I have been complaining for a few years about how no smooth jazz artists ever plays concerts anywhere near me. Yesterday I got an e-mail from Ticketmaster, which told me that Kenny G is playing in Lafayette, LA on October 4. This is only a 70 minute drive away, so we bought tickets. I sure hope the concert is good. I bought his live album yesterday, but I have not listened to it yet. Peace and good will.

Looking forward to hearing about the experience Mark, if you get a chance to post it...

Since my last post in this thread, I listened to Kenny G's live album, and I like it. Actually, for all practical purposes, it is the first time I have ever really heard him. It made me check into some of his other stuff and pay a visit to his web site. I admire how he left Arista because they wanted him to do an album of covers. I will probably do a download thing to get enough tunes to make one or two CD anthologies, just as I did with Fourplay and Boney James.

God willing, I will go to the concert and report back here. Peace and goodwill.

Well, I saw Kenny G last night. The concert was pretty good, and I am glad I went. He is a good showman, and the band was good. As far as concerts go, it was OK; I have seen much better and much worse. He played a wide variety of his music. My favorite tune was "Pick Up the Pieces." They played four tunes from his new album in a sort of "unpluged" format; I enjoyed that. Peace and goodwill.

Thanks for the report Mark -- couple questions -- was he still playing out of tune (sharp)? Or has he fixed that? I couldn't hear any out of tune notes on Sax-A-Loco when I gave it a spin recently.

When I saw him live earlier this year, I didn't hear any 'out of tune-ness' at all! I mean, if one wants to go to a concert just to clue in on something like that, why go at all? Where's the enjoyment in looking for a musicians failings?

I did not notice any playing out of tune, and I even thought about it during the concert. I confess that I do not have the best ear for that sort of thing, although I usually notice if someone I am playing with is out of tune.

I really enjoyed Sax-A-Loco when they played it at the concert. I actually like his latest CD. Peace and goodwill.

Actually DWbass, for me, a professional musician being able to play in tune is like a writer being able to create a novel using a reasonable amount of proper grammar and spelling, in my view. However, I personally wouldn't attend a concert JUST to point out a musician's weaknesses -- for me, this was a point of interest because we were talking about it earlier in this thread.

I actually like a lot of Kenny G's music, and have, on occasion, defended him since he's received a bad rap from many.

Yeah, I thought about it at the concert only because his playing out of tune had come up in this thread. Kenny played some serious sax Saturday night. I would have liked it better if his band had done the same on their respective instruments. Peace and goodwill.

That doesn't sound right. Everybody got a chance to solo and shine when I saw them. The percussionist got a nice long solo as did Vail Johnson. I think the guitarist was the only one who chilled. But remember, it's the Kenny G show and not the Kenny G band show.