David Sanborn - Inside (1999) [FLAC]
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I fell in love with this album a year ago while relaxing at an outside bar watching the sunset over the mountains at La Quinta California. I could only find it in MP3 form on Demonoid, but a trip to the local library yielded the CD. Enjoy.
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INSIDE won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Performance.

With smooth strokes, Sanborn has painted a lovely urban jazz landscape on INSIDE. These cuts may have an easy-rolling feel, but they're surely not dental office fare. Soft, breezy vocal and alto melodies meet rough beats and mean bass lines, making for statements with a real earthiness. Sanborn and multi-instrumentalist Marcus Miller penned most of the tunes, with a couple of pop covers thrown in for funk's sake.

The opener "Corners (For Herbie)," presumably a tribute to Mr. Hancock, is a slow, groovy Fender Rhodes-laden affair, with Don Alias' colorful percussion, and glad blowing by Sanborn and guest Michael Brecker. Aretha Franklin's "Daydreaming" veers into a trippy sort of "rare groove" territory, with diva Cassandra Wilson singing over a backdrop of undulating electric piano, steel guitar and sitar. "Brother Ray" is a blues jam reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughan's jazzier flights. The horn passages are made lush by the double-tenor presence, swaying over Ricky Peterson's Hammond B-3 and Miller's twangy blues guitar work. With an urgent vocal performance by Sting, Bill Withers' classic "Ain't No Sunshine" takes on an almost mystical quality, with entrancing long-tone spirals and wafts of Bill Frisell's guitar.

Cassandra Wilson, Sting, Lalah Hathaway, Eric Benet (vocals); Michael Brecker, Lenny Pickett (tenor saxophone); Ronnie Cuber (baritone saxophone); Wallace Roney (trumpet); Hank Roberts (cello); Gil Goldstein (electric piano); Ricky Peterson (Hammond B-3 organ); David Issac (keyboards, drum & percussion programming); Fareed Haque (acoustic guitar); Dean Brown (acoustic steel & electric guitars); Bill Frisell (guitar); Martin Sewell (National Resaphonic guitar); Gene Lake (drums); Don Alias (percussion).

Recorded at Camel Island Studios, Los Angeles, California; Avatar Studios, Sound On Sound, Hiatus Studio, and Electric Lady Studios, New York, New York.

Engineers include: David Isaac, Dean Sharenow, Malcolm Pollack.

Personnel: David Sanborn (alto saxophone); Marcus Miller (vocals, sitar, bass clarinet, electric piano, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards, drums, drum programming); Bill Frisell (guitar); Dean Brown (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Fareed Haque (acoustic guitar); Hank Roberts (cello); Lenny Pickett, Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone); Ronnie Cuber (baritone saxophone); Wallace Roney (trumpet); Gil Goldstein (electric piano); Gene Lake (drums); Don Alias (percussion); David Isaac (programming, drum programming); Dr. John (sampler).