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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. "
David Sanborn
Feel
Play
Natural
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" In most of the stuff that I've done over the years as a sideman, I wasn't really a session musician, because to me, a session musician is a guy who makes his living in the studio, and I never really did that. "
David Sanborn
Living
Done
Years
" Instrumental music is increasingly marginalized and there's just no outlet, there's no venue for it, in terms of media. "
David Sanborn
Marginalized
Just
Outlet
" I think 'Horace Silver' was actually the first live jazz group I ever heard back when I was a kid in St. Louis. So along with most players of my generation, I have a real affection for the music of 'Horace Silver.' "
David Sanborn
Live
Generation
Think
" 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. "
David Sanborn
Country
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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. "
David Sanborn
Alone
Enough
Finding
" When I was 17 or 18 and it was time to figure out what to do with my life, I realized that I didn't enjoy anything as much as I enjoyed playing music. I felt that I had no choice: that I had to become a musician. "
David Sanborn
Enjoy
Out
Music
" 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. "
David Sanborn
Moving Forward
You
Forward
" It's always difficult to define what jazz is or what jazz isn't. To me, the only definition that I can think of is it's music where a lot of different elements are played at the same time. The harmonic, the melodic... You're pushing the boundaries on every level. That could be true of rhythm and blues as well. I'm a musician. "
David Sanborn
You
Time
Think
" I think a valid approach to being a musician is to take all of the experience of your life and filter it through your personality and send it back out there, and that's what art is. "
David Sanborn
Back
Art
Life
" My drummer, Gene Lake, is Oliver Lake's son. So I certainly have wide tastes, in not only what I listen to, but what I play as well. "
David Sanborn
Son
Play
Listen
" I think, in a lot of ways, it's easier to play a smaller room. You can exploit the quieter dynamics you would shy away from in larger venues. "
David Sanborn
Play
Think
You
" If you're playing with somebody from another idiom, you can't react to them in the same way that you react to somebody that is closer to your idiom. You don't fall into the same habits. You find a new way of communicating. "
David Sanborn
Find
Way
Fall
" When you have an acoustic bass in the ensemble it really changes the dynamic of the record because it kind of forces everybody to play with a greater degree of sensitivity and nuance because it just has a different kind of tone and spectrum than the electric bass. "
David Sanborn
Play
Changes
Degree
" It's tough to be in a relationship with a musician, because it reads sometimes as this ego and self-involvement when it's really just concentration and focus. "
David Sanborn
Because
Tough
Relationship
" 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. "
David Sanborn
Think
Best
Lie
" Music is like an open sky. You know it's out there... and there you are. "
David Sanborn
Know
Music
Open
" 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. "
David Sanborn
Music
Try
Like
" I became a musician because I love music, and that is what has sustained me; it's not because I thought it was a great way to make a living. Music saved my life. "
David Sanborn
Music
My Life
Great
" 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. "
David Sanborn
You
Look
Me
" Music is just kind of an expression of who I am. It's what I do. "
David Sanborn
I Am
Expression
Just
" Music is an expression of individuality; it's how you see the world. All art is, for that matter. You take how you experience the world, interpret it, and send it out there - express it - whether it's sculpture, dance or singing. "
David Sanborn
Music
Dance
Experience
" 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. "
David Sanborn
Mississippi
More
Much
" You're only as good as your last record. "
David Sanborn
Your
You
Record
" 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. "
David Sanborn
Process
Personality
World
" Jazz music should be inclusive. Smooth jazz to me rules out a certain kind of drama and a certain tension that I think all music needs. Especially jazz music, since improvising is one of the cornerstones of what jazz is. And when you smooth it out, you take all the drama out of it. "
David Sanborn
Jazz
Me
Music
" Jazz music by its very nature is just a conglomerate of a lot of different kinds of music. "
David Sanborn
Nature
Jazz
Different
" 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. "
David Sanborn
Future
Moment
Music
" I always wanna be in the process of evolving and growing. "
David Sanborn
Process
Always
Growing
" To me, the object of practicing is to allow you to play what you hear. But you're always hearing new things, so you never get to the end of it. "
David Sanborn
End
Always
You
" When I make records, I never listen to stuff after it's done. Ever. "
David Sanborn
Listen
Never
Records