Gene Burkert Joins Poncho Sanchez Group; Conga Drummer Just Back From Europe

C ongero /bandleader Poncho Sanchez, who recently returned from his debut tour of Europe, has a new saxophonist. Gene Burkert, 25, who has been heard in Los Angeles with his own quartet and George Stone’s Diajobu, has joined the busy Latin/jazz ensemble, replacing Kenny Goldberg, who was with Sanchez’s band for three years.

Though the decision to change reed players was made by Sanchez--who fronts one of the few bands in jazz that both works steadily and maintains a fixed personnel roster--both he and Goldberg agree the parting was amicable.

“I like Kenny’s playing and writing,” Sanchez said Monday from New York, where his octet was playing the Village Gate nightclub, “but it just wasn’t working out. It was time for a change.”

“It had been a good three years,” Goldberg said, “but I want to pursue further musical challenges. I’m already involved in some new writing projects.” Goldberg--who plays Saturday with John Pisano and Velas at the Made in Brazil Festival at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium--contributed several compositions to Sanchez’s book.

For his part, Burkert is thrilled. “I’m working full-time and that will allow me a lot more time to work on musical things,” he said from New York, where he is traveling with Sanchez. “I was teaching preschool part-time for the City of Beverly Hills before I joined Poncho and I found it difficult to come home after that and practice. I could say that my life is a little more relaxed now, though the band keeps me pretty busy.”

Burkert was recommended to Sanchez by reedman Gary Foster, with whom Burkert has studied for three years. Foster has known the conga drummer since Sanchez was a member of Cal Tjader’s band a decade ago and plays a cameo alto spot on Sanchez’s latest LP, “La Familia” (Concord/Picante). “Gary said Gene was one of his best students, and he fit in right from the start,” said Sanchez, who plays at Sausalito South in Manhattan Beach next Wednesday.

Sanchez said his first European trek, which included the Pori Jazz Festival in Pori, Finland, and the Grande Parades du Jazz in Nice, France, was rigorous. “We took 14 plane flights in 16 days, and some of those were followed by four- and five-hour bus rides.”

But rewarding. “It was good. Everybody wants us back. People are finally starting to get hip to us, so I don’t think we better break up the band just yet,” he quipped.

One of the tour’s highlights was when trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandoval, the Cuban ace brassman, sat in with Sanchez’s band at Sardinia, Italy. “That was a gas,” Sanchez exclaimed. “We do some of Dizzy’s tunes like ‘Manteca’ and ‘A Night in Tunisia.’ Dizzy told me, ‘Hey, we should do this more often.’ ”

Upon his return to the Southland, Sanchez--who recently purchased a new home in Norwalk--made a guest appearance on a Sandoval date produced by the drummer’s manager, Frank Marrone. “That was great,” Sanchez said of the session that spotlighted the multifaceted Sandoval, who was a founding member of Irakere and who stills resides in Havana. “That guy’s got chops.”

**** Alan Broadbent’s “Away From You” (Trend) is modern mainstream trio music with definite shelf life. The pianist, bassist Putter Smith and drummer Frank Gibson Jr. vigorously investigate the nine numbers, storming into “Pent-Up House” and dancing spritely through “Daahoud” and “Sonny’s Step.” “Footprints” is serenity in motion, and the title track, a bittersweet ballad, exposes Broadbent’s finest asset: his never-cloying lyricism.

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