David Sanborn › Similar Artists

Gerald Albright - 98% match to David Sanborn

Kirk Whalum - 89% match to David Sanborn

11 July 1958, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. An accomplished tenor saxophonist, from the mid-80s onwards Whalum has found a lucrative niche playing smooth jazz. Raised in Memphis, he began playing in his father’s church choir before graduating to jazz during high school. He formed his own band while studying at Texas Southern University in Houston, and received his first brea Read more

Nelson Rangell - 89% match to David Sanborn

Denver, Colorado, USA. One of the more distinctive voices working in the oversubscribed pop/jazz firmament, Rangell first picked up the flute at the age of 15. Six months later he found himself studying at the Interlochen Arts Academy, before travelling to the New England Conservatory Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, to study with renowned saxophone tutor Joe Allard. Immer Read more

Najee - 88% match to David Sanborn

Richard Elliot - 88% match to David Sanborn

Glasgow, Scotland, but raised in Los Angeles, California, USA. It was perhaps inevitable, for a musician growing up in the 60s and early 70s, that Elliot’s early taste would range through Motown Records and rock. However, he was also indelibly impressed by R&B. As a tenor saxophonist he found much that appealed to him in this form but he was also aware of jazz, in p Read more

Eric Marienthal - 87% match to David Sanborn

Boney James - 86% match to David Sanborn

James Oppenheim, 1 September 1961, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. Raised in New Rochelle, New York, Boney James played clarinet at school, then the tenor saxophone and later the alto and soprano. His early musical tastes leaned towards contemporary pop, fusion and rock, including Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind And Fire and Grover Washington Jnr. His family moved to Los Angeles in 1 Read more

David Benoit - 78% match to David Sanborn

Bakersfield, California, USA. Benoit gained an early appreciation of music from his parents, who played guitar and piano. He began piano lessons at the age of 14, by which time he was steeped in the influences of both Ramsey Lewis and Henry Mancini. Following his musical studies at El Camino College, he met with composer Richard Baskin and played piano on the movie soundtra Read more

Jeff Golub - 76% match to David Sanborn

15 April 1955, Akron, Ohio, USA. Golub was already an accomplished guitarist when he attended Boston’s Berklee College Of Music. At the end of the 70s he settled in New York City where he was invited to join Billy Squier’s band. In addition to appearing on several albums, this engagement also resulted in three world tours. Aside from his work with Squier, Golub was Read more

Rick Braun - 76% match to David Sanborn

6 July 1955, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. A busy session musician and producer, trumpeter/flügelhornist Braun has mapped out a diverse musical career. While studying at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester he formed the fusion band Auracle, which released two late 70s albums recorded with Miles Davis’ producer Teo Macero. In the early 80s, Braun released a pop Read more

Walter Beasley - 75% match to David Sanborn

Jeff Lorber - 74% match to David Sanborn

4 November 1952, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. A pioneer of the smooth jazz/New Adult Contemporary format, keyboard player Lorber’s compositions are characterized by syncopated, chromatic melody and modal writing and a seamless fusion of electric jazz, rock, R&B and funk styles. Lorber started playing the piano when he was four and played in local R&B bands w Read more

Joe Sample - 73% match to David Sanborn

Joseph Leslie Sample, 1 February 1939, Houston, Texas, USA. While still at high school, Sample co-founded a group that would dominate his working life. Known from 1960 as the Jazz Crusaders, the band, with its core of Sample on piano, Wayne Henderson, Wilton Felder and Nesbert ‘Stix’ Hooper, produced a series of popular albums that helped to define the term ‘s Read more

Warren Hill - 73% match to David Sanborn

1966, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Hill grew up listening to all kinds of music, particularly rock. Although he had previously dabbled with the alto saxophone, Hill later formed his own group, playing guitar and also singing. At the age of 17 he went to jazz summer school at the Eastman School of Music in New York. After hearing music of past saxophone giants and contemporary p Read more

Kim Waters - 72% match to David Sanborn

Maryland, USA. Born into a musical family, Waters began playing saxophone at an early age. His technical proficiency was remarkable, allowing him to play comfortably in jazz and R&B formats. He worked with childhood friend Cyrus Chestnut, sometimes playing jazz but also as members of a group backing a hotel lounge act. With his brothers James and Eric Waters, he also for Read more