Acclaimed jazz sax star, DAVID SANBORN died on Sunday 12th May. He was aged 78 and the sad news was announced on his social media account:- “It is with sad and heavy hearts that we convey to you the loss of internationally renowned, six-time Grammy Award-winning, saxophonist, David Sanborn. Mr. Sanborn passed Sunday afternoon, May 12th, after an extended battle with prostate cancer with complications.”
Sanborn was born on July 30, 1945, in Tampa, Florida where he learned clarinet before graduating to saxophone citing as inspiration the music of Hank Crawford. Something of a prodigy, as a teenager he worked with Little Milton and Alber King before joining the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1967.
Eventually based in NYC, he went on to work with people like James Brown, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, The Eagles and many, many more. It’s Sanborn’s sax on Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’, Stevie’s ‘Tuesday Heartbreak’ and James Taylor’s version of ‘How Sweet It Is’ by the way.
Encouraged by the Brecker Brothers (after a stint working with them), Sanborn embarked on a successful solo career – releasing hit album after hit album – LPs like ‘Voyeur’, ‘As We Speak’ and ‘Straight To The Heart’ while his duet albums with Bob James are considered genre classics.
Amongst Sanborn’s most loved tunes are ‘Maputo’ (with Bob James) and ‘Chicago Song’.
