CABARET AND JAZZ REVIEWS : DAVID SANBORN

Playing with bravura and emotion, alto saxophonist David Sanborn dug wholeheartedly into a batch of pop/jazz/R&B; tunes before a packed house at the Universal Amphitheater Thursday. But after a while it seemed, despite his charged performance, that he had said what he’d come to say and was just churning out the same phrases again and again.

Part of Sanborn’s problem is that he’s a better saxophonist than his material lets him be. Most of the songs, with their repeating vamps and rock-’em, sock-’em back-beats, lock him in. And while he can play funky, whirling, indeed captivating lines all night long, the static harmonies and rhythms of these tunes make it seem as if he’s on a short musical street with a cul-de-sac at the end: He ultimately has nowhere to go.

Still, Sanborn and his cohorts--guitarist Hiram Bullock, keyboardist Ricky Peterson, bassist Steve Logan, drummer Dennis Chambers and percussionist Neal Clark--put on a high-energy show that definitely had its moments. But if musical growth is of any concern to Sanborn, he needs a new and challenging direction. He’s worn this one out.