Klarinet Archive - Posting 000925.txt from 2000/01

From: "Dodgshun family" <dodgshun@-----.nz>
Subj: Re: [kl] So what's wrong with Kenny G?
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 04:58:09 -0500

> Granted, Kenny's style is not quite pure "jazz" - whatever that really is,
> but his tone is pure and clean - a thing of beauty one seldom finds in
> modern sax playing.

If you like it. Personally I would prefer to hear something with a bit more
guts and depth to it. Sure, it's a remarkable tone, and I respect that he's
probably had to work hard on it, but I don't really like it.

> His songs are generally melodic, pleasing and
> comfortable.

That's just it. Now, I'm not slamming Kenny G. I do own one of his CDs
(sure, I bought it in a rash moment, but hey!), and I find that if I'm
really really tired and want to listen to something light, I'll put it on.
What I find is that unlike "pure jazz" or anything "classical", I don't have
to think while I'm listening to it. And to me, that signals a lack of depth
or complexity to the music. I have an Eric Dolphy CD which I can't actually
listen to all in one go - it's too much for me. Could you ever say that
about Kenny G? I think the big question I'm asking here is, what does his
music actually mean??

>A saxophone, in capable hands and suitable embouchure can
> produce a marvelous, lovely sound similar to that of a cello, or quality
> human voice.

Yes, if you want it to. And I appreciate that that's difficult to do. I
played the baritone sax for three and a half years, and loved every moment
of it. But I never aimed to sound like a cello or a human voice. I wanted
to sound grunty, but still blend with the rest of my big band section. I
play alto sax when we need one in the youth orchestra, and this is getting a
little closer to the "Kenny G sound". It does need to be beautiful, but I
don't necessarily think that purity is the way to do this.

> I can and do admire some jazz artists, with their spontaneous
> creative approach in redefining melody and elaboration, but I'm
disappointed
> that more players don't exhibit the beautiful sounds possible with the
> instrument. This is one factor I enjoy in playing saxophone over clarinet,
> in that the sax is capable of expressing such a variety of moods.

This interests me. Did you play sax or clarinet first? I find that I can
get far more out of my clarinet than my sax, but this may be because I've
played the clarinet for longer and much more. I think that if I was being
unbiased, I'd have to say that for a player equally skilled on both
instruments, they would be fairly equal. (Yes? No? Flames?)

> I'm also
> disappointed in the failure of musicians to realise that music represents
a
> wide genera of moods from down and dirty to tearful melancholy, and that a
> true musician recognizes and respects all aspects, regardless of their own
> personal preferences.

Ouch! IMHO, this is a pretty steep generalization. I think that
recognizing and respecting all aspects of music is the key to becoming a
good musician, as opposed to an average one. And there are too many good
musicians in the world for this to ring entirely true. When you say
"music", do you mean all music through from plainsong to electronic dance
music, or is it narrower than that?

<snip>

> What's wrong with Kenny G? Nothing, that I am aware of and I'd be hard
put
> to list many other modern saxophone players that I would wish for my
> students to emulate.

This is a personal issue, and not one to which there is a right and wrong
answer! The reasons I don't rate Kenny G as being right up there are as
follows:
- Lack of depth/complexity/meaning/whatever in his music
- It's too commercialised for me. I know the guy has to make a living, like
the rest of us, but......
- For me, his tone doesn't have enough presence. It doesn't grab you by the
throat and say "listen to me!" I like to listen to a sound that will do
this. I appreciate that this is harder to do on soprano sax, but on one of
the tracks on whichever album it is I have (I can't be bothered going to
find it to see which it is), he plays tenor, and it sounds exactly the same
as his soprano. This says to me that it's not just the instrument which
doesn't give the presence, but the player. One that comes to mind for the
amount of presence in the sound is the bari sax player Ronnie Cuber, or the
guy that plays tenor and bari saxes for Pink Floyd on the "PULSE" album
(name??) - no, there's no bias towards baritone sax here! Sure, Kenny G's
quality may be beautiful, but it's too easy to switch off mentally.

Anyway, this is entirely my personal opinion. I think this may well be a
controversial topic, and we may see a fairly wide spread of ideas on this
one.....

Anna

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