Christian Sands receives the Duke Ellington medal from Yale's Henry and Lucy Moses Dean of Music, José García-León. Yale School of Music/Harold Shapiro Photos.
As members of the audience looked towards the stage, their souls locked in on the magic happening before them. At the piano, Christian Sands’ fingertips sprinkled sharp and smooth melodies along the keys, arms arched over the board.
Eyewitnesses saw a piano, but was there a harp? You get the idea. It was that good.
Sands brought that sound to Morse Recital Hall Friday evening, as he gave a dazzling, moving, fiery concert as the most recent awardee of the Yale School of Music’s Duke Ellington Medal. Born and raised in New Haven and Orange and educated at Neighborhood Music School, the composer, musician and producer has become a jazz virtuoso, and left it all on the stage Friday night.
Sands marks the 63rd winner of the medal, which since 1972 has gone to musicians including Eubie Blake, Paul Robeson, Dizzie Gillepsie, Savion Glover, Charles Mingus, the beloved Willie Ruff and of course Ellington himself.
“It is very exciting and fulfilling to award this medal, as it means that a jazz great is not only performing at Yale, but will have a permanent connection to Yale School of Music,” said Thomas Duffy, a professor at the Yale School of Music who is also director of the Ellington Jazz Series and of Yale Bands.
Yale School of Music/Harold Shapiro Photos.
It was also a homecoming of sorts. As Sands took a seat on the stage and began to play, the audience travelled through space and time, watching history in motion. At early moments, it felt like October 1972, when Ellington received the medal for the first time, and the tradition was inaugurated at the Yale School of Music.
Then a song or solo later, it was the present all over again, as Sands and his quartet (Christian Sands on piano, his brother Ryan Sands on percussion, Yasushi Nakamura on bass and Marvin Sewell on guitar) brought it back to 2025. A flourish of keys, and there were glimpses into the future of the form, which remained bright.
“These are my brothers,” Sands said of his fellow musicians, and the audience went wild. Hands clapped and lips whistled, welcoming both him and Ryan—his brother by birth—home to their musical roots. The audience remained just as warm while greeting Sewell and Nakamura, fully receiving Sands’ chosen kin.
Their enthusiasm fit the bill: Sands can play, and he did. If birds of a feather flock together, consider the quartet a flight of doves bringing peace in dark times. Throughout the night, Sewell zapped out wailing threads of electricity, from “Can’t Find My Way Home” to “Serenade of An Angel.” Nakamura thumped deep anchoring notes, strings in full agreement with his touch. He epitomized cool, wearing dark shades and a wholesome, confident smile with stylishly braided hair.
Meanwhile, Ryan Sands’ high-powered boom-baps and transcendent brush-stroked cymbals reverberated throughout Morse Hall.
As the music flowed between past and present, it showed that jazz is alive and well in New Haven. Christian Sands’ cover of Duke Ellington’s “Sentimental Mood” paid tribute to a classic tune, while also making it the musician’s own. If you know jazz, you know the work—but never exactly as it was performed Friday.
Yale School of Music/Harold Shapiro Photos.
With ethereal strokes of the keys, he took Ellington melodies to another level. His captivating slides were unforgettable. Fingers ran down the piano at the speed of light with percussive strokes, releasing harp-like tones as they struck the board.
“That was from the heart!” said Jesse Hameen II, a jazz drummer who helped build the summer jazz program at Neighborhood Music School, and taught both Sands brothers when they were young children (Hameen also won the Ellington Medal two years ago, in February 2023). “Christian plays from the heart. Combine that with intellect. That’s something! Christian is not afraid of sound. He gets in there.”
Having known the Sands brothers since they were children, Hameen said he’s been thrilled to watch them soar as young artists, and succeed in the world of professional jazz. As he listened, he jammed along, feeling each and every note.
Hameen wasn’t the only one in the hometown crowd. Sands’ parents, including his mom and manager Stephanie Sands and dad, Sylvester Sands, looked proudly from their seats as both sons performed, commanding their chosen instruments. It felt like an accomplishment shared by the entire family.
“My father performed here with his school band as a child. This is full circle,” Sands said.
He kept it in the family with “MMC” (that’s shorthand for “Mom’s Mac n' Cheese,” which he and Ryan both revere), an original composition that had listeners sinking their teeth into the flavor of good music. Imagine the power of songs with no words, and you have a taste of it. Each instrument gave its own testimony while synchronizing to tell a single story. The audience was given a gift—almost four concerts in one.
It proved that the well-worn adage, “home is where the heart is” is true (although for Stephanie Sands' sake, let us not hope that the audience shows up on her doorstep for an encore and a plate of mac and cheese). In these times, musicians have become doctors, making house calls to our souls. Sands never needed to say as much: multiple standing ovations spoke for themselves. Many had been restored the night the Christian Sands Quartet came to town.