That's a great comparison and like Sanborn, he had pretty broad interests beyond his pastel jazz ride of the '80s. Besides the dates with Mariano, I really like the wild Round Trip with Chick, Vitous and DeJohnnette and Kenya Ya Africa, where Watanabe's quartet is joined by the Inter-African Theatre Group.    

I have enjoyed this album of Sadeo Watanabe with The great Jazz Trio.

Haydn _ String Quartets Op.50/1, Op.50/2, Op50/3 Mozart - Piano Concertos No.14  and  No.21  - Walter Klien

I'm in the process of "needle dropping" several LPs that have never made it to CD or download. I started with Joanne Brackeen's two Tappen Zee LPs, "Keyed In" & "Ancient Dynasty". Next up will be a couple of Lew Tabackin LPs, "Tabackin" (Inner City) - also called "Let The Tape Roll" & "Tenor Gladness" (Inner City), which has been released on CD in Japan but I never got around to ordering. After that, I'm planning Cecil Payne's "Bright Moments" & "Brookfield Adante", both on the Spotlite label. I'm a sucker for baritone sax dates. I'll probably also do Don Joseph's "One Of A Kind" (Uptown) as I've kinda given up on the expanded digital release that @Chuck Nessa hinted at a few years ago. I used to needle drop LPs a lot years ago but got tired of the process after stupidly agreeing to make about 75 of them for a fellow in Florida in exchange for being able to keep the LPs afterward. I have all of Kamuca's Concord LPs as needle drops. I listen to them often.