David Sanborn’s new album, Time and the River, doesn’t quite catch the magic of the slender American soul-sax master’s explosively imploring sound, but his live shows are something else. Sharing a bluesy Barbican double-bill with guitarist John Scofield and singer/pianist Jon Cleary, Sanborn replaced his album’s radio-friendly vocals with a torrent of impassioned and voice-like sax-playing, covering its tracks with the help of such a dynamic live band (tigerishly powered by Chaka Kahn/Rachelle Ferrell drummer Chris Coleman) that the music was barely recognisable as coming from the same source.
Scofield and Cleary opened, renewing the rapport they shared on Scofield’s Piety Street and hitting their stride with Fever, played as a bar-room stomp with a Ray Charlesian vocal flavour, spiced with Scofield’s signature blues growls, percussive snaps and bursts of supple bebop. Johnny Guitar Watson’s Cuttin’ In and the classic spiritual Walk With Me spurred seamless guitar breaks, Sam Cooke’s Soothe Me brought a Fats Walleresque piano breeziness from the offhandedly inventive Cleary and his bittersweet vocals on Stardust were massaged by a stream of spontaneous counterpoint from his partner.
Sanborn jacked up the temperature in the second half, wailing his way into the 1960s jazz/blues hit Comin’ Home Baby over his sextet’s torrid groove and Marcus Miller’s Maputo (a mix of 1980s Miles Davis fusion and talky African instrumental tones). Camel Island was a fiery percussion extravaganza, Sanborn’s ballads Ordinary People and Sophia were tinglingly poignant and Marcus Miller’s Run for Cover was a crowd-kindling opportunity for the lightning strumming and bone-shaking punctuation of bass player Andre Berry. Sanborn might be pushing 69, but his razor-sharp tone, clipped and pithy phrasing and canny bandleading can still bring live audiences of all ages to the edges of their seats.
