David Sanborn’s ‘Another Hand’: 35 Years Later

In the summer of 1991, David Sanborn fans were thrown for a loop. Having spent more than a decade defining the sleek pop-funk-jazz sound on the Warner Bros. label proper, Sanborn did something completely unexpected. He pivoted.

The release of another Hand was a shock to the system for mainstream radio listeners, but for those paying close attention to late-night television, the warning signs were already there. Sanborn had recently spent two years hosting Night Music, a late-night musical oasis that thrived on radical eclecticism.

Digging back into the archives, an unearthed interview with Sanborn conducted by Kent Zimmerman, published in the August 30, 1991, edition of the radio trade publication The Gavin Report, sheds brilliant light on Sanborn’s mindset during this historic artistic awakening.

Tricking the Corporate Beast

Night Music, co-produced with the legendary Hal Willner, was a masterclass in genre-blurring. By alchemically combining guests of entirely different backgrounds, the show revived the forgotten, free-form spirit of underground radio. Looking back in 1991, Sanborn admitted the show’s booking philosophy came from a beautifully selfish place:

“The television show came about almost selfishly,” Sanborn explained. “Wouldn’t it be great to see Sonny Rollins on television? Wouldn’t it be great to see Sonny Rollins and Leonard Cohen on television or Al Green on television again in a different context. Al and Sun Ra or else David Newman or Hank Crawford or Little Milton Campbell and Fontella Bass. Eric Clapton and Robert Cray. James Taylor and Milton Nascimento.”

The show famously paired avant-garde acts with mainstream icons, creating a surreal musical sandbox.

“Sometimes we’d do a show and I’d ask myself, ‘Did we really get away with that? Did they really let us put the Residents on television?’ I was surprised we got that far. I didn’t think we would last more than six shows. But we actually ended up doing two years.”

Recreating the Late-Night “Trip”

When Night Music went off the air, its DNA migrated directly into another Hand. The record wasn’t just a collection of tracks; it was programmed like a late-1960s free-form radio broadcast, drawing heavily from Sanborn’s own memories of listening to legendary Bay Area stations like KMPX and KSAN.

“I remember getting stoned and listening to the radio late at night with all the lights out. This deejay would come on and play Howling Wolf, John Coltrane, Creedence Clearwater. You went entirely on his trip. There was this thread through the music that was a deejay’s personality, his point of view of the world… If there is any kind of overview to this record, it’s that feeling of laying in bed late at night listening to the radio, hearing these songs coming at you. Personal songs. Interior songs.”

Reclaiming the Woodwind’s Whisper

To pull off this interior atmosphere, Sanborn had to completely alter how he physically approached his instrument. Known for a blistering, bright tone that could pierce through heavy R&B rhythm sections, he deliberately stepped into the quieter, more vulnerable registers of the alto saxophone.

“The problem with playing R&B and funk music is that you tend to operate at a high intensity level. You eliminate some of the more important, subtle nuances of your playing. The part of the saxophone that makes it a woodwind, the piano (as in soft) to mezzopiano range of the instrument gets eliminated… By only playing loud and fast, you eliminate a large part of your vocabulary. Wanting to explore those ranges was also what I had in mind.”

This softer approach is perfectly captured on the album’s opening track, a sweeping rendition of Charlie Haden’s “First Song.” Recording it next to the legendary bassist demanded a strict, classical discipline.

“To play that melody and stay in character, you have to play it very delicately… The way the chords resolve themselves in that song is very classical. Hence you can’t throw in a lot of substitute changes without seriously affecting the personality of the composition. Not with Charlie standing there, anyway,” Sanborn laughed.

Bizarre Alliances: From the Velvet Underground to Monk

With Hal Willner co-producing, another Hand naturally welcomed a cast of characters that defied industry logic. The album featured a haunting cover of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground’s “Jesus,” a medley of vintage 1950s and 60s television themes, and unexpected collaborations with left-of-center geniuses like NRBQ keyboardist Terry Adams.

“What a revelation it was working with Terry Adams!” Sanborn recalled. “Hal knew about the ‘whole other side’ to Terry’s playing. I had only heard him with NRBQ. So we got together and he played me all these tunes he’d written. He struck me as a player who could combine Monk with Jerry Lee Lewis, Cecil Taylor and Allen Toussaint. Weird articulation and smash bang.”

Dodging the “Swing Police”

The album arrived during the height of the early-90s “jazz renaissance,” a period heavily influenced by the traditionalist movement led by Wynton Marsalis. While Sanborn praised Marsalis as a “tireless educator,” he fiercely defended the younger generation’s right to break the rules and experiment with contemporary sounds like rap, hip-hop, and funk—specifically pointing to the M-Base movement spearheaded by Steve Coleman and Greg Osby.

When asked about the rigid boundaries set by traditional jazz purists of the era, Sanborn didn’t hold back his frustration with the gatekeepers.

“There’s bound to be antagonism between the moderns and the purists. That strain has always existed inside the jazz community by people who set themselves up as arbiters of what is and isn’t jazz… We all know who those people are, the ones who write for those tight-assed New York papers. Be-bop police. Not even. Swing police.”

Continuous Evolution

another Hand stands out not as a permanent departure, but as a strong testament to Sanborn’s refusal to be boxed in. And he kept moving. He immediately roared back into heavy groove territory with the James Brown-inspired Upfront, teamed up with composer Michael Kamen for a sweeping symphonic project, cut the lush Pearls, and later paid homage to his roots with a deep tribute to Hank Crawford.

Reading this 1991 interview today, it’s clear Sanborn never saw musical boundaries the way much of the industry did. He was simply following the music and inviting the rest of us along for the trip.