The David Sanborn St. Louis Jazz Festival will be held mid-September 2013 in Grand Center, Sanborn revealed while in town visiting family.

"I've never had my name on a festival before. I don't want to say it's embarrassing but it's certainly humbling," says Sanborn. "It's not really about me, and that's not something I would push at all. But if the people helping to organize this think it has some sort of advantage, then whatever it takes to make this thing happen and further the music, I'm all for it."

Sanborn met with organizers and potential sponsors of the festival to discuss details about the planned annual event.

One of the investors will be Entertainment Cruise Productions, which is also behind Sanborn's tour with Brian Culbertson that comes to the Pageant on Aug. 23.

The festival will take place over one to three days and will include indoor and outdoor components. The outdoor portion will be free; the indoor portions will be ticketed.

A Jazz St. Louis representative has confirmed Jazz at the Bistro will be one of the venues housing the new festival. Powell Symphony Hall and other Grand Center venues are being considered as well.

Sanborn will be one of the headliners, along with other nationally recognized names from St. Louis and artists who hail from other cities who may be musically linked to St. Louis.

"We want a wide variety of music reflecting the heritage of St. Louis, a great hotbed of music and a breeding ground for some great jazz musicians," says Sanborn. "I want to honor St. Louis as an important music town. That's what I'm hoping for."

But the idea won't be to stuff too many artists into the first year.

"We will keep the number of performers modest. It's a bad idea to get overly ambitious. It's better to be cautious at first and try to build something slowly," he says.

An educational component is being considered. Sanborn named Philadelphia bassist Christian McBride as an example of an artist who would work well in that arena. "He could communicate the essence of what this music is, and he plays his ass off. And educational workshop with someone like Christian would be ideal."

Other possibilities include a lifestyle or food or a gospel music component, all helping to bring in the community at large.

By the time the David Sanborn St. Louis Jazz Festival unfolds, it could easily carry a different name, such as the David Sanborn Music Festival or the David Sanborn American Music Festival. That's one of the issues still being ironed out.

"Some people take offense when you call something a jazz festival and it includes some music that they don't call jazz. I'm more of an opinion that jazz is a big tent and you can have something like the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt and Wynton Marsalis," he says. "What is it that makes something jazz or not?"

While cutting his teeth on the St. Louis scene during his formative musical years, Sanborn says he learned early how music crosses boundaries, and he hopes the festival reflects this.

"I used to go to Gaslight Square and walk down the street and hear cabaret acts, jazz acts, blues, folk singers, all this stuff, and that's what got engrained in me, the idea that great music is great music. I took that sensibility out to the world," he says.

And now, he's bringing it back.

"This is American music, and St. Louis is an American town."

Sanborn is a two-time veteran of the now-defunct St. Louis Jazz Festival, which ran from 2001 to 2008 in Shaw Park.