David Sanborn
David Sanborn
David Sanbornis an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school. Sanborn has also worked extensively as a session musician, notably on David Bowie's Young Americans...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSaxophonist
Date of Birth30 July 1945
CityTampa, FL
CountryUnited States of America
I'm moved by a lot of different kinds of music, whether it's pop music or R&B or straight-ahead jazz or free or opera or music from all parts of the world.
I'm just saying that the basic concept of creative freedom and growth creatively is a continuous process.
I'm one of those people that wants to bring a lot of disparate elements together.
I think Norah Jones is a perfect example. Here's somebody who was playing the music she wanted to play and did it with some conviction, and it happened to be at a moment in time when there was a highly receptive audience for that kind of music.
While St. Louis is technically regarded as part of the Mid-West, it's actually - geographically and emotionally - more part of the South. I mean, the sensibility of St. Louis is really very much that of a Southern Mississippi river-town.
The audience is interested in different stuff, not the same old, same old.
No, it's unfair to the musicians and the people that work for the record labels, because they're scrambling to make their numbers every month or three months, or they're out of a job.
It's always difficult to define what jazz is or what jazz isn't. To me, the only definition that I can think of is it's music where a lot of different elements are played at the same time. The harmonic, the melodic... You're pushing the boundaries on every level. That could be true of rhythm and blues as well. I'm a musician.
It's tough to be in a relationship with a musician, because it reads sometimes as this ego and self-involvement when it's really just concentration and focus.
They thought there was a market out there for instrumental music. They were trying to broaden their roster of artists. I got in on that.
The music is going to change anyway, whether or not the record companies get behind it or not. The music is there, and it's happening, and it's going on out there.
I started out, obviously, as a sideman, and I had some really good gigs as a sideman.
I do this because I love it, and at the end of the day, the fact that I can make a living at all doing this, I'm grateful for.
I don't see any way out of that because I think the audience as a whole is not being served and isn't getting excited about going out an buying CD's, and for that matter, going out and going to concerts.