GRAND RAPIDS, MI – What sets jazz apart from other forms of American music is it’s a conversation that happens in real time.

Saxophonist David Sanborn and pianist Bob James had a lot to say at St. Cecilia Music Center on Thursday.

Sanborn and James were in Grand Rapids as St. Cecilia’s 2013 Great Artists, an annual gala event that’s brought the likes of Itzhak Perlman, James, Galway, Victor Borge, Denyce Graves and Tony Bennett to Royce Auditorium.

With drummer Steve Gadd and bassist James Genus, the quartet opened St. Cecilia Music Center’s 130th season to an enthusiastic, sold-out audience.

(continue reading…)