Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

It's not easy being G

Smooth-jazz king Kenny G has platinum records, even a Guinness world record. But there's still room on his shelf for a little respect.

By SEAN DALY
Published October 19, 2006

	[Handout photo]
	Kenny G headlines the Clearwater Jazz Holiday Thursday night in Coachman Park. Free admission.

Chomp on this, jazz snobs: Miles Davis was a Kenny G fan.

You read that right. One of the most revered trumpeters in jazz history adored one of the most reviled saxophonists. In the '80s, Mr. G even opened shows for the famously moody "Prince of Darkness."

"On many occasions, Miles would come into my dressing room and tell me what I was doing was great," says the 50-year-old Kenneth Gorelick, who tonight headlines the Clearwater Jazz Holiday in Coachman Park. "If Miles says I'm doing good, and some critics say I stink, why would I listen to them?"

Kenny is defending his art as he cruises through Los Angeles. "When you drive in L.A., you have plenty of time to talk," he laughs. For a guy who has sold 75-million albums, he's incredibly easy to reach. Mere seconds after I sent a message to his Blackberry, he called: "Hey, man, let's chat!"

You gotta love the G Man.

Or not.

It has become fashionable to rip and ridicule the Clearwater Jazz Holiday for not doing enough to showcase "serious" jazz. But when organizers announced that this year's main attraction was Kenny G, whose lazy-river soprano sax style is the very definition of "smooth," jazzbos set a new record for vitriol.

Kenny G, the haters cried, is not jazz. He's Mantovani with a perm!

G knows the drill. Great achievement, more jokes. Great achievement, more jokes.

He's one of the biggest-selling jazz musicians of all time. He's a punch line in Wayne's World 2. He made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1997 for longest note recorded on a saxophone (E flat; 45 minutes, 47 seconds). He has inspired a series of demeaning Kenny G one-liners (Kenny G walks into an elevator and shouts, "Wow! This rocks!").

"Those comments are meaningless to me," says the star, who grew up in Seattle and cut his chops playing with such R&B greats as Barry White. "I'm (playing music) from inside my spirit. It has nothing to do with a calculated, intellectual decision that says 'I can sell more records if I play this way.'

"I'm playing from the heart," he adds. "That's the part that people miss."

G has been a polarizing presence since 1981, when he was discovered by Arista kingpin Clive Davis. Davis is known for finding vocal talent - Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Barry Manilow to name a few - but he took a chance on signing the instrumentalist. The partnership has been very challenging - and extremely profitable.

"I've been with Clive Davis for 25 years," says G, whose breakout album, 1986's Duotones, and its ubiquitous hit Songbird, charted high on both the jazz and pop charts. "He definitely has a feel for what will be well-received."

Davis and G "have butted heads on many occasions," the player adds, but their battles almost always pay off. They famously fought over the creation of 1994 holiday album Miracles - Davis wanted more vocals, fewer tracks; G wanted the opposite; so they compromised - "and that became the most successful holiday record of all time. A few more holidays, and it will pass the 10-million mark."

A Jewish man with the biggest-selling Christmas album? That's so G: great achievement, more jokes.

Ask Kenny about his groupies, and he gives you this earnest answer: "I think my groupies are the college and high school saxophone players. There's nothing I like to talk about more than technique."

Oh, Kenny.

In an upcoming issue, Golf Digest will name Kenny G one of the greatest golfing musicians of all time, a field that includes such legendary duffers as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Alice Cooper. He's a +1 handicap, good enough to do some damage on the PGA tour.

"I've had daydreams about shooting the lowest score in the history of golf," G says. "I shot a 49 in my dream."

But whenever he's on the links, all eyes aren't on his swing but rather on the long ponytail pulled through his baseball cap. Kenny's bouncy, curly hair - a 'do as dubiously beloved as Michael Bolton's old receding mullet - should have its own PR agent.

Will Kenny get his locks shorn anytime soon?

"My hair is the way it's been for a long while," he says with a tired laugh. "I haven't gotten a haircut."

On Nov. 14, G will release his new album, I'm in the Mood for Love: The Most Romantic Melodies of All Time. Some will say the album is brilliant; some will say the album is painful. It will sell tons of copies; it will inspire tons of jokes.

It's all part of the unbearable lightness of G-ing.

"As an artist you're supposed to do your thing just the way you feel it," he says. "I play saxophone the way I play saxophone. The music that I play, that's what I feel inside."

Sean Daly can be reached at sdaly@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8467. His blog is at blogs.tampabay.com/popmusic.

Preview

Playing tonight

Kenny G headlines the Clearwater Jazz Holiday tonight in Coachman Park. Free admission. For more on the festival, see today's Weekend section.

PREVIEW: Kenny G headlines the Clearwater Jazz Holiday tonight in Coachman Park. Free admission. For more on the four-day festival, see today's Weekend section.

[Last modified October 19, 2006, 08:22:52]