After saxophonist David Sanborn recorded the well-received 'Quartette Humaine' acoustic jazz album with pianist Bob James as a one-off for OKeh Records in 2013, the label continued the conversation with the renowned six-time Grammy winning alto sax star who released eight gold albums and one platinum. That exchange led to Sanborn to link up with his old collaborative friend, electric bassist Marcus Miller, to serve as producer in creating the superb jazz-meets-R&B recording 'Time and the River.'

"I felt like I was in good hands," says Sanborn. "Marcus can cover all the bases—as arranger, composer, instrumentalist, producer—and since we have a lot of history together, working together was like shorthand."

With two Sanborn originals, two tunes by French singer/songwriter Alice Soyer (including "Oublie Moi," with Sanborn's graceful alto circles and swoops), one by Miller (the r&b cooker "Seven Days Seven Nights" that was originally slated for the Bob James project but reworked for this album), the cover of the hot funk D'Angelo number "Spanish Joint" (from 2000's 'Voodoo') and David Amram's "Overture" from the film The Manchurian Candidate, 'Time and the River' stretches out with a variety of styles and soundscapes.

Indeed on 'Time and the River,' Sanborn takes his expressive lyricism and singular ecstatic alto blowing to a new plateau, creating colors and textures through mesmerizing dreamscapes, r&b grooves, balladic beauty, deep funky soul and jazz-steeped improvisations. Undergirding most of the songs on the nine-tune collection is a percussive spice thanks to Diaz's laid-back polyrhythmic contribution. It's the first time the leader has used a percussionist since the death of his go-to percussionist Don Alias in 2006.

The vocal tunes have their reference points. The cool and sweet-grooved "Windmills of Your Mind" may have been featured in the 1968 and the 1999 remake of the film The Thomas Crown Affair, but for this session, the rendition came from the Dusty Springfield songbook. Likewise, for "Can't Get Next to You," this new version owes more to the Al Green interpretation than to the Temptations. An additional voice comes from Sanborn himself, who says, "I think of myself as a singer on the alto, especially on this record. With all the textures going on, I'm able to rise up and play over the top like a vocalist."