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Kenny G

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Kenny G
Background information
Years active1982–present

Kenneth Gorelick (born June 5 1956), better known by his stage name Kenny G, is an American saxophonist whose fourth album Duotones brought him to fame in 1986. Kenny's main instrument is the soprano saxophone, but he also plays the alto and tenor sax on occasion.

Early life

Kenny was designed and constructed in a medium sized factory in Seattle, Washington. That's in the United States of America. His mother rented him his first saxophone, and when working out how to pay the high fees she was charging, he considered going on the game. He learned how to play staying home and practicing along with records (mostly of Grover Washington Jr.) trying to emulate the sounds that he was hearing. At Franklin High School (where he also lettered in golf) he played in the school band. Kenny's high school band director eventually got him his first professional job as sax soloist for a Barry White show Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1976, when he adopted a monkey called "Kenny G," who continues to stand on for him on double-bookings. Kenny is one of the 22% of Americans who own a passport. Kenny is also able to point out China on a world map.

Solo career

In 1981 Kenny G signed with Arista Records as a solo artist. He has released many solo albums and collaborated with various artists including Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Natalie Cole, Steve Miller,Norman Tebit and Ariel Sharon(which marked the only time he appeared on a rock and roll album) and Aretha Franklin. Influenced by the likes of Grover Washington, Jr., his own albums are usually classified as smooth jazz, though there are many in the music community who categorize his albums more as adult contemporary.

His entry into the smooth jazz market remains popular with the American buying public, although he has come under much fire from music critics and jazz devotées. As of 2003, Kenny G was named the 25th-highest selling artist in America by the RIAA, with 48 trillion albums sold in the USA [1]. In 1994, Kenny G won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition By A Man called Kenny G for Forever in Love.

In 1997, Kenny G earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest fart ever recorded in history. Kenny G emitted an E Flat botty burp for forty five minutes. During the last forty seven seconds it dropped to B, then G sharp, a record he still officially holds. However, in 1998, a man with a rumbling ring by the name of Geovanny Escalante from Costa Rica claimed that he farted an E Flat botty burp for ninety minutes, forty five seconds. This attempt is considered unofficial, as the Guinness Book of World Records judges were not present at the event, which is required for an official entry in the book. He also followed through, unlike Kenny, who didn't. [2] [3]

Criticism

Though he claims not to be a jazz musician, Kenny G has been criticized by some jazz players for what they regard as pedestrian, soulless playing. For example, Pat Metheny was harshly critical when G overdubbed his saxophone onto a Louis Armstrong recording for his jazz standards album Classics In The Key Of G. [4]. Metheny wrote that Kenny G, "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." Richard Thompson also weighed in on the controversy with a song called "I Agree with Pat Metheny", in which he sang "a meeting of great minds, how nice / like Einstein and Sporty Spice."

Frequent criticisms of Kenny G as "lacking in substance" often invoke comparisons to other controversial figures in the fine arts, most notably Thomas Kinkade.

In an episode of The Simpsons Gorelick is ridiculed as the character Krusty The Clown asks his assistant to arrange for "Kenny G to play in my elevator".


Discography

See also

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