Legendary saxophonist David Sanborn has died

David Sanborn, one of the most famous American saxophonists of his generation, has died at the age of 78.
Sanborn's distinctive alto has featured on hundreds of recordings, including David Bowie's Young Americans, Stevie Wonder's Talking Book, Gil Evans' Svengali and the eponymous albums by singers Gloria Gaynor, Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin, the Guardian reported.
Born in Tampa, Florida, Sanborn began playing the saxophone as a teenager to strengthen his pectoral muscles, weakened by polio. At 14, he played with blues musicians Little Milton and Albert King. His biggest early influence was saxophonist Hank Crawford, whose piercing blues, soul and gospel tone he imitated and then absorbed.
Sanborn joined The Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1967 and appeared with the band at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. In 1972, Sanborn performed a solo on the song Tuesday Heartbreak on Stevie Wonder's album Talking Book. His work in 1975 with David Bowie on the album Young Americans and on the recording of James Taylor's How Sweet It Is made him a star among session musicians.
In the mid-1970s, Sanborn became actively involved in the jazz fusion scene, joining the Brecker Brothers band. In the company of Brackers, Sanborn recorded his first solo album, Taking Off, which today is considered a jazz/funk classic.
Although his recordings often steered toward the popular, Sanborn was also an adventurer who trained under free jazz players Roscoe Mitchell and Julius Hemphill.
In the 1980s, Sanborn was a member of the Saturday Night Live house band. In 1991, Sanborn recorded the album Another Hand, with which he confirmed his jazz qualities. The album features Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Frizzell and Marc Ribot.
Sanborn has six Grammy Awards, including for the albums Voyeur (1981), Double Vision (1986) and the instrumental album Close-Up (1988).
In the 1990s he played regularly with Hammond B3 player Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Steve Gadd. He is a member of the house band on Paul Shaffer's Dave Letterman Show.
In the 2010s, Sanborn toured with bassist Marcus Miller and keyboardist George Duke.
The cause of the musician's death was complications from prostate cancer. He was diagnosed with the disease in 2018/BGNES