“He sucks” doesn’t really offer much in the way of information as to why he’s perceived as such.
(Responses such as “He sucks because his music is bad! It’s so bad that I’d rather get a root canal! Listening to Kenny G is so boring that it’s like being bored to death! He’s thinks he’s as good as (insert dead black guy), but he’s not even (insert lesser dead black guy)! (Dead black guys) are jazz gods! Kenny G isn’t!” aren’t all that informational, either.)
He sucks because he markets instrumental R&B as jazz. He sucks because he sells albums of elevator music. He sucks because he uses neither syncopation nor improvisation, two of the cornerstones of jazz. He sucks because he markets pablum as music.
It’s funny that you guys keep mentioning root canals. My dentist plays Kenny G videos in his office. The last time I was in for a cap I asked him to turn it off. The drilling was painful enough.
It’s not that he’s that hated, on an absolute scale. People are just much more vocal about him, because for a while there he was very prominent and very un-cool. So by decrying him, they could up their cool quotient.
I just think he’s a terrible sax player. No tone.
We hate him because his music manages to be so boring that it’s actively horrifying, a sort of paradoxical musical nightmare of drektastitude.
Ugh. Kenny G sucks significantly worse than Tesh or Yanni, IMO. I don’t like either one of them, but if I was in a public area where their music was playing at a quiet volume, I probably wouldn’t even notice. Kenny G’s music just makes me want to twitch and yell. The way that it sort of has that jazz tone, but there is NO FRICTION at all, no syncopation, no improvisation, no grit… it just sucks a lot.
LC
There’s also the serious cheese factor in the WAY he performs. I get ill watching him.
I think the OP sums it up nicely.
Remember, “smooth jazz” and its musical kin are the Devil’s Muzak!
Since this appears to be a anti- Kenny G thread, I’m going to put my $.02. I like Kenny G, John Tesh, Yanni, et al. I find their music very soothing in this fast-paced world we live in.
I’m not a “serious” musician, but I also wonder why the passionate hatred of this genre. I don’t particularly like old fashioned country music, but I don’t hate the artists…
IMO, I think they are just easy targets. They’re very commercial, obviously popular, and trendy to hate. I wonder how history will remember them. Artists that sold a gazillion albums and everyone hated? Not likely.
Hilarious? Pathetic is more like it.
First of all, it’s NOT as if Kenny G sullied Louis Armstrong’s legacy by adding his sax work to “What a Wonderful World.” Maybe if Kenny had added his sax to one of Armstrong’s early, seminal jazz jams, THAT would be sacreligious. But “What a Wonderful World” is NOT a cutting-edge jazz song. It’s a mainstream, maudlin, saccharine pop tune. Kenny G didn’t water it down, sentimentalize it or turn it mushy- it was ALREADY watered down, sentimental and mushy! Not everything Louis Armstrong did was innovative jazz. Not all of it was jazz, period!
As for Pat Metheny himself… well, Metheny isn’t exactly a cutting-edge, avant-garde jazz musician, either. I hear his stuff around the house all the time, because my wife is a big fan of mellow jaz, and frankly, I consider Pat Metheny at LEAST as big a wuss as Kenny G. Metheny’s music is at LEAST as elevator-friendly as Kenny G’s! So, to me, the idea that Paty Metheny is some kind of idealist, defending pure jazz from people who want to turn it into watered-down pap is little short of hilarious. Fact is, Metheny’s audience is largely the same kind of people who like Kenny G- people likie my wife! Metheny undoubtedly knows that, and it probably drives him bonkers. Serves him right!
Metheny is a bitter, jealous hypocrite. Nothing more, nothing less.
Commander Cody said, long ago, “There’s only one thing worse than selling out- selling out and not getting bought.” Pat Metheny has been TRYING to make a record as wimpy and as commercially successful as “Songbird” his whole life. He just hasn’t been able to pull it off! That doesn’t make him “purer” than Kenny G, it just makes him an UNSUCCESSFUL sellout.
I don’t much like Kenny G, but I grant him this: I’ve been to one of his live shows, and while I wasn’t impressed by his music or technique, I saw about 5,000 women screaming as if they were watching the Beatles in 1964! His music isn’t my cup of tea at all, but there’s no denying, the man has SOMETHING that drives women wild. And every man who got to take one of those women home was undoubtedly VERY grateful to Kenny later that night!
When Pat Metheny can do that, I’ll care what he thinks!
Astorian, it’s not like I think Pat Metheny is a member of the jazz elite and, to a certain extent, I agree with your opinion of his music and smooth jazz in general, but in terms of raw talent and technical chops, Pat Metheny is light years ahead of Kenny G.
I do, however, disagree with your characterization of his motives and attitude. It’s possible that he’s a snobby elitist who holds a jazz icon in too high regard but I doubt he’s bitter and jealous. In my experience, jazz musicians don’t normally get into the business with the illusion that women will be throwing their panties onstage.
As for me, I don’t think it matters what Louis Armstrong song he may have chosen to deface, it’s an act of disrespect to a great artist whether or not the song is syrupy schmaltz like What a Wonderful World or Hello, Dolly or a jazz classic like Stardust or Potato Head Blues.
Now this is the good stuff. Add Charles Mingus to the list and you’ve covered a hefty chunk of my CD collection.
Please recommend me some.
Don’t know what Metheny album it was; something I took home form the library, I think. It just wasn’t what I was expecting at all, extremely vanilla. Guess I wrote him off after that.
Does he ever do bop-style stuff a la Kenny Burrell, early Wes Montgomery, etc.?
Not that you make the point directly, but these two quotes point to the elitism among certain jazzists–those who equate True Jazz with the hard bop-edgy jazz domain and imply/state that anything outside category is, by definition, inferior and perhaps not really jazz at all.
I agree that Kenny G plays schmaltzy pop, not jazz, but how would you classify Glenn Miller? The Dorsey Brothers? Some of Paul Desmond’s recordings? The jazz umbrella is huge and no one lays exclusive claim to the “jazz” moniker.
On a related note, I think part of my objection to Kenny G is the soprano sax itself–an instrument that sounds like an oboe-saxophone hybrid force-fed estrogen. The soprano sax has a tremendous annoyance potential already. In the hands of Kenny G, it’s practically lethal.
Nice points, **Astorian[/]
Kenny G is the Thomas Kincaide of jazz.
If he was cheese, he’d be a loaf of Velveeta or a can of Cheese Whiz
If He was wine he’d be Mad Dog 20/20
If he was beer, he’d be Billy Beer
If he was steak, he’d be Salisbury from Swanson
If he was a car he’d be a Yugo
If he was an actor he’d be Sonny Tufts
If he was a director, he’d be Ed Wood
I he was a documentary he’d be Refer Madness
I just want to know what happened to Kennys A through F.
“Kenny G is the Thomas Kincaide of jazz.”
Thomas has a lot of galleries in my area & this says a lot for me since I can’t hear Kenny G’s music.
Kenny G can do circular breathing however, doesn’t this get some credit? Does it sound any better?
And what would Chuck Mangione’s “Feels So Good” be?
Maybe if ha played the digeridoo.