These are backing track examples of my work in the Smooth jazz genre, of some of the more well known artists, Euge Groove, Peter White, Boney James, Rick Braun, Dave Koz.  I try to do a note for note reproduction of the original, with a close attention to detail, in the sounds that were used.  I'm using digital performer, and a huge sample library, plus live tenor alto Soprano saxes, live guitars, for more realism.

Backing track examples, Smooth Jazz, Funk

all songs jls

John Lee Sanders, Composer, Lyricist, Producer, Vocalist, recording artist, 
Film, Television, Podcasts, Horn, String, Orchestral arranger,  
Clients, HBO, Cherry Lane, Apple, Walmart, Library of Congress, ASCAP, SIRIUS, A&M, BBC, CBC, KQUED, Sierra Club, Green Party Austria.  San Francisco Playhouse, Santa Cruz Symphony, Tower of Power Horns, Paul Williams, Stephen Schwartz, Johnny Mandel, William Ross,

production music

These are various styles of my songwriting, which is quite diverse.  I have an unusual musical background, which has a classical music education, but growing up in the Deep south, Louisiana, Mississippi and Louisiana, there was the obvious influence of blues, gospel, jazz, country, hip hop, Funk, R&B, Old School Soul,  of course pop music.  My grandmother played piano in the silent movies, in Memphis, the birthplace of Rock and Roll, and Southern Soul.  My mother was a fan of the Great American Songbook, and Broadway composers.  In the 80s, I went back to the University of California, years after getting my degree, to study film Scoring, with Dr. Dan Wyman, who had been a staff composer at Universal Studios in Hollywood.  I was a successful session player in the San Francisco Studio scene from the 80s-2006 as an Arranger, keyboards, vocals, and saxophone player.  I've worked in the studio and live performance with the icons of the era, Stevie Wonder, Tower of Power, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Chuck Berry, Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Paul Williams, John Lee Hooker, Freddie King, Dr. John, Maria Muldaur, and many more

John Lee Sanders Songwriter demos, backing tracks,

Don't Mourn For Me

JL Sanders/David Ritz demos   

Christ Is Simple

ChildrenOfTheWorld JohnLeeSanders

From my CD, Beacon of Light, recorded in San Jose CA
1999
Background vocalists, 
Jeanie Tracy, LZ Love,  Emma Jean Foster

BeaconOfLight JohnLeeSanders

The legendary composer Mike Stoller, Hound Dog, Kansas City, Stand By Me, Jailhouse Rock) and my long time co-writer, Chris Caswell contracted me to add vocals to this wonderful song,  "One Last Round". about getting older
Ever since I heard those great songs, Hound Dog, with Elvis, I knew I wanted to work with him

One last round
I've never been the type to give up easily
And I always take as much as I can get
So I offer a cold shoulder
With the thought of growing older 
Cuz I'm not a kid but hell I ain't dead 
My hair or what still there is growing grayer now
And I can't hear what you're saying very well
Yeah the menu keeps getting finer at the menu at the diner
And yes I'm still here as far as I can tell

So give me one last round
And then another round
I'm going to make it last cuz I don't wanna  go

One Last Round

I wrote this song, along with Chris Caswell,  "I Never Saw It Coming"  when my Mother passed away, in October of 2003,  I was on a 6 week tour with Paul Williams and Melissa Manchester,   She battled cancer for 10 years.  I knew the end was near when I saw her for the last time, before the tour started, I wanted to cancel, and stay with her, but she insisted I do the tour, I had signed all the contracts.  I called Chris, the music director for the Band, at 4AM, when I heard the news she had passed,  in a hotel in St. Louis, and was flying to Louisiana.  He couldn't sleep, and wrote the lyric in one complete thought, downloaded from that magical place in the universe where genius comes from.  The music came to me in a similar way, the melody wrote itself, as soon as a read the lyric, on my piano.  this version was for a live album I did in White Rock, the first time it was performed.  

I Never Saw It Coming

Just One Kiss was written for The Bold and the Beautiful Soap Opera, By John Lee Sanders, Lothar Struff and Chris Caswell.
I performed all of the parts in my home studio in Vancouver for a quick turnaround for a song they needed for the show, Chris and Lothar were the Lyricists, and I'm the composer.  The song received a 2007 Emmy nomination, for best song from a daytime TV show.  This is a little more smooth than my gutsy vocals, but to get in the right mood, for love, sometimes i need something mellow.  

Just One Kiss-Emmy nomination song of the year

I've Been arranging for horn sections, big and small since 1970, for pit orchestras, musical Theater, recording sessions, film soundtracks, Big Band Orchestras, Tower of Power, Robben Ford, Chris Cain, and many great CDs in The Bay Area, Vancouver, Europe, and Los Angeles.  Here are a few examples of my work on various CDs, over the years.  
From my own home studio, I can do 2 or 3 overdubbed tenor and alto sax parts, and at times add a very realistic sampled Bari Sax parts, that works very well in a mix.  I'm using a high quality Neumann TLM 127 microphone, and a Universal Audio Preamp/Compressor.  for larger budgets, I contract some of the top horn session players in North America and Europe, depending on the size of the section.  in 2014, I did a tour, as arranger, and front man lead singer with the National Jazz orchestra of Croatia, writing big band arrangements of some of my blues and jazz classics.

John Lee Sanders Horn Section Arranger examples

Written by John Lee Sanders and Chris Caswell ©2014, from the up and coming musical, Three Legged Dog, about the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, growing violence, and guns in our cities.  and overcoming personal Demons.  Chris Caswell, lyricist, is a multi award winning composer lyricist, well known for his Grammy award for The Daft Punk CD, "Random Access Memories," with Pharrell Williams.  

The angst of the city is graceless and gritty 
Leaving its victims to fend on their own 
And so the obscene becomes the routine 
We’re forced to acknowledge but never condone 

(Chorus) 
Nothing can topple this jaded Metropolis 
It’s bias can’t be compromised 
And the onslaught of hate in the “Seen it all” state 
Leaves us desensitized 

This callous connection breeds fear and dejection 
Tragic injustice becomes make believe 
Sensationalize what we’re left to surmise 
And lose any passion our hearts might conceive 

(Chorus) 

A young boy is gunned down and lost to the night 
A mother wallows in pain 
Soon justice will be all she wants 
But all she’ll get is nonchalance 
Murder here borders on mundane  
  
If one’s life is measured by how much it’s treasured 
Empathy seems to be on the decline 
Each ghetto has ghosts but what scares me the most 
Is how death and apathy now intertwine  

(Chorus)

Desensitized

when I'm with You

here's an example of a well known classical piece I arranged for a backing track, for demo purposes only,  
Using samples, 
Berlin Woodwinds, doing the clarinets and flutes.  
Eastwest Quantum leap orchestra
Kontakt Sample library, Cinematic Strings
Cinebrass for the french horns.

Pavane-Faure

Here's a backing track I did for a client, performing all the parts, live guitars, EZdrummer, 5 synth tracks using ZebraII Synth, Congas, and much more,  the Original Track was J-factor,

Modern Smooth Jazz Funk

This is a Backing track I did for a company that sells online backing tracks for horn players, smoothjazzbackingtracks.com .  the original is from The Phil Collins Big Band, featuring Gerald Albright.  I'm using Digital Performer, EZdrummer, and a few different sample libraries, including EastWest Pop Brass, Broadway Big band, Kontakt Session Horns, Trillian Spectrasonics Upright Bass, 
I'm also a big band arranger, and have written for Tower of Power, the Croatia TV and Radio Orchestra, Nineteen Big Band, San Jose California, and many others, including Dr. John, Robben Ford, Long John Baldry, Chris Cain, 
For Custom big band arrangements or backing tracks, contact johnleesanders@gmail.com .

Chips and Salsa Backing track, as recorded by the Phil Collins Big Band

This track is from the album Christmas With the King and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/johnleesanders

Christmas With The King

Here's a backing track I did for Smooth Jazz backing tracks.com,  duplicating the great performance by Euge Groove, 2011, 
click here for the original credits.
https://www.allmusic.com/song/ten-2-two-mt0041238743
  On this track I'm playing all the parts, including piano, organ, and live rhythm and lead guitar.  Loved Euge's playing on this, reminds me of the closing song that Lenny Pickett does with the band on SNL, For the DAW, I use Digital Performer.   I'm using EZDrummer, Trillian Bass, Alicia Keys Kontakt Acoustic, and  Electric Pianos, and the EastWest Gold String section.  Go to smoothjazzbackingtracks.com to purchase this track, and many other great sax backing tracks.  I also transcribe many of the solos on these recordings. and possibly this one, if there are enough requests.

Ten To Two-Smooth Jazz backing track

the melody came to me just playing an improvisation on an Irish Penny Whistle.  
I recorded it solo, and added all of the orchestral parts later.  Sometimes we get inspired in the moment with just a solo instrument without all of the techno things around us to distract the beauty coming from within.  I visited and toured Ireland in 1996, and am still inspired by the memories.

Within Our Memory

I just moved to Spain in December 2019, with my wife Maria, who was born here. I wanted to give a musical impression of the land, the people and it's inspiration to me.   
I'm a huge fan of the great film composers, and studied film scoring and orchestration in the University of North Texas, and Film Scoring at San Jose State with Dr. Dan Wyman.  This one features Spanish Guitar, regal trumpet, and soaring strings, big taiko drums, Epic journey, adventure, flying, heroic,

Flight Into The Unknown

Bedtime Story

BestIsYetToComeGroverWashingtonPattiLabelleKeyofEb

backing track from a well known smooth jazz artists, that I did using the great clavinet patch from #zebra2, I'm playing all the parts, including the live sax section, I'm also using the #scarbee vintage keyboard sounds, on Kontakt clavinet with the waves guitar plugin, autowah, which recreates the setting on the great #mutron effects pedal, that Stevie Wonder used on #superstition.

What the Funk

John Lee Sanders comes from the deep roots of jazz, blues and roots music through his early years in the Mississippi Delta, Alabama, the Bayous of Louisiana, and The plains of Texas. John Lee has a universal gift to reach audiences from a broad and diverse musical spectrum. 
With blues at the core, he has evolved a complex musical gumbo, with the flavors of Cajun, Rock, Gospel, Pop, Jazz, R&B, Soul, Country, classical, with a deep love of the traditions, and culture of New Orleans. 

There is another John Lee Sanders, on soundcloud, impersonating my name, and has nothing to do with my music,  which is about empowerment, Sacred spirituality, uplifting consciousness, musical integrity, virtuosity, and honoring the  great Jazz, rock,Soul, blues artists, composers, as well as the great classical masters, Film composers, and all great ethnic indigenous music of our world, inspired by our creator. Trademark pending

Modern Smooth Jazz Funk

John Lee Sanders ™ (official 🎷🎹 )