David Sanborn definitely belongs on any list of great alto players. I own many of his CDs as a leader and sideman.
Sanborn recorded on a lot of sessions with tenor Michael Brecker who has been discussed here a lot recently.
Jazz for aficionados
@pjw81563 Thanks for setting me straight! I did not realize Sanborn had recorded so much as a leader and sideman. |
David Sanborn is the most imitated alto player in the Pop/Jazz-Funk-R&B style, Not an improviser on the level of harmonic sophistication of the recently mentioned alto players. However, in a funky setting he is the best. One hears a tone and general attitude that is clearly borrowing from Sanborn from countless alto saxophone players in genres that lean more to Rock and/or Smooth Jazz. Not a put down all all. He has tons of what pjw recently referred to as (great) “emotional improvisation”. Playing stuff that leans to bebop, that highly stylized, acerbic tone of his sounds a little out of place and unwieldy. But, man, playing a Pop ballad or funky back beat he is the greatest.
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That’s the point of what I wrote above. There aren’t any. I have heard Sanborn play in more straight ahead settings as part of special event TV shows (including his own late night show years ago), award shows, etc. He can work his way through a set of changes more complicated than in most Pop tunes, but It’s not his forte. It’s kind of the reverse of the way that, for instance, Lee Konitz playing in a one chord funky groove would sound….kinda weird. The genre doesn’t need much of that boundless harmonic skill, it needs a certain attitude and sound. |