There are a handful of musicians in the music industry you’d swear have played on everything. Saxophonist David Sanborn was one of those musicians. His distinctive tone and style on the alto sax graced hundreds if not thousands of recordings throughout his career. On May 12, 2024, we lost David Sanborn to complications from prostate cancer, something he had been treated for since 2018. His loss leaves an empty space that is difficult if not impossible for other saxophonists to fill.
David William Sanborn was born on July 30, 1945 in Tampa Bay, Florida, where his father was stationed in the US Air Force. He grew up in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri not far from the influence of the Chicago blues artists who would shape his music. At the age of three, he contracted polio, which affected his right leg, his left arm, and his lungs, for which he had to spend a year in an iron lung. As part of his treatment to build his respiratory strength, a doctor recommended that he take up the saxophone at 11. He was enamored with the sound of Hank Crawford, who was Ray Charles’ arranger and saxophonist, which inspired him to learn the instrument.
By the age of 14, he was already performing with blues musicians like Little Milton and Albert King. His musical studies took him to Northwestern University and the University of Iowa. He joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1967, remaining with the band for four years and appearing with the band at Woodstock. He can be heard on the title track to the album In My Own Dream taking a solo on the soprano sax.
Following that, Sanborn began making the rounds of popular and rock music albums, appearing on Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book (and touring in support of the album), James Taylor’s Gorilla, and his alto solo on David Bowie’s “Young Americans” is an iconic sound of the mid-1970s.
In addition to playing on hit records of the day, Sanborn was also playing on soul jazz recordings, and featured prominently in many of the records produced by Creed Taylor for the CTI Records spinoff label Kudu Records. In fact, his prominent role on guitarist Joe Beck’s album Beck would later be renamed Beck & Sanborn in a later reissue. Here is the album’s opening track, “Starfire.”
With this background, it was a natural progression for Sanborn to release albums under his own name. Beginning in 1975, he released his first album, Taking Off, which featured many of his musical pals such as Randy and Michael Brecker, Will Lee, Buzz Feiten, Don Grolnick, Ralph MacDonald, and many others. Joe Beck makes an appearance, as does arranger David Matthews, who took over arranging duties at CTI and Kudu once Don Sebesky and Bob James left the stable. “The Whisperer” is a mid-tempo feature from this album.
Sanborn’s stock in trade was a mix of instrumental pop, jazz, funk, and soul, and many of his records followed this formula. One of his signature songs (and certainly the crowd-pleaser at his concerts) is “Chicago Song,” from the album A Change of Heart. This album was one of many produced by bassist Marcus Miller.
After several albums of synthesizer-driven instrumental jazz/pop/funk, Sanborn made an abrupt left turn and swore off the type of radio-oriented music he had been churning out for over a decade and a half. Fans of those records were not prepared for Another Hand, which was a thoughtful, quiet, and introspective album that pooled the talents of various musicians such as Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Mulgrew Miller, and other well-known names scattered throughout the tracks. The wild card here is Terry Adams of NRBQ; Sanborn pulls off a terrific cover of that band’s “Hobbies,” and Adams appears on that track as well as “Cee” and “Come to Me, Nina,” both of which he also composed. While there are songs here by Charlie Haden, Bill Frisell and others, his cover of the Lou Reed song “Jesus” will send shivers up and down the listener’s spine.
One of my favorite albums of Sanborn’s is Upfront, which immediately followed Another Hand. While it’s more boisterous like his earlier albums, the big change here is that except for a few minor parts, the songs all feature “real” instruments. The feeling here is bluesy, driven by the Hammond B3 organ of Ricky Peterson. “Full House” features a cameo by Eric Clapton, and lest anyone feel Sanborn had put aside his avant-garde leanings, the album ends with an Ornette Coleman song, “Ramblin’.” The following track, “Soul Serenade,” was composed by Luther Dixon and King Curtis.
Upfront was not the only album that would reach into his blues influences. His 2008 album Here and Gone touches on the blues and soul, serving as a tribute to Ray Charles. He covers “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town” from Charles’ Genius + Soul = Jazz, with a guest vocal by Eric Clapton.
In 2014, vibraphone legend Bobby Hutcherson featured organist Joey DeFrancesco, drummer Billy Hart, and Sanborn on the Blue Note album Enjoy the View. Leaning more into soul-jazz and hard bop, this album puts Sanborn in a different context. Here is a cover of Hutcherson’s “Montara,” originally recorded in 1975 for Blue Note.
The 2015 album Time and the River, which marked his 40th anniversary as a leader, was his 25th and final studio album. Here’s a cover of the Whitfield/Strong “Can’t Get Next to You,” featuring Larry Braggs on vocals.
All told, David Sanborn’s recordings netted him six GRAMMY Awards, eight Gold albums, and one Platinum album. His activities were not limited to recording and touring, however. Aside from appearances on late-night television programs such as Late Night with David Letterman and the Saturday Night Live Band, he co-hosted a late-night television show with Jools Holland called Night Music, which featured Sanborn with a large cross-section of musicians. He hosted a syndicated radio program called The Jazz Show with David Sanborn in the 1980s and 1990s. His last video venture was Sanborn Sessions, a series recorded from his home in New York featuring music and interviews; these videos featured such artists as Sting, Marcus Miller, Michael McDonald, Bob James, and others. In recent years he also started a podcast, As We Speak, named after his 1981 album.
While Sanborn was endorsed for a short time in the early 1980s by Yamaha and played their instruments on a pair of his records, his preference was for Selmer Mark VI alto saxophones, within a serial number range produced in 1967. (The Mark VI is a holy grail for many saxophonists, produced from 1954 to 1975. Saxophone fanatics can read more about this legendary model in this archived article from The New Yorker.) He used mouthpieces made by Bobby Dukoff and Aaron Drake.
His style could be described as edgy, bright, and very “in your face” as compared to other saxophonists. As we can see from his recordings and many appearances, his musical style took a knotty path in and around the blues, jazz, rock, soul, R&B, and many other styles. Some labeled his music as “smooth jazz” which, as with other musicians, rankled him a bit. Given his many influences and passions, he was not fond of labels. “I’m not so interested in what is or isn’t jazz. The guardians of the gate can be quite combative, but what are they protecting? Jazz has always absorbed and transformed what’s around it.” He later added, “Real musicians don’t have any time to spend thinking about limited categories.” (Interview in DownBeat magazine, 2017.)
His “surfing” of styles is what made David Sanborn’s legacy of having appeared on seemingly “everyone’s” records. His sound was immediately identifiable. And with his passing, a unique voice in the world of music is silenced, but we have a lifetime of recordings and guest appearances to enjoy forever.
Header image courtesy of Alice Soyer Sanborn.
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