SNL Sax

[paul secor]

I hate Sanborn's sound. If I imagine computerized saxophone, his playing is it.

[JSngry]

When Sanborn first started doing solos on pop records, I was struck by how much his sound and everything sounded like Stevie Wonder's earlier harmonica playing. Of course, you can hear Sanborn on those Paul Butterfield records and hear what he's up to there.

There's another influence that is not generally discussed, Stevie's harmonica solos on all those hits. People were listening to those records, lots of people. How could they not contribute to the developing vocabulary?

Same thing with Maceo, if you were into R&B at any level during those days, you heard/played James Brown, and if you were a sax player, your heard/played Maceo in some shape or form.

The traditional narrative is fine as far as it goes, but it's not adequate to give a full picture. Influences continued to come along as the music continued to evolve.

And let's not even ask about Robert McCullough...

[MomsMobley]

Sanborn takes off at 3:10

***

Conway Twitty a great performer & substive artist, one of the best ever to sustain mainstream career, wild that he was legit Phillies prospect before the Army got him

 

 

[B. Clugston]

Sanborn is great on Tim Berne's Diminutive Mysteries (Mostly Hemphill). He's also guested with John Zorn the odd time.

[JSngry]

Ok, this is what I mean, this is where Lenny was coming from in the TOP days, if you've heard any of those longer jams, you'll hear Maceo all through Lenny's stuff. Sanborn Is not coming from here, nor does Lenny's on SNL. Just saying, Maceo gets some love as a JB, but the dude had his own thing. This is not "the Maceo solo" if you know what I mean, this is just one example of his concept, and a rather distilled one at that.

 

[Quasimado]

 

[six string]

David Sanborn certainly created a lot of clones or more rightly, labels went out and created Sanborn clones.  They were everywhere in the 1980s it seemed, into the 90s and then they seemed less visible.    Sanborn's hosting of Night Music was one of the greatest things ever for music in general on tv in the U.S.  I was devoted to that show, taping them because the show typically came on after midnight on Sunday night..  Sanborn put himself in many outside  groupings and faired very well I thought.  He played with Tim Berne, The Residents and a bunch of less safe situations and always sounded good in the company.  That album Another Hand was recorded and released during Night Music's reign and it's obvious if you were a fan of tge show because just about everybody who's on the cd was on tge show including members of NRBQ.  It was the only David Sanborn album I ever bought.  I would play a track for my friends blindfold style and ask them to tell me who's playing and it was usually quite the surprise.

[JSngry]

Before Lenny Pickett took over the visible band leading on SNL, I am almost certain that the "SNL Sax" player was alex foster, and for a good number of jears.

Remember Alex Foster? From DeJohnette?

[Scott Dolan]

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/debbie-downer/n11825 

[l p]

i don't think that i like this

 

 

[medjuck]

  On 5/24/2016 at 4:08 PM, JSngry said:

When Sanborn first started doing solos on pop records, I was struck by how much his sound and everything sounded like Stevie Wonder's earlier harmonica playing. Of course, you can hear Sanborn on those Paul Butterfield records and hear what he's up to there.

There's another influence that is not generally discussed, Stevie's harmonica solos on all those hits. People were listening to those records, lots of people. How could they not contribute to the developing vocabulary?

 

Expand  

Last night I saw Stevie Wonder at a rock festival.  At one point he was vamping on that tiny electronic keyboard he uses and eventually began singing  The Boxtops' (Alex Chilton)  "The Letter."  The band didn't seem to know the song but soon  caught on to the chords  and the saxophone player came in with a Hank Crawford solo for a couple of choruses (not really choruses since nobody, including Stevie, seemed to know the song has a bridge). Stevie picked up his harmonica and  joined the sax  in a duet before starting  a solo of his own.  Maybe it was because I just read this post but it did sound a bit like David Sanborn to me. 

[JSngry]

 

 

Because it's there.

[medjuck]

I've been sort of embarrassed to mention that Sanborn reminds me of Hank Crawford but then I just bought the on-sale Mosaic release of Heart to Heart and the second sentence of the liner notes begins "Strongly influenced by Memphis great Hank Crawford...." 

BTW I got the disc because I'm a Gil Evans completist (I even have the Johnny Mathis album with Gil's arrangements) and this cd contains an Evan's arrangement of "Short Visit" on which several members of the Monday Night Band sit in. 

[JSngry]

A long talk with Lenny Pickett about his life, his career, and all that stuff, including his sax teacher as a kid being Bert Wilson. 

It's actually quite the life, quite organic, but also, lives like this will not be led today, these times and places are probably gone for good.