Kenny G is not a musician I really had much of an opinion about at all until recently. There
was not much about the way he played that interested me one way or the other either
live or on records.
I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they
opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a
fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover
Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style.
He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely
limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically
exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in
an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual
music.
But he did show a knack for connecting to the basest impulses of the large crowd by
deploying his two or three most effective licks (holding long notes and playing fast runs -
never mind that there were lots of harmonic clams in them) at the key moments to elicit a
powerful crowd reaction (over and over again). The other main thing I noticed was that
he also, as he does to this day, played horribly out of tune - consistently sharp.
Of course, I am aware of what he has played since, the success it has had, and the
controversy that has surrounded him among musicians and serious listeners. This
controversy seems to be largely fueled by the fact that he sells an enormous amount of
records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards
that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years. And honestly,
there is no small amount of envy involved from musicians who see one of their fellow
players doing so well financially, especially when so many of them who are far superior as
improvisors and musicians in general have trouble just making a living. There must be
hundreds, if not thousands of sax players around the world who are simply better
improvising musicians than Kenny G on his chosen instruments. It would really surprise me
if even he disagreed with that statement.
Having said that, it has gotten me to thinking lately why so many jazz musicians (myself
included, given the right "bait" of a question, as I will explain later) and audiences have
gone so far as to say that what he is playing is not even jazz at all. Stepping back for a
minute, if we examine the way he plays, especially if one can remove the actual
improvising from the often mundane background environment that it is delivered in, we
see that his saxophone style is in fact clearly in the tradition of the kind of playing that
most reasonably objective listeners WOULD normally quantify as being jazz. It's just that
as jazz or even as music in a general sense, with these standards in mind, it is simply not
up to the level of playing that we historically associate with professional improvising
musicians. So, lately I have been advocating that we go ahead and just include it under
the word jazz - since pretty much of the rest of the world OUTSIDE of the jazz
community does anyway - and let the chips fall where they may.
And after all, why he should be judged by any other standard, why he should be exempt
from that that all other serious musicians on his instrument are judged by if they attempt
to use their abilities in an improvisational context playing with a rhythm section as he
does? He SHOULD be compared to John Coltrane or Wayne Shorter, for instance, on his
abilities (or lack thereof) to play the soprano saxophone and his success (or lack thereof)
at finding a way to deploy that instrument in an ensemble in order to accurately gauge
his abilities and put them in the context of his instrument's legacy and potential.
As a composer of even eighth note based music, he SHOULD be compared to Herbie
Hancock, Horace Silver or even Grover Washington. Suffice it to say, on all above counts,
at this point in his development, he wouldn't fare well.
But, like I said at the top, this relatively benign view was all "until recently".
Not long ago, Kenny G put out a recording where he overdubbed himself on top of a 30+
year old Louis Armstrong record, the track "What a Wonderful World". With this single
move, Kenny G became one of the few people on earth I can say that I really can't use
at all - as a man, for his incredible arrogance to even consider such a thing, and as a
musician, for presuming to share the stage with the single most important figure in our
music.
This type of musical necrophilia - the technique of overdubbing on the preexisting tracks
of already dead performers - was weird when Natalie Cole did it with her dad on
"Unforgettable" a few years ago, but it was her dad. When Tony Bennett did it with Billie
Holiday it was bizarre, but we are talking about two of the greatest singers of the 20th
century who were on roughly the same level of artistic accomplishment. When Larry
Coryell presumed to overdub himself on top of a Wes Montgomery track, I lost a lot of the
respect that I ever had for him - and I have to seriously question the fact that I did have
respect for someone who could turn out to have such unbelievably bad taste and be that
disrespectful to one of my personal heroes.
But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man
who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass,
jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of
the great Louis's tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not
have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and
calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over
the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out
there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the
standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an
amazing lifetime as a musician. By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default,
everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it
can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture - something that we all
should be totally embarrassed about - and afraid of. We ignore this, "let it slide", at our
own peril.
His callous disregard for the larger issues of what this crass gesture implies is exacerbated
by the fact that the only reason he possibly have for doing something this inherently
wrong (on both human and musical terms) was for the record sales and the money it
would bring.
Since that record came out - in protest, as insignificant as it may be, I encourage
everyone to boycott Kenny G recordings, concerts and anything he is associated with. If
asked about Kenny G, I will diss him and his music with the same passion that is in
evidence in this little essay.
Normally, I feel that musicians all have a hard enough time, regardless of their level, just
trying to play good and don't really benefit from public criticism, particularly from their
fellow players. but, this is different.
There ARE some things that are sacred - and amongst any musician that has ever
attempted to address jazz at even the most basic of levels, Louis Armstrong and his
music is hallowed ground. To ignore this trespass is to agree that NOTHING any musician
has attempted to do with their life in music has any intrinsic value - and I refuse to do
that. (I am also amazed that there HASN'T already been an outcry against this among
music critics - where ARE they on this?????!?!?!?!, magazines, etc.). Everything I said
here is exactly the same as what I would say to Gorelick if I ever saw him in person. and
if I ever DO see him anywhere, at any function - he WILL get a piece of my mind and
(maybe a guitar wrapped around his head.)
Ich war nie ein großer Pat M. Freund, vieles war mir einfach zu Weichspülermäßig ... aber die klaren Worte über Kenny G haben mir doch ein zufriedenes Grinsen abgerungen ;)=)
slide on ...
bO²gie