You may not have heard much about him in the news or in the charts but David Sandborn is one of those musicians whose work in the background of the music industry has influenced trends and sounds over decades. Mostly remembered for his soft jazz albums of the 80’s and 90’s his influence goes a lot further. Originally a blues man, he started off his career in Paul Butterfields Butterfield Blues Band in 1967 and through to 1971 recorded four albums with them. He soon got involved in Big Band sounds with Gil Evans who introduced him to jazz influenced rhythms under a progressive rock cloak (playing, for instance, jazz inspired saxophone solos on Gil Evans recordings of Jimmi Hendrix songs).
As a session player he was a huge influence on the recordings of many stars such as Melanie and Stevie Wonder and was a guest artist on records and shows of Al Jarreau, the Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton, and Sting and that is only mentioning a few. He released somewhere around twenty four albums of his own over the years and was also involved in the music scores of quite a number of films, most notably the the Lethal Weapon series. He received a total of six Grammy Awards and was one of the most successful and high earning saxophonists of his time.
His greatest achievement seems to be that he managed to remain almost unnoticed as he spread his style of playing like a carpet under the feet of the rock and pop giants of the day.
David Sandborn died in New York last Sunday, 12th May 2024.
ah that’s a nice tribute Paul, very lyrical way to think of his music spreading “like a carpet under the feet” of his fellow performers