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Do IT this week: Layering
David Sanborn exceeds any one kind of label. You can find out why Saturday at Lock 3 Park
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal pop music writer
POSTED: 12:00 p.m. EDT, Jul 22, 2009
Alto saxophonist David Sanborn was smooth and jazzy long before ''smooth jazz'' became a section at the local record store or a commercial radio format.
Sanborn, who will be headlining a concert Saturday night at Akron's Lock 3 Park, has been a respected and successful session man and solo artist for more than three decades. The casual music fan may want to lump him in with the Kenny Gs and Richard Elliots of the jazz world, but his catalog and career are more interesting and varied and cannot just be summed up with ''smooth jazz.''
''There's nothing I can do about it,'' said Sanborn, 63, from his New York home about the smooth jazz label. ''I don't really spend much time thinking about things I can't do anything about.
''I don't think it's particularly accurate,'' he continued. ''I've been playing music long before that category existed. I think what's come to define that genre is what's played on radio stations that call themselves smooth jazz.
''But if they play Sting music on there, does that make him a smooth jazz artist?,'' he asked. ''I guess in a certain way it does. But I don't like any category of music that seems exclusionary. I think that's what bothers me; not so much what it is, but what it isn't.''
Sanborn's career certainly has not been exclusionary. Born in Tampa, Fla., and raised in St. Louis on that city's rich R&B and blues scene that has always infused his music, Sanborn first picked up the saxophone at 3 years old on the suggestion of doctors after contracting polio.
After high school, Sanborn attended Northwestern University and the University of Iowa. A phone call from a buddy led him to move to San Francisco where his resume truly began with a five-year stint with the Butterfield Blues Band that included performing at Woodstock, and Sanborn hasn't stopped working since.
After the Butterfield gig he was tapped by Stevie Wonder to play on Talking Book, spent some time jamming for the Rolling Stones and played the famous sax line on David Bowie's Young Americans. He also appeared on Michael Stanley's Friends & Legends, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, Todd Rundgren's A Wizard a True Star and recordings by Elton John, bass legend Jaco Pastorius, Mose Allison, Chaka Khan, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Parliament, famed arranger and Miles Davis cohort Gil Evans, several movie and television soundtracks, the Eagles and Cheech & Chong to name a few.
In 1975, he released his debut solo album, Taking Off, which featured his signature style heavy with emotion and soulful wailing.
While danceable R&B and pop grooves of tunes such as Chicago Song are perhaps his best known, his catalog also includes stylistic left turns including the introspective, exploratory, acoustic 1991 album Another Hand featuring decidedly non ''smooth'' jazz artists such as bassist Charlie Haden and unique guitarist Bill Frisell.
In a nod to his eclecticism, Sanborn was one of the hosts of Sunday Night/Night Music, a beloved late night television show that ran from the late '80s into the early '90s. It brought together disparate and often noncommercial musicians such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Todd Rundgren and early television appearances from hip bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sonic Youth.
More recently, Sanborn's 21st century albums find him placing himself in different and more organic musical settings mixing jazz, pop and blues standards into his soulful sound.
In summer 2008 he released album No. 24, Here & Gone, a salute to saxophonists Hank Crawford and David ''Fathead'' Newman and the music of Ray Charles, for whom both musicians served as music directors.
''Both of them [Crawford and Newman] were major inspirations for me,'' Sanborn said. ''Those guys have never really left me. I've never really gone very far from where I started in terms of how I approach playing and the source of my inspiration.
''The catalyst for making a record like this was just downloading stuff onto my iPod and at one point I just came to the realization of how much this music has meant to me over the years and how fresh and immediate it sounds and I just found myself going back there more and more and then one thing led to another and then this album.''
Here & Gone features nine tracks most associated with the late 50s-early 60s era of Ray Charles' music including three tracks from Charles' legendary Genius + Soul = Jazz as well as a Crawford composition Stoney Lonesome.
Guests include Allman Brothers slide guitarist Derek Trucks on the slow blues groove of the Marcus Miller-penned Charles tribute Brother Ray.
Joss Stone sings on I Believe to My Soul, old buddy Clapton shows up to add a soulful vocal and tasteful guitar to I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town, and rock hall inductee Sam Moore lends a lively vocal to the humorous blues of I've Got News for You.
The album, produced by the legendary engineer/producer Phil Ramone, who worked with John Coltrane, Billy Joel and Alice Cooper, among many others, has a relaxed first/second-take feel.
''It's the nature of the music,'' Sanborn said. ''You can't really overcalculate that music. You've got to maintain a certain spontaneity of interaction and if you do it five or six times its going to feel a little contrived and forced.
''I think you make the record in the way that reflects the nature of the music,'' he continued. ''The nature of this music is more immediate and spontaneous and that's a quality that had to come across, even at the expense of me sacrificing what I thought was not my best performance, but the vibe was there.
''If the vibe was there then me sitting around agonizing about whether I could have done something better becomes academic.''
The saxophonist, who will turn 64 on July 30, said he does not dwell on his storied career.
''I try not to look back because it serves no purpose for me. I can't start indulging myself in those get-a-load-of-me moments. I'm more interested in the next thing than the last thing.''
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Details
• What: David Sanborn with Jazz Coalition
• When: 7 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Lock 3 Park, 200 S. Main St., Akron
• Tickets: $5
• Information: http://www.lock3live.com
Alto saxophonist David Sanborn was smooth and jazzy long before ''smooth jazz'' became a section at the local record store or a commercial radio format.
Sanborn, who will be headlining a concert Saturday night at Akron's Lock 3 Park, has been a respected and successful session man and solo artist for more than three decades. The casual music fan may want to lump him in with the Kenny Gs and Richard Elliots of the jazz world, but his catalog and career are more interesting and varied and cannot just be summed up with ''smooth jazz.''
''There's nothing I can do about it,'' said Sanborn, 63, from his New York home about the smooth jazz label. ''I don't really spend much time thinking about things I can't do anything about.
''I don't think it's particularly accurate,'' he continued. ''I've been playing music long before that category existed. I think what's come to define that genre is what's played on radio stations that call themselves smooth jazz.
''But if they play Sting music on there, does that make him a smooth jazz artist?,'' he asked. ''I guess in a certain way it does. But I don't like any category of music that seems exclusionary. I think that's what bothers me; not so much what it is, but what it isn't.''
Sanborn's career certainly has not been exclusionary. Born in Tampa, Fla., and raised in St. Louis on that city's rich R&B and blues scene that has always infused his music, Sanborn first picked up the saxophone at 3 years old on the suggestion of doctors after contracting polio.
After high school, Sanborn attended Northwestern University and the University of Iowa. A phone call from a buddy led him to move to San Francisco where his resume truly began with a five-year stint with the Butterfield Blues Band that included performing at Woodstock, and Sanborn hasn't stopped working since.
After the Butterfield gig he was tapped by Stevie Wonder to play on Talking Book, spent some time jamming for the Rolling Stones and played the famous sax line on David Bowie's Young Americans. He also appeared on Michael Stanley's Friends & Legends, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, Todd Rundgren's A Wizard a True Star and recordings by Elton John, bass legend Jaco Pastorius, Mose Allison, Chaka Khan, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Parliament, famed arranger and Miles Davis cohort Gil Evans, several movie and television soundtracks, the Eagles and Cheech & Chong to name a few.
In 1975, he released his debut solo album, Taking Off, which featured his signature style heavy with emotion and soulful wailing.
While danceable R&B and pop grooves of tunes such as Chicago Song are perhaps his best known, his catalog also includes stylistic left turns including the introspective, exploratory, acoustic 1991 album Another Hand featuring decidedly non ''smooth'' jazz artists such as bassist Charlie Haden and unique guitarist Bill Frisell.
In a nod to his eclecticism, Sanborn was one of the hosts of Sunday Night/Night Music, a beloved late night television show that ran from the late '80s into the early '90s. It brought together disparate and often noncommercial musicians such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Todd Rundgren and early television appearances from hip bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sonic Youth.
More recently, Sanborn's 21st century albums find him placing himself in different and more organic musical settings mixing jazz, pop and blues standards into his soulful sound.
In summer 2008 he released album No. 24, Here & Gone, a salute to saxophonists Hank Crawford and David ''Fathead'' Newman and the music of Ray Charles, for whom both musicians served as music directors.
''Both of them [Crawford and Newman] were major inspirations for me,'' Sanborn said. ''Those guys have never really left me. I've never really gone very far from where I started in terms of how I approach playing and the source of my inspiration.
''The catalyst for making a record like this was just downloading stuff onto my iPod and at one point I just came to the realization of how much this music has meant to me over the years and how fresh and immediate it sounds and I just found myself going back there more and more and then one thing led to another and then this album.''
Here & Gone features nine tracks most associated with the late 50s-early 60s era of Ray Charles' music including three tracks from Charles' legendary Genius + Soul = Jazz as well as a Crawford composition Stoney Lonesome.
Guests include Allman Brothers slide guitarist Derek Trucks on the slow blues groove of the Marcus Miller-penned Charles tribute Brother Ray.
Joss Stone sings on I Believe to My Soul, old buddy Clapton shows up to add a soulful vocal and tasteful guitar to I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town, and rock hall inductee Sam Moore lends a lively vocal to the humorous blues of I've Got News for You.
The album, produced by the legendary engineer/producer Phil Ramone, who worked with John Coltrane, Billy Joel and Alice Cooper, among many others, has a relaxed first/second-take feel.
''It's the nature of the music,'' Sanborn said. ''You can't really overcalculate that music. You've got to maintain a certain spontaneity of interaction and if you do it five or six times its going to feel a little contrived and forced.
''I think you make the record in the way that reflects the nature of the music,'' he continued. ''The nature of this music is more immediate and spontaneous and that's a quality that had to come across, even at the expense of me sacrificing what I thought was not my best performance, but the vibe was there.
''If the vibe was there then me sitting around agonizing about whether I could have done something better becomes academic.''
The saxophonist, who will turn 64 on July 30, said he does not dwell on his storied career.
''I try not to look back because it serves no purpose for me. I can't start indulging myself in those get-a-load-of-me moments. I'm more interested in the next thing than the last thing.''
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Details
• What: David Sanborn with Jazz Coalition
• When: 7 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Lock 3 Park, 200 S. Main St., Akron
• Tickets: $5
• Information: http://www.lock3live.com
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 08:01 PM, 07/22/2009
When is The University of Akron's performing arts hall going to start living up to its promise to start bringing big name, national acts to the campus which are geared toward UA students? UA's idiotic rock the roo and stage door series are a joke compared to real shows where the artist is on the stage and the audience is seated in the house. This fake university facility has a long history of ripping off UA students. Enough with UA's phony pizza and hot dog parties outside of the facility for the UA student body. It reminds me of white plantation owners who fed their black slaves the innards of the pig while the deserving white folk ate the prime cuts on the inside of the home.
FIRE DAN DAHL AND HIS SYNCOPHANTIC STAFF!
Canton, OH
Posted 11:44 PM, 07/22/2009
David Sanborn is a GREAT Musician. . .
" Taking Off " is his BEST Album, err, CD. . .
Seminole, FL
Posted 02:24 AM, 07/23/2009
Jason12: Because it is Akron, no big names are going to go there!
Slovensko: I do know, and do have some of David Sanborn's albums. But then again, I am the family dork...just my views....
akron, OH
Posted 01:07 AM, 07/26/2009
I attented sat night good crowd nice preformance, if you enjoy real talent and didnt show up you missed a good one Akron organizers great job
