All that jazz and much more

Saxophone star David Sanborn continues to cross musical genres

Over the past six decades, star saxophonist David Sanborn has played Woodstock with bluesman Paul Butterfield, toured with Stevie Wonder and jazz innovator Gil Evans, collaborated with Paul Simon and James Taylor and recorded the famed solo on David Bowie’s “Young Americans,” all while releasing 25 albums of his own.

“I’ve been extraordinarily lucky, No. 1, that a lot of these situations have just kind of fallen into my lap as it were. I mean, I didn’t seek the gig with Bowie; as a matter of fact, I knew very little about him at the time. I don’t think many people in America really did unless you were a hard-core Bowie fan. … Michael Kamen, who Bowie had asked to be his musical director, was a friend of mine and Bowie was looking for a saxophone player or two, and he asked me to play,” Sanborn recalled.

“I loved working with Bowie. He was an extraordinary man, an extraordinary artist. … With

James Taylor, somebody just called me: A guy that was producing a record in New York was friends of the guy who was producing one of James’ records in L.A., they heard me and decided I was right for this couple of tunes they were doing on James’ record. Flew out there and did it and became friends with James, went on the road with him a couple of years, opened for his band a couple of times.

“So, a lot of this stuff that happened for me happened like that, kind of hearsay, luck, being in the right place at the right time. My story is full of things like that.”

The six-time Grammy Award winner known for his genre-crossing music will perform in concert Tuesday at the University of Central Oklahoma’s Mitchell Hall Theatre.

Educational entertainment

Sanborn’s concert is the first date of the school year for UCO’s long-running Broadway Tonight series.

“Our jazz program is one of the top in the nation … so it’s a perfect complement for our jazz program,” Broadway Tonight Executive Director Greg White said. “Mr. Sanborn is going to do a master class while he’s here, so how do you put a price on it? You can’t. When he’s here, he’s going to perform to a packed house, and then he’s going to do a master class for our students. You can’t get much better than that.”

Although the 21st season features performances by three acclaimed acts, White said Broadway Tonight is about more than putting on shows. Each performer on the series gives a master class or works with UCO students in some way.

“That’s what it’s all about: those transformative experiences,” said White, who is also director of musical theater at UCO. “It’s community outreach, of course. … But I think that’s the beautiful thing about our series: It serves our students, (and) it serves our community.”

The 2018-19 Broadway Tonight series will ring in the new year with a Jan. 19 performance by versatile a cappella group Voctave.

“Many of them were the original Voices of Liberty from Epcot Center,” White said. “They’re incredible, and we’ve already had some of the a cappella groups in town … reach out to us. These people are rock stars to them, and they’re so excited.”

Ailey II Dance Theater will round out the series with a Feb. 16 performance. The company is part of the iconic Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “It’s still that incredible work by this man who sort of popularized modern dance and revolutionized it,” White said. “We’ve had a lot of major dance groups here, but I think this is going to be like no other.”

Broadway Tonight season subscribers who buy the three-show ticket package will get free admission to the popular UCO Jazz Lab Holiday Show in December.

Crossing genres

Sanborn, 73, initially started playing the saxophone on doctor’s orders. He contracted polio at age 3, and after an eight-year battle with the disease, his physician thought taking up the instrument would

help the boy strengthen his chest and lungs. He was inspired by the great Chicago bluesmen who played near his St. Louis home, and he made his professional debut at age 14, when he performed with visiting Chicagoans Little Milton and Albert King.

In the 1960s, he traveled to California on a friend’s advice, joined the Butterfield Blues Band and played Woodstock with Paul Butterfield. He launched his solo career with the aptly titled 1975 album “Taking Off,” and his single “Seduction,” from his 1979 follow-up “Hideaway,” was featured in the movie “American Gigolo.” Along with his prolific solo career — he’s earned eight gold albums and one platinum — he has done session work for numerous recording artists, including James Brown, Ween and Roger Waters.

Along the way he has become not just a contemporary jazz pioneer but also an influential player in pop, R&B, blues, funk and rock. Although he is aware of genre boundaries, Sanborn said he doesn’t hesitate to cross them.

“I never thought about that because, for example, when I was working with

David Bowie, I was also working with Gil Evans, and so one night I’d be playing the music from ‘Porgy and Bess’ and then the next night I’d be playing music from ‘Young Americans,’ “he said.

“Basically, I’m the same guy, so I’m not playing any differently. I’m adapting to, I’m trying to be appropriate to my surroundings, but I’m not changing the way I play. It’s clearly me in all those circumstances. It’s just that, as a player, I react to my environment.”

His latest album, 2015’s “Time and the River,” Sanborn teamed with jazz singer Randy Crawford to cover the Oscar-winning song “The Windmills of Your Mind,” collaborated with former Tower of Power vocalist Larry Braggs for a soulful rendition of the Temptations’ smash “Can’t Get Next to You” and created an atmospheric rendition of David Amram’s memorable “Overture from The Manchurian Candidate.”

“I saw that movie when it came out — I’m that old — and I loved that score from the first time I heard it. That theme, it’s just got this deep, incredible sadness, and it was just a piece of music that really, really

moved me,” Sanborn said. “Any time I cover a song, I think the first cardinal rule for me is ‘Can I get inside this song? Can I inhabit it?’ There’s a lot of songs I really love, but I don’t necessarily feel capable of playing them. … If it’s something I can get inside of and inhabit, then it’s not necessarily to put my own stamp on it, but just try to find something honest in my interpretation of it.”

Whether he’s covering a classic or improvising with fellow players, Sanborn said he tries to remain true to the song, and if a song has lyrics, he learns them so they can better inform his playing. “I always believe in being true to the intent of a song, so tunes are never vehicles for improvising, like ‘OK let’s play the head and then let’s just go off, and then when we’re done we come back and play the head.’ Nah, I don’t think so, not for me. You play the song, then you play the song, whether you’re improvising or not. … You’re true to the character and the meaning of the song. On (the jazz standard) ‘Green Dolphin Street,’ there’s a story to that song. That’s just the way I approach music,” he said.