Long live David Sanborn's 'Night Music'

As host of the extraordinary musical variety show, the saxophonist sat in with Donald Fagen, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, and many others. Watch the late musician's 20 most memorable performances.

Shortly after the death of David Sanborn on May 12, clips of the saxophonist began making the rounds on social media. One popular video showed Sanborn, in his late 20s and not a gray hair on his head, beside David Bowie on The Dick Cavett Show in 1974, blowing his brains out on “Young Americans.” Fans punctuated RIP posts with links to tracks from Sanborn’s hugely successful solo albums of the 1980s: Hideaway, Voyeur, Backstreet, Double Vision (with Bob James). Others recalled his collaborations with Steely Dan (“Time Out of Mind” from Gaucho) and Donald Fagen (“The Finer Things” from the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy). David Letterman’s YouTube channel posted a compilation of Sanborn’s late-show appearances, including a funny bit where Letterman empties a gallon of spit from the saxophonist’s horn.

But the true wellspring of must-see Sanborn material has proven to be Night Music, the extraordinary musical variety show he hosted from 1988 to 1990. While fulfilling his duties as emcee (with Jools Holland during the first season), Sanborn sat in with Fagen, Phil Woods, Wayne Shorter, Mavis Staples, Todd Rundgren, Curtis Mayfield, Lou Reed, and many more.