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.