No one who has ever heard drummer Antonio Sanchez would quarrel with the title of this solo album. For the past 17 years he has been drummer of choice in Pat Metheny's groups, and is as technically impressive as any of the guitarist's former collaborators. Last year the Mexico-born virtuoso bought himself a house, chosen principally for its capacious basement, into which the drummer promptly installed the home studio he had always dreamed of. Bad Hombre – named for the alter ego he adopts therein – is a bravura display of contemporary acoustic drumming overlaid with a pungent, densely mixed soup of keyboards, electronic noise and voice, the answer to the question: if a great drummer can play anything he wants, what does he play?

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