Nate Chinen for NPR – Precocity has long been a defining feature in the career of Christian Sands. Growing up around New Haven, Conn., he was a boy wonder on piano; by his early teens he was a protégé of the eminent jazz educator Dr. Billy Taylor. Most jazz observers today know him as a dazzling presence in bands led by bassist Christian McBride, who had a similar trajectory as a rising talent around the time Sands was busy being born.
PREMIERE: NPR First Listen: Christian Sands, ‘Facing Dragons’
