Jim Sanborn

The Section were a US instrumental rock/jazz fusion band formed in the early 1970s by guitarist Danny Kortchmar, keyboardist Craig Doerge, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel. Other musicians associated with the group include multi-instrumentalist David Lindley and guitarist Waddy Wachtel. Fork It Over (1977), the group's final album, featured guest appearances from Taylor and David Crosby alongside other session luminaries of the era, including percussionist Joe Lala, saxophonist David Sanborn, trumpeter Chuck Findley and multi-instrumentalist Jim Horn.
Imagine the Atlanta Rhythm Section doing Jan Hammer/Jeff Beck collaboration instrumentals. This is fantastic music, very pleasant, very funky…

Another strong album for Randy Crawford; the song "Imagine" remains one of the best R&B covers/versions around, while "One Hello" did well in Europe and made it to the charts, as did "Imagine," although it broke later in America. Crawford sang with consistency and character on every number.

Some bop snobs claim that people in the NAC/pop-jazz field are playing unchallenging music because they don't have chops, but that isn't true – a lot of NAC musicians do have chops and they aren't afraid to improvise when they take it to the stage. Unfortunately, they aren't nearly as risk taking in the studio, where they avoid improvisation because they don't want to frighten away rigid NAC radio programmers. David Mann, for example, is a capable saxman whose influences include Grover Washington, Jr. and David Sanborn. But he plays it much too safe on Touch, which was obviously recorded with NAC radio in mind. Most of the time, Mann favors an unchallenging, innocuous blend of pop, R&B, and jazz – and there is precious little evidence of his skills as an improviser.

With the tragic passing of Michael Brecker in 2007 at the all-too-young age of 57, it seemed that the flagship group the Brecker Brothers, co-led by the saxophonist with his trumpet-wielding older brother Randy, was also to be a thing of the past. But some things never die; as it was, during the saxophonist's lifetime, the horn-led band that defined the term "downtown funk" and an edgy, urban sound that could only have come from New York City seemed to have an unquenchable life clearly fated to continue, even as the brothers separated at various points to pursue other projects.