Journalist, Political Reporter, Cultural Critic, Editor/Proofreader
Alex V. Henderson
Philadelphia, PA
vixenatr
November 2014
ON THE COVER
David Sanborn: Enjoying the View
By Alex Henderson
If there is one thing that David Sanborn’s long history has taught us, it is that the veteran alto saxophonist is not shy about diving into a wide variety of musical situations. Sanborn, now 69, has backed countless R’n’B and rock vocalists over the years, but his own catalogue has generally favored instrumental music, be it soul-jazz or postbop. Indeed, the long list of musicians Sanborn has crossed paths with along the way ranges from Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Charlie Haden, Ron Carter and The Brecker Brothers to David Bowie, Paul Simon, Aaron Neville and the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.
But one major musician Sanborn never played with prior to 2014 was Bobby Hutcherson, among the most influential vibraphonists of the last 50 years, who joins forces with Sanborn, organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Billy Hart on the all-star date Enjoy the View, recently released on Blue Note. The album is credited to “Bobby Hutcherson, David Sanborn and Joey DeFrancesco featuring Billy Hart” and also marks the first time Sanborn ever recorded with Hart (who like Hutcherson, is now 73).
“Enjoy the View was a fun record to make,” Sanborn explains. “Bobby Hutcherson is iconic in the jazz world. He’s one of those people who just has his own voice on his instrument and he comes from a long tradition—particularly, the tradition of Milt Jackson. But Bobby has his own thing. Having been a fan of his for many years, it was such a great thrill to actually be able to play with him for the first time. And I had never recorded with Billy Hart before. Billy is another musician I had been a great admirer of for many years. I think the first time I heard Billy was with Herbie Hancock and that was before the Headhunters. It was the electric band with Eddie Henderson in the early ‘70s, the Mwandishi band.”
Enjoy the View probably wouldn’t have come about had it not been for the album’s producer, Don Was. Although primarily a rock producer, Was has produced some jazz albums as well—and it was his idea to unite Sanborn with Hutcherson for the first time. “Don Was came to see Joey and I when we were playing at the Blue Note in New York a few years ago,” Sanborn recalls. “He said, ‘You know, I have this great idea: you doing an album with Bobby Hutcherson.’ And both Joey and I said, ‘Wow, that is a great idea.’ Joey had played with Bobby several times before, but I had never done it. So I said, ‘Absolutely. I’m into it.’ And then, it kind of went away for a minute. But Don approached us again and said, ‘Hey, do you guys still want to do this?’ We all were into it. So we found a time when everybody was available and went in the studio and did it.”
When they were in Los Angeles working on Enjoy the View, it was evident that Hutcherson, Sanborn and DeFrancesco would be getting co-billing. Sanborn describes Enjoy the View as a democratic situation, noting that all three of them were invited to contribute songs to the project. “Joey, Bobby and I all brought in a number of songs and we just kind of went through the list and saw which ones seemed like they worked for this particular project,” Sanborn remembers. “I brought in four or five. Joey brought in four or five. We all brought in four or five tunes and we narrowed it down. It ended up with Bobby having three tunes, Joey having two and me having two.”
The musicians agreed that Sanborn would revisit his songs “Delia” (first recorded in 2003) and “Little Flower,” while the DeFrancesco songs chosen were the probing “You” and Thelonious Monk-influenced “Don Is” (an obvious play on the producer’s name). Hutcherson has been a prolific composer since the early ‘60s and the musicians decided to record his songs “Teddy”, “Hey, Harold” (originally recorded with the late tenor saxophonist Harold Land in 1971) and “Montara” (an easygoing piece first recorded in 1975). Although postbop dominates Enjoy the View, Sanborn asserts that one of the reasons he gets along well with the album’s other participants is the fact that none of them listen to jazz exclusively.
“I think that one thing all of us have in common—me, Joey, Billy and Bobby—is that we all have an appreciation for rhythm and blues music and pop music,” Sanborn asserts. “Even though our playing has taken different paths, I think there’s a shared respect for rhythm and blues music and pop music. And on this record, we were able to find some areas of agreement that became something unto itself. But it wasn’t like, ‘This tune is a little bit R’n’B. This tune is a little more straightahead.’ We just found areas of agreement and it felt good. It worked.”
The youngest musician on Enjoy the View is the 43-year-old DeFrancesco, a Philadelphia native who has followed in the footsteps of his father, fellow organist Papa John DeFrancesco, and represented the Jimmy Smith school of gritty soul-jazz organ playing. One of the most interesting albums that Joey DeFrancesco has recorded during this decade was Never Can Say Goodbye: The Music of Michael Jackson (a jazz tribute to the late King of Pop) and Sanborn points out that the two of them have spent a lot of time talking about soul and funk.
“Joey and I are both huge fans of Hank Crawford and David ‘Fathead’ Newman and that whole period of Ray Charles’ music—that intersection of jazz, gospel and rhythm & blues that was represented by Ray Charles’ band in the late 1950s and 1960s,” Sanborn notes. “Fathead and Hank were in Ray Charles’ band and that band was a mutual area of interest for Joey and I. We always hit it off musically, Joey and I. It is one of those things that at a certain level, you can’t explain—it’s just chemistry.”
Given how funky and R’n’B-influenced DeFrancesco’s organ playing can be, the last thing one would expect him to be is a jazz snob. But Sanborn says that surprisingly, DeFrancesco considers himself a reformed jazz snob. “Joey used to tell me that when he was first starting out,” Sanborn reveals, “he was a real jazz snob. But as he matured, he grew out of that kind of attitude and embraced a wider variety of music.”
Sanborn’s interaction with the organist in 2014 has included not only Enjoy the View, but also, a recent European tour with another musician from Philadelphia: drummer Byron Landham. “I’ve always enjoyed playing with Byron,” Sanborn notes. “He’s one of those drummers who is just so musical. Byron really listens to you. You feel like you’re interacting with him, which is great.”
Another project Sanborn has been a part of in 2014 is a forthcoming album produced by bassist Marcus Miller, which includes vocals from Randy Crawford and Gregory Porter who, like Sanborn, has no problem performing straightahead jazz one minute and soul or funk the next. “Gregory is great. Gregory is his own category and he has been able to transcend the jazz and rhythm and blues idioms—which is always interesting to me,” Sanborn observes. “Gregory has such a rich, deep, beautiful voice. And Randy Crawford has been one of my favorite singers for years and years. We’ve done things together over the years. This album, which is for Sony, is kind of a mix of things.”
Having finally had a chance to record with Hutcherson, is there anyone else—jazz, rock, R’n’B, blues or otherwise—who Sanborn has never played with but would like to? The saxophonist responds: “I’m a big fan of a guitar player named Gary Clark. I’ve never played with him, but I think he’s amazing. I’d love to play with Gary. And I’ve never played with Ornette Coleman. I’ve known Ornette for years, but we’ve never played together. I think that Ornette and I are so different that it would be interesting. I always heard Ornette, from the early days with his quartet, as a blues player. I always heard the blues at the core of Ornette’s playing: the whole sound, the phrasing, everything.”
Sanborn could spend hours talking about all the musicians he has played with during his career, from Dizzy Gillespie to Billy Joel. But he stresses that if there is one thing that makes certain musicians stand out in the crowd, it is being great listeners—and he felt that he had exactly that on Enjoy the View. “I think there is a certain group of musicians who have an ability to interact and listen,” Sanborn stresses. “It seems like an obvious thing to say that everybody listens, but not everybody does—and this was a band of listeners. Everybody was listening to each other on this record—Bobby, Joey, Billy and I—and it was a great experience.”•
For more information, visit davidsanborn.com. Sanborn is at Blue Note Nov. 20th-25th. See Calendar.
Recommended Listening:
• Gil Evans Orchestra—Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix (RCA-Bluebird, 1974-75)
• David Sanborn—Taking Off (Warner Bros., 1975)
• David Sanborn—Another Hand (Elektra, 1991)
• Tim Berne—Diminutive Mysteries (Mostly Hemphill) (JMT-Winter & Winter, 1992)
• David Sanborn—Closer (Verve, 2005)
• Bobby Hutcherson/David Sanborn/ Joey DeFrancesco—Enjoy the View(Blue Note, 2013)
Copyright 2022 Alex V. Henderson. All rights reserved.
Alex V. Henderson
Philadelphia, PA
vixenatr