Walt Disney Records:
Biography of David Sanborn
Alto saxophonist David Sanborn contributes his Grammy® Award-winning style to The Music of Disney's Cinderella in an instrumental medley of classic songs from the original soundtrack. Sanborn has become one of the preeminent instrumentalists of the past three decades, with unique performances ranging from jazz to R&B to funk and blues.
On Sanborn's new album, Pearls (Elektra), the musician shared the recording studio with a 60-piece orhcestra for the first time in his 27-year career. The album features vocal performances by Sade, Oleta Adams, and Jimmy Scott.
From his early St. Louis days, Sanborn played in clubs with R&B great Albert King, toured with Gil Evans, and became a member of the Butterfield Blues Band in the mid-sixties.
Sanborn was able to have an early emotional impact on future audiences by performing pivotal roles on other stars' albums, like Stevie Wonder and David Bowie. His contribution to the soul and funk inspired David Bowie album, Young Americans, helped fuel increasing record company interest in fusion music as a viable pop alternative in the mid-seventies.
Sanborn went solo in 1975, offering up his first LP, Taking Off Sanborn. Two other efforts followed, but it wasn't until the critically acclaimed R&B sonnet Hideaway was released did the young saxophonist realize he had made a permanent name for himself. The album was a staple of the R&B charts throughout 1980 and garnered Sanborn his first of several Grammy® nominations for best R&B instrumental performance.
The driving force to Sanborn's career was his reluctance to rest on the laurels of any one musical style. Winning his first Grammy® in 1982 for the certified gold Voyeur, he turned up the musical heat a bit on the follow-up offering, As We Speak, which dabbled in a much funkier direction for the artist.
His eclectic dossier includes 1986's Grammy® winning, platinum Double Vision with Bob James, and 88's gold Closeup. All told, Sanborn has one platinum and six gold albums, including his 1992 Elektra release, Upfront. He released the funk album Hearsay in 1993.