Album of the Week – Brandon Sanders – Compton’s Finest

You may not hear a more tasteful, delightfully hard-swinging jazz album in 2023 than drummer Brandon Sanders’ debut, Compton’s Finest.

A leading sideman since moving to New York in the early 2000s, Sanders has distinguished himself playing alongside such luminaries as Mike LeDonne, Joe Lovano, and Jeremy Pelt, among many others.

Before all that, he grew up on the West Coast in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, where he first developed a passion for jazz. It’s an association he shares with the album’s producer, drummer Willie Jones III, who also grew up in Los Angeles and who first made his name in the ’90s as member of the group BlackNote, an ensemble whose acoustic post-bop sound has much in common with the style Sanders favors here.

Joining Sanders is an adept lineup featuring tenor saxophonist Chris Lewis, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Keith Brown, and bassist Eric Wheeler. Together, they play with a light yet locked-in touch that is the epitome of swinging, straight-ahead jazz.

• Matt Collar, AllMusic.com