David Sanborn, Grammy Award-winning jazz saxophonist, dead at 78

David Sanborn, a jazz saxophonist who won six Grammy Awards and whose influence extended to pop & R&B, died Sunday. He was 78.

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Sanborn’s death was announced on his official account on X, also known as Twitter. The cause of death was prostate cancer with complications. He died in Tarrytown, New York, Rolling Stone reported.

“It is with sad and heavy hearts that we convey to you the loss of internationally renowned, 6 time Grammy Award-winning, saxophonist, David Sanborn,” the post read.

Sanborn played on recordings by Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Carly Simon, and also performed live with David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, according to Rolling Stone.

Born in Tampa, Florida, Sanborn grew up in Missouri, CNN reported. He began playing the saxophone while recovering from polio as a 3-year-old, according to the news outlet.

“I wasn’t like the other kids,” Sanborn told JazzTimes in 2008. “My mantra was, ‘Hey, guys, wait up.’ I used to lie in bed a lot, listening to the radio, which was my theater of the imagination.”

Sanborn specialized in the alto saxophone. His first album, “Taking Off,” in 1975, cracked the top 20 on the Billboard Albums chart, ABC News reported. Eight of his albums were certified gold and one was platinum, according to CNN.

Before becoming a solo artist, Sanborn joined the Butterfield Blues Band and played with the group at Woodstock in 1969, Rolling Stone reported.

He toured with Wonder and played on his 1972 album, “Talking Book,” according to Billboard. He also played the saxophone solo on Bowie’s “Young Americans” and toured with the glam rock star.

“On the Young Americans tour, Bowie would sometimes let the band play for 20 minutes before he came on,” Sanborn told Downbeat in 2017. “I remember we had a week at the Universal Amphitheater in L.A. It was a great rhythm section with Doug Rauch on bass and Greg Enrico on drums. On the ‘Young Americans’ album, there was no lead guitar, so I played the role of lead guitar. I was all over that record.”

He also recorded with B.B. King, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Chaka Khan, Ron Carter, George Benson, Kenny Loggins, The Eagles, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Roger Water, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, Billboard reported.

Sanborn also performed on four of James Taylor’s albums, including the single “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” according to ABC News. He collaborated with Clapton and Sting on the 1992 hit single “It’s Probably Me,” from the soundtrack to the movie “Lethal Weapon 3,” the news outlet reported.

Sanborn won his first Grammy Award for “All I Need Is You” as best R&B instrumental performance in 1981.

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