David Sanborn...that great cry.

If ever I can say that someone influenced me greatly as a musician, I would have to pick David Sanborn hands down and heads above everyone else.
Years before I actually heard him, I had heard of him because everyone that I had played music with from around 1969 on compared me with him. Starting with a guy that I grew up with in the Bronx, Butch Ford (a fine guitarist). He was a big fan of the Paul Butterfield Blues band, of which Sanborn was a member.During a short well lived tenure in a band that Butch had I was the saxophone player (no one knew that I could sing because I tried to keep that to myself). Butch always told me that he really loved the way I could handle my horn... "Charlie, you just play the sh** outta that thing, just like that F***ing David Sanborn, in Butterfield's band."
Now I'm not certain where I lost the interpretation , but it may be around that time that I started to lose confidence in myself and doubt my abilities. I had some run ins with a couple of the other guys in the band (funny, I don't even remember their names) but their taunts affected me negatively, mainly because I was overweight. Butch really believed that I would be a great musician someday; but we were teenagers, and it's hard to see that far ahead, and even harder to convince grownups that this guy's got a gift. So as my teen years faded into bad memory, I kept my dreams and my gift to myself.
I came here to West Virginia to go to college, and during those years I heard some great music and some great musicians, and I really wanted to participate, but my earlier fears sort of got the best of me so I didn't really reveal how well I could play for fear that I wouldn't get to play much because of peoples egos (stupid huh?). Anyway, I wrapped up my time in West Virginia (the first time) after doing a stint as the lead vocalist and flutist/saxophonist with a band called Stratus (they are still going strong here in the Charleston area), and I went back to New York by way of DC, where I lived with my Sister for a year. During that time she tried to tell everyone who would listen about her baby Brother, and I did get a couple of gigs out of it but nothing in DC clicked for me, so I headed back to the Bronx...something was pulling me.
After just over a year in the city I started getting really antsy, so I ventured out to see what the music scene was like, and I started meeting all kinds of people who gave me the same story, and making endless comparisons.
Anyway to make a long story short in 1983 on a complete fluke I was hanging out with some friends when I ran into my cousin Leroy Clouden ( if you're not familiar with the name grab the Steely Dan CD "Two Against Nature," he's the drummer) at a club called Mikells. He and I were chatting it up, he takes me down to the dressing room, and while we're in this conversation in walks David Sanborn, well you could heard my heart drop.Leroy introduces us and tells him that my cuz CT is a great singer; David nods politely.End of story, oh no! I go back upstairs to watch the show and they call my name to come and sing ( as black as I am, I turned as white as Michael Jackson). I should have left well enough alone but David starts inviting me to all his gigs around town, and I even got to play sax at a couple of them.
Fear can do some strange stuff to you if you let it, and I've kept this fear about my talent to myself for too long, I'm trying to overcome it but I've had some terrible experiences with it because of egos.
During the time I spent with David, he encouraged me a lot, and he was the first person to treat me as though I had a brain, and not his valet...and I will be forever grateful.
If you've never experienced David Sanborn live you owe it to your career if you're in music to hear that great cry from his horn, he's in this game for real and when you listen to him you'll understand why he can literally move me to tears, and you'll also undersand why I want so badly to be in this business.
Lastly, if you're struggling in this business, find people who will cheer you on and not bring you down because you have drive, and or talent.Get together with like minded people who are encouraging and will compel you to be the best...you deserve it!