Klarinet Archive - Posting 000319.txt from 1999/01

From: "Carl Schexnayder" <carlsche@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Kenny G Concert Review
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 14:41:51 -0500

>I thought that some of you might enjoy this review of a Kenny G concert,
>Kenny playing a distant relative of the beloved clarinet and all. Then
>again some of you might be horribly offended.
>
>Oh, the joys of a forum ...
>
>*******************************
>
>Review of a Kenny G concert from The Other Paper, Columbus, Ohio, by
>John Petric.
>
>"Getting Down With The Milquetoast Maestro" by John Petric
>
>A whole lotta people paid a whole lotta money to witness a whole lotta
>meaningless breathing exercises done through a musical snorkel Saturday
>night at the Columbus Convention Center. Kenny G - the mayor of
>mayonnaise music, the milquetoast maestro, the woodwind weasel - played
>his saxophone to roughly 5000 people at $25 per head. That adds up to a
>$150,000 gross and boy, gross it was. G is the latest and most
>successful instrumentalist with a slight jazz pedigree to hit the big time.
>However, in G's case, it's with an authenticity so questionable
>he may as well document it with a fancy diploma from some phony offshore
>jazz school in the middle of the Caribbean. Even Zamfir comes with
>better jazz credentials. Ornamental romantic themes ruled the night's
>jazz lite hell. Goopy, chimey electric piano usually introduced his
>tunes, G's wimpy soprano sax then laid down a melody fit for a lovesick
>poodle on Prozac. If Holiday Inn motel art could come to musical life,
>it would sound like G's "Forever in Love" or "Sister Rose" or
>"Sentimental," all horrible crap from "Breathless," his
>bezillion-selling album on Arista. The Thin White Duke of Puke's solos
>were the color of air. His improvisations improved none at all as the
>long night dragged on. His chops consisted almost entirely of
>pyrotechnic finger exercises and obnoxious minutes-long sustains that
>had the crowd whooping and hollering. Sadly though, the long-winded G
>has all the fiery jazz imagination of, say, Richard Clayderman, the
>French dude. (He's French, for crissakes, need I say more?) After the
>G-weasel committed atrocity after atrocity in the name of jazz,pulling
>tunes off his seven-album catalog, the question remained. Why is this
>weenie doing so well? Opener Peabo Bryson joined G for a song in the
>middle of the headliner's set. It was the best part of the show.
>
>=============================================
>David Bourque
>Bass Clarinet, Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Great Review!!
Carl Schexnayder

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