Customer Reviews

Heart to Heart

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sometimes you just can't beat experience and by the late 70's David Sanborn certainly had plenty of it. A fine player in the Hank Crawford style of being able to sound both easy and firey all at the same time he always had an excellent taste in other musicians to surround himself with. Now this particular album,the fourth by the serious faced altoist showcases him at his very best,even considering his unique ability for consistantly fine quality from album to album. And he's still in the earlier phase of his career at a time before he was about to unleash a trio of hugely successful funk oriented recordings early in the 80's so he was still performing material that explored his ability to play not only with a diverse range of musicians but also in a diverse range of styles without losing any of his own unique musical flavors.

Being that this is only several albums into his career this album has a different and far jazzier flavor to it than what would come after it. With a dreamteam of studio players who played on at least as many records as Sanborn such as Richard Tee,Hugh McCracken,Hiram Bullock and of course the always available and distinctive Steve Gadd. Most of these songs benefit to a great deal from their rather extended lengh-they're all between 4 and 8 minutes and a number of them are slow and meditative enough to allow for Sanborn's lyrical and melodic tone to shine through such as on the acoustic guitar fuled "Lotus Blossom",the softly melodic opener "Solo" and the final piece "Anywhere I Wander". On other tunes such as "Short Visit" there's a distinct big band swing flavor courtesy of the famed Gil Evans Orchestra and on "Heba" David gets down with some Quincy Jones-like jazz-funk with some SERIOUS fuzzed up horn and guitar sounds and some of Anthony Jacksons best bass lines.

"Theme From Love Is Not Enough" of course is a fast paced,drum solo oriented piece that again has a very melodic jazz-funk groove if a bit on the poppier side that way whereas "Sunrise Gospel" starts out easier going and than develops into a full blown gospel piece by song ends with bumping drums and organ swirls right out of the Souther tent revival. This particular album (and I've loved everything I've heard Sanborn do so far) really showcases his talents playing through a good many contemporary jazz styles of it's time and throughout his playing is always lyrical and adventurous as he'll play a melody straight out one minute than burst into a fast improvisation on it the next. So I highly recommend anyone seriously interest in Sanborn's solo work in the late 70's or any sax based instrumental contemporary jazz of that era would find this well worth seeking out.

By the time of his third album, altoist David Sanborn's popularity and influence was growing month by month. Most of these numbers feature Sanborn with an enlarged rhythm section (with such studio vets as guitarists Hugh McCracken and David Spinozza, Don Grolnick or Richard Tee on keyboards, vibraphonist Mike Mainieri, bassist Herb Bushler and drummer Steve Gadd). However, "Short Visit" is something special, for Sanborn was joined by what was mostly the Gil Evans Orchestra; Evans even wrote the chart. Otherwise, this is a typical Sanborn release with plenty of danceable rhythms and the focus on his passionate alto.

Sanborn's "Backstreet" was the 1st album I bought at the age of 13. Been listening to him ever since but a lot less in the past 10 years. His new stuff has become quite commercial but if you like the raw, early sound and feeling of Sanborn, "Heart to Heart" is definitely a good pick that doesn't get old.

Clearly, Vandra Muthusami the 3rd from Bangladesh has no clue!

This is by far a great album, and would recomend it to any Sanborn fan

i am not a music critic, but i do know what i like and i have always loved this album. i am listening to my vinyl copy as i type this and have already placed my order for the cd. i'm thrilled it's still available. guitar work on the album by david spinozza, hiram bullock and hugh mccracken is also quite enjoyable. man, i really enjoy this album. theme from "love is not enough" is a killer.

The sound recordings on the clips weren't very good...and maybe this isn't the first Sanborn album you should listen to... This CD isn't the best of his work, but it definitely isn't bad. I like it a lot!

After listening to the clips above, I have no intention to ever listen to this guy again. It's frickin hilarious that a "good" sax player like him can be called as great! Where are your ears, people?