The Sideguys

The Sideguys play the Musical Instrument Museum on Tuesday, October 20, at 7 PM. The group is made up of former members of David Sanborn's band, and that's exactly what they're bringing to the stage: the music of David Sanborn. If you've spent any time with Sanborn's work, you know the sound—smooth, soulful saxophone that sits right at the intersection of jazz and R&B. Hearing it from the people who actually played it with him gives the whole thing a different kind of weight.

The show takes place in the MIM Music Theater, a 300-seat room that Grammy winner Shawn Colvin once called "the best 300-seat venue in the country." It's a small enough space that you're never far from the stage, and the museum's artistic director, Andrew Walesch, says artists sound different here than anywhere else. The theater is part of the larger Musical Instrument Museum, which houses thousands of instruments from every country in the world, alongside performance videos to go with them. The concerts they book usually tie in with those exhibits, so the music on stage often has a direct connection to the instruments on display around you. The museum has drawn praise from figures like Eddie Vedder and Tony Bennett, and the Music Theater also serves as a platform for emerging global talent.

For this one, the connection is straightforward: The Sideguys are playing the music of the man they used to back. It's a tribute that comes from the inside, played by musicians who lived it. The show starts at 7 PM on Tuesday, October 20, at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.