NYT link. The brilliant alto sax musician known mainly for his jazz contributions, died of prostate cancer at age 78.
I’ll always remember Sanborn fondly for hosting (sometimes co-hosting with Jools Holland) the amazing show Night Music. It was maybe the best showcase on American TV for cool music, with a phenomenal variety of acts and styles. There’s a library of clips on YouTube; I suspect it’s an internet rabbit hole into which I’ll be disappearing for a few hours.
Damn.
He was a huge influence on me, and i have several of his albums.
Me too.
Only thing I know about him is that Lethal Weapon music.
He always added flair on the Letterman show.
I’d forgotten about his TV show. He had some great guests.
Today I learned he was the sax guy behind Lethal Weapon.
RIP 
A great, great player, his music was my entrée to jazz. I saw him a couple of times in the 80s with Hiram Bullock on guitar. Really fun shows.
You might call his style “smooth jazz” or “easy listening”, but that would be selling him short. Besides his solo work, the list of people he worked with is a mile long
It’s a truly essential part of the movies, now that I have learned he did it. They have such a consistent and noticeable soundtrack.
My wife and I find it a bit cheesy, but you have to credit him. He knew how to play.
The soundtrack was written by him along with Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen. The sax was what really set the tone.
I did just learn that he played at Woodstock as part of Paul Butterfield’s band.
I think I recorded the vast majority of Night Music episodes on VHS, and over time they deteriorated or were thrown out. So glad somebody uploaded all that. RIP to a great curator of music.
The YouTube page says that 23 videos are “unavailable and hidden”…I did see that some of my faves were missing. Sonic Youth, Richard Thompson’s solo number (his scorching duet with Jo-El Sonnier is there, thankfully), Pere Ubu’s second number (“Waiting For Mary” with Debby Harry backing them up), and Syd Straw are the ones I remember loving. They’re out there somewhere, I’m sure.
I remember all of those except Syd Straw. Thought you might enjoy this one:
David Sanborn and I went to the same high school in Kirkwood, Missouri. He was in the class behind me, and it was a pretty big school, so I didn’t know him then. Oddly – and sadly – I never bumped into him professionally during our music careers.
Just popped in to say…nothing.