On the Jazz Times website, there is an interview with Kenny G. All of the comments after the interview were very negative, so I stuck up for him. I cannot understand why jazzbos hate him so much. I think most "free jazz" and "avant-guard jazz" is just noise, but I would never say that on a jazz forum out of respect for fans of that stuff.

Having said all of that...I listened to samples of Kenny G's upcoming CD on the Concord Records website. I will probably download only one of the songs (due to my often mentionned sequencer aversion).

Peace and goodwill.

Mark, I have the same problem with most free jazz. Can't bear to listen to Ornette Coleman, for example. Find it mostly painful. Have never had a problem with Mr G's music; just find it a little fluffy for my taste.

I think many "artists" and purists have a problem with commercial success. In my experience, they seem much more willing to praise the starving artist who is "true to his craft" than the money-maker who plays to the wider audience. Maybe I'm off base, but it seems that way to me.

All the best,

Steve C.

The anger at Kenny G is misdirected. It should be toward those station programmers who decided that his style was the face of contemporary jazz.
Prior to the middle 1980s, it was not unusual to hear instrumental selections by Spyro Gyra, Chuck Mangione, Bob James, Tom Scott, Maynard Ferguson and Herb Alpert on mainstream pop and R&B stations. I'm not sure how much tbe introduction of synths, electronic drums and rap influenced decisions, but when "Songbird" hit the airwaves, it was like a revelation.
Oh, my, this is wonderful. What's this music called? Jazz? I must get some.
Some stations did play songs like Hiroshima's "One Wish." And, of course, Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" (this is jazz?) was a big hit. But apart from a few random selections, the stations with the biggest audiences locked onto Kenny G and stopped playing the other jazz or jazzlike instrumentals.
Saxophonists like Jay Beckenstein and Grover Washington Jr. had been playing music in the style of "Songbird" before anybody knew who Kenny G was, but they were ignored by the masses.
I don't believe the artists despise Kenny G for his success. I think the resentment is because most everyone else in jazz was locked out.
Ignorance is also a factor.
I once played a song by guitarist Frank Gambale for a friend. It could be considered smooth jazz, but I thought of it more as a soft rock piece. My friend said, "It sounds like Kenny G."
Seriously? Kenny G is known for his soprano sax ballads. There was no sax on this song at all. Yet Kenny G was the first thing that came to mind. And I've heard that from other people, too.
The expectation that everyone sound like Kenny G made it harder for funkier bands.

Kenny is great at what he does. Having said that he is not my favorite to listen to so I don't support him as an artist.

If people don't like it they are free to turn off the music, change stations (or internet sites) and invest their time/money elsewhere.

This topic is about as played out as a Kenny G song and another attempt to shift the blame from the people who make lame music to another entity. No one put a gun to people's head and told them to be like Kenny G.

Kenny G has just as much right to make his music as anyone else! It's all about being creative with the sounds that are available.

One of my points is that there is no lame music. To paraphrase Frank Zappa: All music is good as long as at least one person likes it, even if that one person is the one who played it.

Music I like is good; music I do not like is bad. IMHO, that is a bit egocentric. I hate rap and the mixing of rap and metal. If I never hear it again, it would be wonderful, but lots of people like that stuff. I am no better than they, and they are no better than me. Just because I may know more about music than someone else, does not make my opinion about it more important.

Peace and goodwill.

It's not the artists so much as the fans.
For this discussion, I'll break down people into two classes. Those who like jazz and those who don't like anything that requires an attention span of more than 4 minutes or includes complex solos.
The former group is hungry for good music.
The latter group, according to the number of topics here at the Island and other discussion boards, tends to dwell on the demise of smooth jazz radio -- Get over it, people! It's a format that existed about 15 years. Your music is still out there. Quit complaining and go find it. -- and the perception that the world hates Kenny G.
Yes, there are snobs, but I submit that they exist in smooth jazz circles as well as that of traditional jazz, fusion, blues, etc. In another thread, someone referred to smooth jazz as "our genre." That sounds so much like the right wingers talking about "our country" -- as if it belongs only to them.
Kenny G is excellent at what he does. I don't think anyone who appreciates music will disagree with that. But as with most things, there are songs of his that I like and there are songs that I don't care for.
Regardless, his success and his acclaim don't stop me from getting my Yellowjackets, Hiromi, Arturo O'Farrill or David Benoit.

Kenny G is much like every other musician who gains a certain amount of success with a certain set of sounds. They get happy and content with the sounds and people who helped them make those sounds. They have nice things and don't have to struggle anymore.

I always prefer the first few recordings from an artist because I feel that they were hungry and it was in their best interest to do the most with what they had.

As a listener, I will listen to almost any music because I believe the good music in any genre will stand out. I use to hate country music until one day I decided to listen to the country music station on the way to work. I can hate a song but not a genre! However, I do believe the Smooth Jazz genre is full of songs that use same sounding chord voicings!

Well said.

I guess that one has forward looking in their DNA or one doesn`t. My favorite artists-Spyro Gyra, Pat Metheny Group, Dylan, Ronnie Montrose-they see no upside to releasing records that sound like the previous one. The trust that their core audience will appreciate that. Kenny G`s last record had a Brazilean number on it that I really liked. Most of his radio stuff is too ballad heavy for my taste. The rock and roller and progressive rocker in me wants my jazz to be more hard charging, more complex, but accessably complex. That said, GOOD ON YA for defending Kenny G. He is a good player-and he used play more intensely in the early Jeff Lorber Fusion days.

For better or for worse, any internet discussion about Kenny G will bring out interesting points.

Read the interview on the Jazz Times website because it is quite interesting.

To each his/her own!

The guy is not without talent. I think many jazz fans consider him a sellout. But, why not? If you were offered a serious amount of money to sell music to the masses as a sax player wouldn't you? I would.

Don't we all wish we could get paid to do something we love?

Whoops. There are 2 interviews. And I read the old one first.
Although it was published in 1999, I think many of the truths he told then still apply today.
For ease of finding it: Kenny G Changes His Tune

Here's the new one. Also excellent:
Practice What You Play

This is the most active thread since several weeks. The reason Kenny G. He is the person in smooth jazz, where are parting the ways. No one else is hated so much by jazz and contemporary jazz fans and loved by smooth jazz fans.

Announcing his new album produces mega hits on many websites and you can be sure that he sells more albums than the rest of the artists of the complete genre. It's incredible but true. He is famous like a super star and released platinum and gold certified albums. So no radio station would pass his music and Concord is happy to have him in their roaster.

I'm tired of Walter Afanasieff's production. I know he's Kenny G's boy and Afanasieff isn't a bad producer per se but I think Kenny G should see what someone else can do. It's hard for Toni Braxton to release platinum and gold certified albums in view of Lady GaGa and Ke$ha so I doubt that Kenny G is doing it. He has to work his butt off like everyone else in the game.

Bring in Harvey Mason, Jr. to do the vocals and production because he excels in it. A lot of the vocals on smooth jazz albums are not that good because they hire people who aren't good songwriters to begin with.

I would definitely agree that Kenny G did not invent the smooth jazz genre (not the radio format) at all. The true founding father of smooth jazz is no one else but guitarist George Benson.

Clearly his songs such as Breezin' and Affirmation are the two songs that truly defined the smooth jazz genre. Kenny G only became the stereotypical example of a smooth jazz musician due to the success of Songbird.

Jazz X, I agree that Kenny didn't create it, but I disagree with crediting George Benson.
If one individual can be said to be the founder of smooth jazz, it was Grover Washington Jr., especially considering the impact of the soprano sax. This article also mentions Ronnie Laws, Wayne Shorter and Nathan Davis.
smooth jazz via Wikipedia

Very interesting. Here lies one of the problems with the music/format. It becomes a formula. Where's the creativity? Where's the risk taking? Wouldn't it be nice to see Kenny G try something different? Who knows, it might work for him (and for us.)

Yes... it would be refreshing to hear Kenny G try something new. The way that Herbie Hancock stretches out and does new things.

Rhythm and Romance was something different, but this new one coming out certainly is not. It seems as though he would realize that smooth jazz radio is almost dead. Maybe that is the type of music that he really wants to make. Maybe he has been doing it for so long that it is all he knows.

Peace and goodwill.

Kenny G makes the most profit of this genre. Why should he change the format even when the old radio supporters left the ship? Kenny G has his fan community. For sure!

Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Kenny G isn't the only one in this genre that needs to break the habit of being complacent. Kenny G has done different types of music, e.g., jazz standards and latin. It's 2010 and a lot of these guys are sounding like the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Not all artists are so courageous to try new concepts and some of these concepts like for example the introduction of rap or techno music into smooth jazz don't work after my opinion. It's always a question of taste and/or personal identification.

For example Rick Kelly as techno interpret on 2010 is a no go for me. I like his old style.

Sure we might like to see someone play something more along the lines of what we like and for the most part I do think that most artists are aware of what their fan base is and try to stay close to that. But in the end I do think that musicians are going to play what makes them feel good. If they can make a living at it so much the better. There is so much to choose from that it is really fair to be overly critical of someone just because they do not play what we like?

All I'm asking for is some contemporary sounding production.

I listened to Kenny G's 'Heart and Soul' and think it suffers from many of the issues other users have complained about. On a few tunes, he brought in more contemporary sounds like reggae-ton and a dance club beat. However, the drum programming on a few of the tracks was like 1990.

I would have recommended that Walter Afanasieff listen to how Stargate(Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen) does their drums--not overbearing but funky enough to drive the tune.

Programming isn't necessarily bad, but with the technology available, there's really no excuse for it to sound like the cookie-cutter stuff from the '90s.

Even narrow-minded me can agree with that. I am weary of the fake sounding pops, clicks, and claps that pass for percussion in so much popular music.

I did download the last two tunes from Mr G's new one. Peace and goodwill.

I didn't understand that Kenny G didn't take a professional percussionist and an excellent drummer with the great budget he had for this recording. He used a complete orchestra, while other artists use samples or just one violinist in overdubbing mode.

These days, the fake drum sounds may be the sounds the song producer wants on the track. It's not about being able to afford a drummer. Sometimes an electronic drum sound may be what's needed so the music makers can tweak it until it's just right.

That's OK with me as long the programmer is able to program some intelligent rhythms.

Hmmm.......just listened to some samples of the new album! Yeah, I think he could benefit from a new producer! He needs something new and fresh! Maybe the guys who did Paul Taylor's last cd! I'm sure the cd will do well but it's pretty boring by my musical tastes! Kenny G needs a new sound!

I would bash any artist who basically recorded an album on autopilot and mailed it in. Look at the liner notes - the songs in this CD are all programmed by Afanisieff (sp?) , no other musicians at all. The production quality is early 90s when programming was all the rage but "Breathless", snoozy as it was, had stronger songwriting. He mailed this one in because he takes his fans for granted and believes they will buy "product" from him regardless of the actual "heart and soul" he puts into it, which in this case sounds like zero to me.

Just another example of his arrogance....