High Five 5 sexy saxophone moments with Sade

Saxophones don’t get a ton of respect. In a world that’s still recovering from the sounds of Kenny G, it’s nearly impossible to think of the instrument without associating it with all things cheesy and pertaining to waiting rooms outside dentists’ offices. So far, 2011 has seen a noticeable resurgence of the blue M&M’s choice horn, with artists like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and even critical darling Bon Iver using the long-chastised smooth jazz fixture with varying degrees of tongue-in-cheek nostalgia and sincere earnestness. With the seemingly left-field sax revival and the release of last year’s Soldier Of Love, Sade’s first studio album in a decade, the band (and yes, Sade is a band) picked a perfect time for a comeback, especially considering the group never once turned its back on the sax during its nearly 30-year career. Sade (along with John Legend) is taking the stage for a relaxing evening at the Target Center tonight, so why not get in the mood early and take a trip though five of Sade’s best sexy sax moments?

“Your Love Is King” (1984) 
Never mind the fact the video looks like it’s set in that freaky dream room from Twin Peaks, Sade’s debut single was a breath of fresh air when it hit radio in 1984, especially in an R&B landscape that was still looking for something substantial and earthy following disco’s rise and fall. Singer Sade Adu’s delivery was deliberately icy and regal, allowing the song enough weight and polish to hold up today, even when the sax intro sounds like something Duke Silver would cover.

“Smooth Operator” (1984)
 
Sade’s debut album, Diamond Life, also saw the release of the band’s most recognizable song, “Smooth Operator.” Considering the word “smooth” is in the title, the sound of the song is probably no surprise. Undeniably catchy (especially the “coast to coast, L.A. to Chicago” bit), it’s easy to see why this was the song to propel the British band into the top 10 on the U.S. charts. The sax is just as thick on this one as it was on “Your Love Is King,” although here it sounds especially plush, lending the song an air of mysterious sophistication to make listeners feel like they’re about to enter a neo-noir thriller set in an island night club. Or else it’s like any of the scenes in Blade Runner where Harrison Ford goes and buys ramen noodles from a street stand.

“Is It A Crime?” (1985)

First, can we take a moment to point out how gorgeous Adu looks in this video? Adu’s stately and poised beauty was one of the singer’s biggest selling points, especially in an era when the majority of female entertainers mistook excess and hairspray for attractiveness. Adu balanced drama with reservation, a calling card that’s made her one of the finest torch singers of all time, at once sounding passionate and forceful, but always a bit too sad to burst into diva-like histrionics. Again, there is a bit of a nightclub vibe going on in this song, but this time the sax arrives for its glory moment at exactly the right time, amping up the tension right before it drops out for Adu’s heartbreaking and muted delivery of the song’s title, which is backed by little more than an organ and few stray drum beats.

“Kiss Of Life” (1992)
 
By the time the ’90s rolled along, Sade was leaning more toward quiet storm-style production, full of heavy beats and droning textures aimed at achieving the laid-back romanticism for which the band had become known. While some big hits like “No Ordinary Love” were completely free of saxophone, 1992’s Love Deluxe album did have its fair share of saxy moments. Although, as is the case with “Kiss Of Life,” by this point those moments were being used sparingly, usually there to fill in transitional pockets and to give the tracks an extra dose of warm, lived-in soul. Also, 1992 was the year Kenny G’s monumentally successful Breathless came out—so you can’t really blame Sade for not wanting people to think the band got him to guest on the album.

“In Another Time” (2010)

The tricky thing about praising Sade, besides the fact that so many people can’t get over the way the band is so purposefully unhip, is that the music itself doesn’t garner much attention. The musicians in the band are more than accomplished, but they’re also so fixated on creating moods and arrangements that are unobtrusive to Adu’s main-event vocals that it often becomes easy to forget they’re there. The truth is, Adu’s sound couldn’t exist without the band members, and that’s made clear on “In Another Time,” an track from last year’s well-reviewed comeback album, Soldier Of Love. It’s one of the few moments on the album that features a sax, but the instrument is used perhaps more beautifully here than on any track in Sade’s canon. Paired with delicate strings and a waltz-like beat, Stuart Colin Matthewman’s sax comes in as a welcome surprise, throwing the song a bit off-kilter and making Adu sound like a true elder stateswoman of love and romance. It’s not cool by any means, but it is pretty.