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David Sanborn on a Yamaha-62 Live

15K views 41 replies 23 participants last post by  srwood1 
#1 ·
I just stumbled across this video and always loved this song...

 
#2 ·
Cool! Nice 62! Still sounds like Sanborn, just less so. As much as a love Yamahas there is some depth and grit missing from his sound here, but I don't know if that's attributable to the sax or the sound man.
 
#3 ·
I was at his concert this past Friday night, the 20th, and to me that did not sound like him
true it looks like he was much younger there, but the vibrancy and color are much diminished
in his sound to my ears.

The form and timing are of course very much Sanborn's, however I didn't think the tone was
close to his VI.

On another note anyone know why he doesn't tighten his neck screw, he is still doing the same
thing because when he came out before he played he swiveled it back and forth a few times,
I'm very curious why.
 
#4 ·
I think I was at that concert, I was discovering David Sanborn. By then, I wasn't aware of all that saxophone hardware stuff. He sounds a bit thin and buzzy on that video, like one of those many... Sanborn-clones. But it could be the recording. I love that tune, which I listened a thousand times or more, the studio album version, also with Mike Mainieri.
 
#5 ·
Surprisingly he does not have as full a tone as we have got accustomed to, particularly on the melody in the beginning. However, later on when he starts improvising he sounds more "like himself". Did he play the yas62 a lot at that time or was it just for that gig? The yas62 is also a terrific horn.
 
#9 ·
He s been on that old vintage Dukoff for years and years.
Dandborn is Sandborn,he will sound amazing on any alto with his set up.
Saxobari
 
#11 ·
Until he pushes the horn, it sounds thin and lifeless, which is odd because I've never heard him sound that way until this recording. But when he gets on it a bit more, it sound's like classic Sanborn. Thanks for posting...
 
#15 ·
I think he was a Yamaha endorser around that time.
It still sounds like Sanborn to me. That phrasing and articulation style is unmistakably so. I guess on live gigs where the PA is needed, you are always at the mercy of the sound system and sound engineer. On an album, that's a different story.
 
#19 ·
That's not always true. What you need to do for a great live recording is to split the mic signals before they get to the PA mixing board, and mix independently of the live board. That's clearly not what was done here.
 
#29 ·
Man, His lines have a lot more hipper stuff in them than Kenny G's. A lot more syncopation and chromaticism. Also a lot more expression and altissimo. All 4 of those things take a lot of work and practice to get nailed down. I've always respected him for that. I hear lots of guys playing like Sanborn with pentatonics and blues scales but not many that use all the chromaticism that he used. He also isn't afraid to use more advanced harmonic ideas like altered scales and tritone subs and all that. I very rarely will here a smooth jazz player use any of that stuff if at all.
 
#30 ·
Sanborn is a great straight Blues player and one of the best straight no frills Blues players I have ever heard on any instrument.

Sanborn has his other side which is commercial R&B, but it's just one thing he does.

I personally don't go for his smooth R&B much.

Plus he's got his unique sound and it's not really his Mark VI (just view these Yamaha clips) and it's not really his Dukoff, it's him.

The Dukoff and horn do contribute to the sound but mostly it's Sanborn.

Plenty of players with Mark VI's and Dukoffs who don't sound like Sanborn or who end up sounding like inferior Sanborn clones because they are not Sanborn and that's what they havn't got (assuming they were trying for a Sanborn sound and many have tried).
 
#32 ·
Another dimension of mr Sanborn is that he has developed and changed somewhat his style through the years, although always maintaining a very personal sound. I am a big fan of his early stuff, such as the debut album Taking off, and the followup Beck & Sanborn, I also like his later recordings, but find these early ones to be very funky stuff. Excellent musician, no doubt!
Bjorn
 
#38 ·
I still have the Taking Off album on vinyl, bought it when it first came out in the mid 70's. I remember thinking that he had a real different sound and approach and always dug that album. I also have the Beck and Sanborn album, and the guitarist (the late, great Joe Beck) played in a local jazz club near where I lived at the time. He did Starfire from that album and I was flipping listening to it Live! Unfortunately, he didn't have Sanborn with him, but it was great to experience his playing, a fine guitarist who morphed into many styles.That was definitely some funky, and fusion jazz type music at the time.
 
#36 ·
What I find curious about the Yamaha he is playing (we assume it is a 62) given the year (1981?) it seems to have Yamaha stamped into the bell (saw it on some frames in this video series) and not a purple logo. Perhaps manufacturing variation? I've seen previous YAS-61 horns with the purple logo, so it is strange to see what looked like a stamp.
 
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