Sanborn has a live, arresting tone in any situation, but it’s at its best in r’n’b and that’s why the Best Of CD is best of these two. On Pearls, in another of his attempts to escape r’n’b (in recent years there have been dabblings with New York’s Lower East Side avant-gardists and with retro sixties funk), he enters Radio 2 territory, his fine sound unable to make much progress amidst the swelling strings in which Johnny Mandel (Eddie Martinez does just one arrangement) has swathed this drab set of Broadway and pop ballads. Except on Come Rain Or Come Shine, where he once again hits those amazing high notes, Sanborn has little opportunity to build the hysterical climaxes at which he excels. The result is easy-listening noodling.
The Best Of selects from Sanborn’s funk albums from the decade 1978-88, and if not everybody’s idea of his best, it succeeds well enough as a comprehensive view of his work, ranging from maudlin soul ballads to the brassy funk of Slam, a centrepiece of his last great album, Close Up.
Discography
The Best Of
Chicago Song; The Dream; Let’s Just Say Goodbye; Slam; Lesley Ann; Carly’s Song; Anything You Want; A Tear For Crystal; Over And Over; Rain On Christmas; Hideaway; It’s You; As We Speak; Lisa; Neither One Of Us; Lotus Blossom (74.31)
Sanborn (ss, as, ts, kyb) and various personnel, 1978-88.
(Warner Bros 9362-45768-2)
Pearls
Willow Weep For Me; Try A Little Tenderness; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes; Pearls; For All We Know; Come Rain Or Come Shine; This Masquerade; Everything Must Change; Superstar; Nobody Does It Better (51.37)
Sanborn (as); Don Grolnick, Kenny Barron (kyb); Christian McBride (b); Marcus Miller, Mark Egan (elb); Steve Gadd (d); Don Alias (pc); Oleta Adams, Jimmy Scott (v); Johnny Mandel, Eddie Martinez (arr); unnamed orchestra. New York, c 1995.
(Elektra 7559-61759-2)
