Albert sanz

Professor of Piano, Arrangements and Composition. Multidisciplinary Collaborator of the Department of Jazz and Modern Music.

Albert Sanz was born in Valencia, Spain, into a very musical family. His mother is the great singer, songwriter and actress Mamen García, and his father is Josep Sanz, a conductor, classical pianist and composer.

From an early age Albert was surrounded by the mix of classical music from his father's rehearsals and Mamen's repertoire of original songs, as well as the varied repertoire of the group Patxinguer Z in which Mamen sang. But it was already entering adolescence that, after teaching himself piano and guitar, he decided to begin studying classical piano at the Valencia Conservatory. Shortly after, his father took him to a Tete Montoliu concert where, without realizing it, he fell in love forever with the spirit of Jazz and, in a short time, Albert began to become more and more passionate and to play with other Jazz musicians in Valencia, combining the conservatory with studies at the Taller de Músics in Barcelona, ​​his first concerts and all the jam sessions possible. His teenage years culminated at the age of 18 when he was selected to represent Spain in the European Youth Jazz Orchestra (EJYO), traveling for three weeks throughout Europe and recording the first EJYO record in 1997.

It is 1998 and Albert records his first album ("Des D'aquí") as co-leader with the Catalan bassist David Mengual. This album is voted best Spanish jazz album of the year by Spanish jazz critics (Cuadernos de Jazz). A year later Albert receives the SGAE Award for the best emerging jazz artist and another award for best emerging artist by the magazine Turia.

After being offered a full scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Albert moved to Boston in 2000 where he formed the band Kalifactors” with Robert Stillman, Chris Van Voorst and Kendrick Scott, recording for the label Fresh Sound RecordsHe also played regularly with important musicians living in Boston at that time such as David Doruzka, Jason Palmer, Walter Smith, Lage Lund, Lionel Loueke, Avier Vercher or Ferenc Nemeth among others.

After graduating Cum Laude from Berklee, Albert moved to New York in 2002 where he immersed himself in the scene, playing with the groups of Kurt Rosenwinkel, Chris Cheek and Joe Martin and making his debut as a leader and composer at the Jazz Gallery club with a group that included Larry Grenadier, Jeff Ballard and Chris Cheek.

This concert of original material by Albert was also recorded and released with Fresh Sound Records (“The Guys”).

In 2004, the IVM in Valencia commissioned Albert to record an album and compose all the original material, resulting in “El fabulador”, a work framed in the “third stream” at an orchestral and compositional level. This album was voted as one of the best Spanish jazz albums of the last decade by critics in Spain (Cuadernos de Jazz).

Shortly after this recording, Albert moved back to Spain, being offered a position as a Jazz teacher at the Musikene Conservatory of the Basque Country and later also teaching in the Jazz department at the Valencia Conservatory.

During those years Albert combined teaching with concerts and published “Metamorfosis” (Fresh Sound Records), a live album after 3 years of work with his trio at that time made up of Masa Kamaguchi and RJ Miller. He also collaborates in the bands and recordings of the Flamenco Big Band of Perico Sambeat, the trio and quintet of Jorge Rossy, Jordi Matas and Carme Canela, and the famous Silvia Pérez Cruz and Javier Colina trio project that gave rise to the gold album “En La Imaginación”.

As a music producer and arranger, he produced his mother Mamen García's album ("El Cofrecito"), in which musicians such as Jorge Rossy, Javier Colina and Antonio Serrano collaborated.

In 2011 Albert took a step forward producing the album “O que será” in New York, with James Farber as sound engineer, an album with a stellar trio made up of the great drummer Al Foster and the double bass player Javier Colina. In 2012 he had the opportunity to travel with this great trio playing at the main festivals in Spain and also recording live at the Café Central in Madrid the album “For Regulars Only”.

As a composer for theatre, Albert has collaborated with the award-winning and special company «Bambalina teatre practicable», creating the music for the shows «Ulises», «Cosmos», the musical «El Geperut de Notre Dame», «Petit Pierre” with Adriana Ozores and «Faust» produced by teatres de la Generalitat.

In 2014 Albert temporarily left teaching and moved to Zurich for a year. It was in Switzerland that he recorded the album “Live at the Birds Eye” with the great Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy.

His last important collaborations are mostly duets, the album "Mahalo" with the great harmonica player Antonio Serrano, "Dolphin's Blues", a live vinyl recording with Félix Rossy or the two duo albums "Snow in Summer" (Unit Records) and “Ra” (nWog Records) with Swiss saxophonist Gabriel Dalvit.

In 2015 Albert received an offer to teach at the prestigious Berklee University Valencia giving piano classes, Ensemble and as a professor of Ear Training. It was at this time that Albert returned to Valencia and started a family. Also in that same year he published “Mediterraníes” (karonte) together with Sergio Martínez and Ruben Carles and the collaboration of Jorge Pardo. On this album Albert begins to get closer and closer to his roots.

In 2015 Albert released his first Bigband album in collaboration with Sedajazz. The album, entirely with original music composed in Switzerland and with the collaboration of the voices of Carles Denia and Ganavya Doraiswamy, is entitled “L'Emigrant” (Sedajazz records) and performed live at the Valencia Jazz Festival with great success.

In 2016 Albert decided to continue sowing the seed that he started in 2011 with Javier Colina, interpreting with his personal imprint the music of famous Brazilian composers, giving birth to two albums: The first entitled “Sampa” (Youkalimusic) with the collaboration of Silvia Perez Cruz and the second (2020) entitled “Sinhá”(Youkalimusic) with the special participation of Jorge Drexler.

During the Pandemic in 2020 Albert recorded his first album as a singer collaborating with Javier Botella, publishing “It never was you”, presented at the Olympia theatre. Also in 2020 he made his debut as a soloist leading an orchestra playing a very jazzy version of George Gherswin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” at the Principal theatre in Valencia.

Currently Albert is focusing more than ever on composing for his next project while collaborating with other artists and continuing to teach at Berklee Valencia and very recently at the encouraging ESMAR project.