Speaking as a middle-aged married white guy who prefers classic rock and has little use for either Pat Metheny or Kenny G but has seen both of them in concert because my wife likes them…
Pat Metheny is definitely a better musician than Kenny G (and his rhythm section, Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez, is absolutely stellar). But you know what? Metheny is on VERY shaky ground attacking Kenny G, because Metheny’s fans and Kenny’s overlap tremendously!
Seriously, if I’d taken a survey at the Kenny G concert I attended, and asked all the MILFs who squealed and screamed for Kenny to name their other favorite musical artists, I have ZERO doubt they’d all have said “David Sanborn and Pat Metheny” or “Sting and Pat Metheny” or “Jim Brickman and Pat Metheny.” Pat Metheny may want to believe there’s a world of difference between his music and Kenny G’s, but guess what? Their fans DONT see such a vast gap! Their fans regard BOTH as pleasant, mellow mood music.
I mean, I DO respect Metheny’s talent, but he’s not exactly Sun Ra or Ornette Coleman, challenging audiences with complicated rhythms, off-the-wall sound effects or elaborate improvisations!
As for Metheny’s essay slamming Kenny G, it’s worth asking, “What brought this on?” Metheny CLAIMS that, he was willing to overlook Kenny’s popular brand of mellow sax noodling, but could no longer remain silent after Kenny desecrated Louis Armstrong’s “Wonderful World.”
Huh? Come on now! It’s not as if Kenny G took a classic piece of jazz and turned it into mellow pap. It was ALREADY mellow pap when Kenny found it!!! “Wonderful World” was ALWAYS treacly fluff, and was therefore a perfect choice for a Kenny G cover. If Kenny had taken a Charlie Parker piece and turned it into fluff, a jazz purist would have a right to grumble. But Kenny’s reinvention of “Wonderful World” was no more saccharine than the original.