David Sanborn’s Adventures Beyond the Realm of Jazz

The passing of alto saxophone titan David Sanborn, who died on Mother’s Day following a battle with prostate cancer, was not only a loss to jazz but the entire music world at large.

In fact, before the 78-year-old reedist even appeared on a jazz record, a teenage Sanborn landed gigs backing up the likes of such blues icons as Little Milton and Albert King before securing a steady role in 1967 as a part of the horn section supporting The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He would go on to appear on four of their albums and join them onstage at Woodstock.

Yet it was during the 1970s and 80s that Sanborn would find his calling as an in-demand session player beyond his rising career as a star on the smooth jazz scene. 

Here are 10 rock, pop and soul albums where Sanborn appeared in some capacity, showcasing the dynamic range of styles by which he played beyond bop. 

Peaceful journey to a rare spirit in popular music who truly traveled the atlas of his heart when it came to working with others. 

 

Stevie Wonder Talking Book (1972) 

There’s a passage on the song annotation site Genius.com that informs us about how Sanborn appeared on the song “Tuesday Heartbreak” from Stevie Wonder’s 1972 masterpiece Talking Book. Apparently he got home from partying with the Rolling Stones and got the call to head into the funk great’s studio immediately. “They played a new tune down and I played along with it a little bit to find my way,” Sanborn told The New York Times in 2022. “And at the end of that fiddling around, I said, ‘OK, I’m ready to do one.’ And Stevie came on the intercom and said, ‘No, no, that’s great.’ Later, the record came out, and there I was. It was my run through — I’m learning the song on the solo that I’m playing. Of course I would love to have another crack at it, but at this point in history that seems a little unlikely.” 

 

AUDIO: Stevie Wonder “Tuesday Heartbreak”

 

James Brown Hell (1974) 

The Godfather of Soul was already renowned for his invincible brass line by the time he released Hell in 1974. But in recruiting Sanborn and his alto to join in with baritone mainstay Pee-Wee Ellis and tenor giant Joe Farrell on tracks like “My Thang” and “Don’t Tell A Lie About Me and I Won’t Tell The Truth On You,” JB added a whole new flavor to his funky horn section. 

 

AUDIO: James Brown “My Thang”

 

David Bowie Young Americans (1975) 

Bowie’s stab at blue-eyed soul, or “plastic soul” as he coined it, on 1975’s Young Americans would feel naked without the presence of Sanborn’s soaring alto, especially on the hit title track. But dig deeper into the LP to find further evidence of the symmetry between the two Davids on lesser-known cuts like “Right,” “Somebody Up There Likes Me” and “Can You Hear Me.”

 

AUDIO: David Bowie “Somebody Up There Likes Me”

 

Bruce Springsteen Born to Run (1975) 

Though the song in which he appears, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” is all about the formation of the E Street Band, Sanborn still makes his presence felt alongside the Boss’s steady brass man, Clarence Clemons. Only this time, he sizes up to The Big Man’s tenor by trading in his alto for a beefy baritone that gives the horn section an extra helping of heft.

 

AUDIO: Bruce Springsteen “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”

 

Carly Simon Boys in the Trees (1978) 

Co-written by Carly Simon and Michael McDonald, “You Belong to Me” was first recorded by the Doobie Brothers for their 1977 LP Livin’ on the Fault Line. But when Simon co-opted it the next year as the opening track for her seventh studio album, she made it her own with the assistance of Sanborn, whose sultry alto solo helped bring the song to the Billboard Top 10. 

 

AUDIO: Carly Simon “You Belong To Me”

 

Steely Dan Gaucho (1980)  

“See you soon in the wild blue yonder,” read an online message from Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and his wife Libby following the passing of Sanborn earlier this week. And though the reedist only played on one Dan album, 1980’s Gaucho, his alto on Becker and Fagen’s sly ode to recreational heroin use makes up an inimitable horn line that also includes Randy Brecker on trumpet, his brother Michael Brecker and Dave Tolfani on tenor sax and Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax. It makes you wonder why they only used these cats on just one tune. 

 

AUDIO: Steely Dan “Time Out of Mind”

 

Rolling Stones Undercover (1983) 

The Stones’ rugged and eclectic 1983 LP Undercover was largely a Glimmer Twins production, albeit one that was beginning to become torn and frayed by rising tensions between Jagger and Richards. Yet one of the best cuts off the album was a Ronnie Wood composition, a frenetic slice of Stonesy funk anchored by a searing solo by Sanborn, echoing the band’s jams with Bobby Keys during the Exile era. 

 

AUDIO: The Rolling Stones “Pretty Beat Up”

 

Kenny Loggins Vox Humana (1985) 

This was the album Kenny recorded right after the Footloose phenomenon and just before he hit big with “Danger Zone” and the Top Gun soundtrack. It’s mostly known for the bombastic power ballad “Forever,” but the very last song on the album, “Love Will Follow,” sticks the landing with a smooth, seven-minute Smokey Robinson-esque come-on complete with one of the creamiest solos Sanborn ever laid down on a pop song. 

 

AUDIO: Kenny Loggins “Love Will Follow”

 

The Robert Cray Band Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1988) 

Nobody played that 80s sax like Sanborn. And one of his most ubiquitous solos from the decade is hidden on a deep cut from The Robert Cray Band classic Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Cray’s clean guitar wizardry paired with Dave’s soulful alto is a match made in rhythm and blues heaven on “Acting This Way.” You know this song was in steady rotation at Letterman’s house in 1988.

 

VIDEO: The Robert Cray Band “Acting This Way”

 

Ween La Cucaracha (2007)

Best to maybe let Deaner explain this one to you kids. Here’s what he wrote in an open letter on Jambands shortly before the release of La Cucaracha, Ween’s potentially final studio album (for now), in regards to Sanborn’s appearance on the jazzy closing number “Your Party.”

“Ok, let me first start off by saying that we vowed never, ever, ever, would there be horns on a Ween album,” he wrote. “As teenagers we always used that as a yardstick to determine when our favorite band was starting to suck, when their new record came out and it had horns on it (this rule applies only to Rock music and white people). But there has always been one provision to this rule, and that was we would only use horns if we could get David Sanborn to play some sexy saxophone on a Ween tune. We finally wrote a song worthy of him, contacted his manager and it turns out he was a Ween fan and immediately agreed to do it.”

 

AUDIO: Ween “Your Party”