David Sanborn (Tim Berne) - Diminutive Mysteries (1992)
David Sanborn is often lumped into the "smooth" jazz category like Bob James, but in reality Sanborn's highly recognizable alto sax voice has found a comfortable home in just about every setting imaginable. To call him a smooth jazzer or even a jazzer, period, is putting an artificial limit to the wide range of music he is capable of handling. Furthermore, he never seems to be making a symbolic nod to any genre, he embraces each one completely and genuinely. What I'd give just to check out this guy's record collection.
Nevertheless, you still wouldn't expect to hear Sanborn in a whack jazz setting. Oh, that's right, he did cover Ornette Coleman's "Ramblin'" on 1991's Upfront so you know he's been listening to the stuff, but even that song didn't sound so avant garde in his hands.
In case you're wondering, Sanborn never did lead a record of modern creative music, but his appearance on a Tim Berne record is by itself enough to justify inclusion on this list. And praise, as well.
The reason why Sanborn teamed up with major avant garde figure such as Berne on Diminutive Mysteries, however, is rather straightforward; Berne wanted to do a tribute album for alto great Julius Hemphill. Sanborn shared Berne's admiration for the World Saxophone Quartet co-founder, whose early solo work like Dogon A.D. left a lasting impression on both guys.
Hemphill also being noted as a distinguished composer makes it no surprise that the record itself is comprised of mostly his dense, sometimes dark creations. Even though Sanborn mostly forgos his alto for a higher pitched sopranino and he's paired up with another alto sax heavyweight in Berne, there's little trouble picking up where he's providing support. Any casual listener of Sanborn will know that it's him providing the opening statement on "The Unknown," for example.
If David Sanborn hadn't opted to appear on Diminutive Mysteries, it would still rank among Berne's finer moments. But the addition of a well-known sax player paying homage to little-known sax player who was no less important spoke volumes to the unaware about a man who can influence talents as diverse as Sanborn and Berne.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
yea! good call on the Diminutive Mysteries. pretty obscure...but woa, what a great record.
the Jarrett record...eww!
2 - Pico
Mark, if I had your ability to describe whack jazz in a way anyone could understand, I'd do nothing but Tim Berne reviews. I love all of his stuff; I just can't quite explain why.
3 - DJRadiohead
David Sanborn- I had a couple of his CDs about 10,000 years ago. I figured copping to that would surely get me a tuneup from the Jazz Police.
4 - Mark Saleski
nah, even i have a couple of copies of the Sanborn-lite material.
now Kenny G and the other hand...
5 - Mark Saleski
re: Berne - me too pico. the guy just has a way about him.
6 - Kenny G's assistant
Kenny G is in the midst of touring Asia, spending his off days battling in the South Waziristan tribal area, yet Kenny G was notified through a Google alert on his iPhone that this Saleski person is once again opening up his yap in an effort to belittle Kenny G. It is obvious to Kenny G that Saleski is lashing out because the rumors of Kenny G's brief affair with Katherine Heigel are true, especially the part of her having trouble walking for a couple of days afterwards.
7 - IHC
I've got The Three. I've used it to test the one friend who might be able to discern who might be playing the piano.
What does that say? I have ONE friend who MIGHT be able to tell who plays bop-based piano rather well, whom you might not expect to?
Ah well, CD sales are down 20% over the first quarter of 2007, and illegal file-sharing is 17 times the rate of legal downloads of music. (See WSJ).
Ban recording.