Antonio Sánchez (Pat Metheny, Birdman, Chick Corea) Live Interview: Jazz Improv, The Studio, Birdman

Learning to Speak the Language of Film

Writing music for film or television comes with a different creative process compared to writing your own albums. When composing personal music, Sánchez explained, the only real filter is himself. But when working in film, you suddenly find yourself collaborating with directors, producers, editors, and music supervisors. Sometimes all at once. That dynamic can be both rewarding and challenging.

One of the most interesting aspects he described is learning to translate feedback from people who are not musicians. For example, when a director asks for something “faster,” they might not actually mean increasing the tempo. They might simply want more subdivisions or a denser texture.

Even with those challenges, he finds the experience deeply satisfying. There is something special about composing music alone in a room and then, months later, hearing it come alive on screen as part of a finished story.

For a musician whose background is deeply rooted in improvisation, film scoring also taps into a familiar skill: reacting in real time.

In fact, when he first began working on Birdman, he sat with the director and improvised based purely on descriptions of the scenes. He responded to the emotional pacing of the story in much the same way a jazz musician responds to another soloist.

Always Searching for New Challenges

One theme that kept coming up during our conversation was Sánchez’s constant drive to explore new musical territory. Rather than repeating formulas that already work, he seems determined to keep pushing himself into unfamiliar territory.

A great example is his project Beat Trio, which features an unusual lineup. Drums, Colombian harp, and banjo. The trio includes virtuoso banjo player Béla Fleck and harpist Edmar Castañeda.

Sánchez explained that at a certain stage in a musician’s career, it becomes harder and harder to find something genuinely new. Combining instruments that rarely appear together is one way of forcing a new creative challenge.

In this case, both the harp and banjo are incredibly rhythmic instruments with sharp attack and percussive qualities. That means the trio requires intense precision and interplay.

“Comfortable Being Uncomfortable”

One of my favourite moments in the conversation came when we discussed improvisation. Sánchez described jazz musicians as people who are “comfortable being uncomfortable.” In other words, they step into situations where the outcome is unknown and trust their experience and instincts to guide them in the moment.

That mindset extends into how he approaches the drums themselves. While some drummers meticulously compose their parts, Sánchez often prefers to let ideas unfold organically. However, he also acknowledges the value of structure. Repeating certain phrases or patterns if they serve the music.

For him, the ideal balance is having one leg in the known and one leg in the unknown.

Drummers vs. Musicians

Another subject Sánchez spoke passionately about was something he jokingly calls “drummer-itis.” It's the tendency for drummers to think purely in terms of technique, chops, patterns, and fills rather than thinking musically.

His advice to younger players is simple but powerful. Focus on storytelling.

Music, he explained, works much like language. Just as speech relies on phrases, punctuation, and pauses, music needs space, repetition, and connection between ideas.

Without that structure, even impressive playing can feel like a random stream of ideas. A great exercise he suggests is to play a short phrase, stop, and repeat it. Then vary it slightly. Play it softer, louder, or with a small rhythmic change. Those tiny developments begin to form a narrative. In other words, the drums become a voice rather than just an instrument.

Walking away from the interview, I was struck by how deeply Sánchez thinks about music as communication. Whether he is composing for film, improvising on stage, or collaborating with other musicians, everything ultimately comes back to the same idea. Telling a story. And hearing him talk about it only reinforced why his playing has resonated with me, and many others, for so long.