Klarinet Archive - Posting 000391.txt from 1999/01
From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Kenny G Concert Review
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 18:44:33 -0500
At 05:00 PM 1/10/99 EST, you wrote:
>OK! Here's my opinion of Kenny G:
>
>Remember the famous quote (I forget who said it, probably Barnum): You'll
>never go broke underestimating the taste of the American Public"
It was H. L. Mencken. Phineas Barnum said "There's a sucker born every
minute." Same difference, basically.
>Guys.......99.9% of the population out there doesn't CARE about all the
things
>we strive for. Music is, at best, an entertainment for the "public". For most
>it's just background noise, Kenny G is just making a bundle providing EXACTLY
>what the public wants.
>
>Does he deserve our scorn, or our envy?
Maybe both. The New York area people here probably know about 101.9 FM. I
don't know the real call letters but they advertise as CD1-point-9, and
make no bones about being a "jazz lite" or easy listening station. This
puts them in a somewhat different niche from WKCR-FM, the Columbia U.
station, or WBGO-FM in Newark (88.3). My introduction to Kenny G came be
being stuck working for 6 months in a place where the cafeteria piped in
101.9. I'd take breaks in there to drink coffee in the afternoon and work
on a poem (God forbid on company time!:-), and I think the quality of my
writing suffered because of how damned much Kenny G I had to listen to.
With my ear, I heard a brilliant technician who chose to play spongy,
cuddly music, exclusively, that doesn't begin to exploit the serious
possibilities of the soprano sax as an instrument, i.e., its harsh edges as
well as its beauty for a certain type of chocolately lyricism that, in
Kenny G's hands, gets real cloying after awhile. My introduction to the
soprano sax was Coltrane playing "My Favorite Things." It's as
awe-inspiring now as it was when I heard it in 1966.
I've heard stories on this list, I think, about Kenny G blowing "serious"
players off the stage: and this is while he was still in school. Obviously
the guy made a choice about how he wanted to make a living. I don't know
if it was right or wrong but I'd rather not listen to it in large doses. I
just wish I had the guy's skill on that or any horn.
For you outlanders, WKCR-FM and WBGO-FM are jazz stations for serious jazz
listeners, players, player wanna-bes, and old fashioned aficionados. Any
station Phil Schapp DJs for has to be serious:-). Schapp has been known to
do 24-hour Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, or Eric Dolphy
marathons: takes, outtakes, retakes, screw-ups, drunken and/or narked-up
rants at the band in the studio...you name it, Phil plays it. A lot of
this music is not "easy listening": you will never hear Archie Shepp or
Ornette Coleman played on 101.9! Not even the more accessible Miles Davis
or Coltrane, especially when the latter goes to what sounds like atonal
chording on a soprano sax, like he walked into Arnold Schoenberg's
manuscript closet.
Right now I have an Eddie Daniels CD on the machine in the room, and the CD
is something called "Beautiful Love." It's brilliant (the Satie Gymnopedie
#3 is just wondeful) but I can see where it might fit right into the Kenny
G category of Cloyingly Obnoxious. Yet I find Daniels' less offensive: his
range is more interesting and dangerous than Kenny G's. I own recordings
of Daniels risking himself against Vivaldi (I think it fails, but that's
me) and playing Brahms and Weber; and if the latter are not the greatest
recordings of the respective pieces, nevertheless they're way respectable.
I've also heard him "jam" with the Trio de Clarone, and Sabine Meyer did
not blow Daniels off the record. I recall reading that everyone from here
who attended the thing at Ohio State over the summer was impressed by
Daniels' playing and musicianship.
I guess Kenny G fills a niche. Some people are not going to "get" hard
jazz, serious jazz, or classical woodwind music.
Ken
Kenneth Wolman http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1649
Let it come, as it will, and don't
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.
--Jane Kenyon, "Let Evening Come"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org
