideration of catholic taste and singular musical embrace, Brandon opens his new recording on the resplendent fare of the titular The Game Changer and the fervently sculpted What Is This Thing Called Love and then we are gifted the decadently hued James Arthur, and the veritably glistening Sunsets in Santa Monica, before the lavish Isfahan is brought forth.

Along next is the sensually smooth, vocalized (by Briana Swann) Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars and the enthusiastically driven Shrimp and Grits and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the lushly enthralling S.M.B, the set rounding out on the dulcet elegance of Pamela the Queen, coming to an all-too-soon close on the decadently vocalized (again by Swann) cut Footsteps in the Dark.

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