My drummer, Gene Lake, is Oliver Lake’s son. So I certainly have wide tastes, in not only what I listen to, but what I play as well. – David Sanborn
In regard to music, I just think that it’s always best to have an attitude of being a perpetual student and always look to learn something new about music, because there’s always something new to learn. – David Sanborn
Instrumental music is increasingly marginalized and there’s just no outlet, there’s no venue for it, in terms of media. – David Sanborn
In most of the stuff that I’ve done over the years as a sideman, I wasn’t really a session musician, because to me, a session musician is a guy who makes his living in the studio, and I never really did that. – David Sanborn
To me, the object of practicing is to allow you to play what you hear. But you’re always hearing new things, so you never get to the end of it. – David Sanborn
Jazz music should be inclusive. Smooth jazz to me rules out a certain kind of drama and a certain tension that I think all music needs. Especially jazz music, since improvising is one of the cornerstones of what jazz is. And when you smooth it out, you take all the drama out of it. – David Sanborn
In regard to music, I just think that it’s always best to have an attitude of being a perpetual student and always look to learn something new about music, because there’s always something new to learn. Don’t dismiss something out of hand because you think it’s either beneath you or outside of the realm of where your interests lie. – David Sanborn
I have pretty ecumenical tastes. I’m interested in a lot of different kinds of music, so I don’t listen with a jaundiced ear to music because it’s in a certain category, whether it’s country or opera or hip-hop or bebop or whatever it is. – David Sanborn
Jazz music by its very nature is just a conglomerate of a lot of different kinds of music. – David Sanborn
As a melody instrument player, it’s all about getting from one note to the next, and those intervals and how you navigate your way through these vertical structures of chords. You realize that everything’s moving forward, and it’s all linear. – David Sanborn
I tend to play in a way that feels natural to me. To me that’s authentic for myself. I play by where I’m led by some sense of where I feel I’m supposed to be. – David Sanborn
I think ‘Horace Silver’ was actually the first live jazz group I ever heard back when I was a kid in St. Louis. So along with most players of my generation, I have a real affection for the music of ‘Horace Silver.’ – David Sanborn
I look at the artistic process as like experiencing the world, channeling it through your personality and sending it back out there. That’s the process. – David Sanborn
Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave well enough alone. And that’s a lifelong quest. – David Sanborn
When you have an acoustic bass in the ensemble it really changes the dynamic of the record because it kind of forces everybody to play with a greater degree of sensitivity and nuance because it just has a different kind of tone and spectrum than the electric bass. – David Sanborn
Ninety-nine percent of the music that was of any interest to me when I was growing up came out of the black community. – David Sanborn
I became a musician because I love music, and that is what has sustained me; it’s not because I thought it was a great way to make a living. Music saved my life. – David Sanborn
Everyone goes through the ups and downs of living – fretting about the future, worrying about what happened. Music teaches us how to be in the moment. – David Sanborn
Well, I guess my unease with that is… I’m always a little uneasy with that phrase – smooth jazz, as opposed to what? – David Sanborn
When you’re on stage, unless you surrender to the moment, you’re not telling the truth. I look for people that tell me the truth. – David Sanborn
While St. Louis is technically regarded as part of the Mid-West, it’s actually – geographically and emotionally – more part of the South. I mean, the sensibility of St. Louis is really very much that of a Southern Mississippi river-town. – David Sanborn
