David Sanborn Quotes
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All the music that I've made in the past I've believed in. I think some of it has been more commercially successful than others, but it wasn't premeditated.
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I have a certain temperament, a disposition that I think lends itself to not playing outside the lines that much. But I do test the boundaries, certainly, and break one or two of my own. Some people are mystified by it, but not me.
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Well, I guess my unease with that is... I'm always a little uneasy with that phrase - smooth jazz, as opposed to what?
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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.
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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.
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I didn't try to think what my audience wanted and then make the music accordingly. I made the music and hoped that as many people liked it as possible.
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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.
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Ninety-nine percent of the music that was of any interest to me when I was growing up came out of the black community.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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When you see the same familiar faces, it's nice when you get a chance to play with the same musicians. You start to develop this shorthand so everybody knows where you're at and where you're going, but then again, there are always surprises. But the more people are comfortable with the material, the more free you can be with the music.
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I kinda always wanted to be a tenor player, but I'm a small guy, and tenor was just too big.
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I try to do things that keep me interested. And play music that moves me. I like to move around and play in a lot of different ways.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Instrumental music is increasingly marginalized and there's just no outlet, there's no venue for it, in terms of media.