"FOR DAVID SANBORN"

Most KHS65 classmates know who David Sanborn is I imagine.  He was in the class of 1963 and lived on McLain Lane, across the street from Joyce Moller and Becky Smith and down the street from my house from 8th to 11th grade and down from Pat Corpening Hoag.  Many of us still love listening to his music but our class Poet Laureate, and masterful trumpet player, Alan Yount, has a special connection to Dave.  Herewith is a poem that Alan wrote earlier this year, and I keep not remembering to get it posted  Here are some thoughts from Alan on the musician and the poem:

"I met David Sanborn in Kirkwood High School band.  At the time the high school did not have a jazz or stage band.  I played trumpet, and had my own dance band.  I asked him to sit in, but he was always booked up.  So, I had only heard him play concert band music, until I went to the nightclub, that first night."  Alan told me he thought this poem "really got the great feeling of Sanborn and his music"    See what you think.... I typed this from the manuscript sent to me by Alan, but it was published in Spring, 2019 in WestWard Quarterly.

FOR THE FIRST TIME I HEARD DAVID SANBORN PLAY JAZZ

"For David Sanborn"
    yes!
yeah man ... yes it was
the very first time
I heard Sanborn, and your band.

While we were both in high school,
you invited me
to a packed night club to hear you.
The only word I could think of
when you first took a solo
was "amazed".

I have to say it over and over
I was so taken away
how well you
got around on your horn.

You played
a thousand times better
than any of us,
(no jive kidding here).

*****

man, how did you
get that distinctive sound?

from those unfurling notes
coming down through
the amber gold of your
Selmer Paris alto saxophone.

I could almost
reach out ...
and touch some sort of karate "ki" ...
some unknown internal force
in and around you
and your playing -

as if I could
feel the edge ...
of that Selmer horn ...
so alive.

*****

feel the actual groove
going with
the soul of your horn
(actually hear a sacred place
as you did speak) ...

through your alto sax,
with your
so familiar defined sound.

it's kind of
a universal thing:
you feel that you are in there ...
part of the jazz!

Sanborn is playing for himself:
but we get it, he's also playing

with a warmth of sounds
heart to heart

so just ... for you ...to hear.

Thank you as always Alan, for allowing us to share in your talents, you are one of our classmates who makes us oh so proud!

Here us a bit of info about Dave I found online:  "David Sanborn has released 24 albums, won six Grammy Awards, and has had eight Gold albums and one Platinum album. Having inspired countless other musicians, Dave has worked in many genres which typically blend instrumental pop, R&B and lately, more and more traditional jazz.:

There are many pix of Dave online, he has aged beautifully, but there is one which, if you can ignore the big hair, shows his face as I remember him from riding carpool to school with him in the McLain Lane days of my life.