David Sanborn's "Night Music"


Has anyone ever seen Sanborn's 1988 - 1990 show on tape or disc? It was the best music show ever broadcast on TV. I'll never forget Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins playing together. Carla Bley and Bootsy Collins was great, too. And Pharoah Sanders w/Sanborn. And Jack Bruce and Joe Walsh. Betty Carter and Branford Marsalis may have been the best. What's the history of this show not being released?
richardmr
I think this show is a cultural landmark. These episodes were like a set of snapshots of our world musical culture in the late 20th century. I would dearly love to get them on DVD.
Luv the show. I caught a really groovy old B+W clip of Slim Gaillard doing "Dunkin' Bagels in the Coffee" and really trippy guy named Christian Marclay who plays about 5 turntables simultaneously and spins old broken records (he's now a pretty big performance/installatin artist). Thanks to Sanborn for bringing such cool stuff to the tube.

the rights clearances to a show like this could be the obstacle - or just the ecomonics of selling obscure, bizarro to the few weirdos like me who dig this stuff.
Any show that gave the Sun Ra Arkestra and Captain Beefheart national tv exposure was a national treasure!
I had a friend who recorded all the shows on VhS, but I lost track of him years ago.

What a great show it was too. Such a great variety. SRV, Clapton, and Cray was a good one. So was Warren Zevon, Nanci Griffith, and sooooooo many others.

So much crap on DVD, but yet this is not available. Doesn't make sense.
i believe there was another host of this show as well. i think it may been jools holland but i could be wrong.

i wish i would have taped them.
Yeah, I saw Hyatt and Cray, as well as Zorn. There was something about staying up till midnight on "Sunday Night", which it was also called, to be blown away by these artists. Santana and Wayne Shorter, Bill Frisell, Was not Was was fantastic. And he Roches. Or Miles with Kenny Garrett. How about Word Jazz with .....
The absolute best music show ever! As far as I know, never released on video. The Cohen/Rollins segment was amazing. I also remember John Hiatt playing with Robert Cray and being mesmerized.

I'm not entirely positive, but it may have been John Zorn who went on the show with a very negative attitude towards Sanborn as a non-serious musician. He really wanted to dislike Sanborn but came away thinking Sanborn was one of the warmest, most open minded musician and person he had ever worked with, as well as a damn good sax player. It truly was impressive how Sanborn fit in with so many diverse guest.

Here's a link to a discussion forum about the show.