Straight to the heart: David Sanborn, RIP
A Smooth Jazz icon but so much more
David Sanborn started out as a session sax player in the late ‘60s, playing with Paul Butterfield - he played withe Butterfield’s Blues Band at Woodstock! - before his career exploded in the ‘70s, a decade in which he appeared on records by the likes of David Bowie (the solo on “Young Americans”), Stevie Wonder, the Eagles, and James Taylor (the solo on “How Sweet It Is”), among many others. His first solo record was released in 1975. As the ‘80s began, he famously played on Steely Dan’s Gaucho (that’s him on “Time Out of Mind,” the Dan’s final Top 40 hit), and on Aretha Franklin’s cover of the Doobies’ “What A Fool Believes”. Several of his songs, from 1982’s “Straight to the Heart” to 1987’s “Chicago Song,” are absolute classics of Smooth Jazz and still get airplay in the format to this day. He didn’t slouch in the personnel on his own records, either: on ‘82’s As We Speak, for example: Marcus Miller on bass (he also co-wrote four tracks), Paulinho da Costa on percussion, Omar Hakim behind the drums, and on guitar, vocals on a pair, and a co-writing credit on three, a pre-“Maniac” Michael Sembello.
Sanborn made great collaborative albums with Bob James, notably 1986’s Double Vision (which climbed to #16 on the R&B Albums chart!). As his solo career supernova’d (he topped Billboard’s Jazz Albums chart 5 times in the 1980s), he kept doing big-time session work: working with the likes of the Stones, Clapton, Carly Simon, Kenny Loggins. His is the sax on Bryan Ferry’s “Don’t Stop the Dance.” If you’re over 30, you’ve very likely heard Sanborn, even if you don’t know you’ve heard Sanborn. He had a very distinct tone and way in which he played, for Sanborn was by & large not the most subtle player. He often honked, which I might point out we celebrate bop titans for, but it wasn’t okay for Sanborn? C’mon. (And that said, check out his playing on “Since I Fell for You,” with Bob James (and Al Jarreau on vocals): positively tender. He could do it, it just wasn’t his default mode.)
As the Smooth Jazz radio format sprang up in the late ‘80s, few were more core artists than Sanborn - Kenny G, maybe, Grover Washington Jr., and that may be about it. (There’s more to be written, later, about the ubiquity of the saxophone in the genre.) David Sanborn made smart records that played to his strengths and clearly had fun doing so - just listen to the way he blows on “Chicago Song”! Below is a playlist of a smattering of my Sanborn favorites, best listened to on shuffle. And loudly: turn up those speakers and open the windows (or, if you’re in a car, put ‘em down) - that’s what Sanborn’s style of playing was meant for. May he Rest in Power.