When I worked at the local Safeway as a bagger, back in 1985, I had to listen to Kenny G type Muzak over the speakers every day. They no longer play that kind of music, but it didn’t really hit me how much had changed until a couple years ago, when I was doing my shopping and realized I was hearing to Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. The original version, not a toned-down cover.
Kenny G sounds like a zombie.
A no-talent zombie, at that.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Kenny G isn’t liked, not if you’ve listened to him.
The surprise is that he was so wildly popular in the first place.
It’s hard to imagine people going “That David Sanborn is nice, but I need two copies of the latest Kenny G. One for home and car each, so I don’t have to go a minute with out those ear piercing tones.”
It makes one wonder if there was some sort of conspiracy. Like Columbia House kept sending people Kenny G records month after month, laughing manically, knowing there was nothing they could do about, all the while driving up Kenny’s sales numbers.
I’m not a music person (meaning that my CD collection is about 18 CDs total, and I have about 5 gb of MP3/AAC files, including those CDs), and while I’m not exactly a fan of Kenny G, I don’t hate on him like everyone else does.
He seems to fill a certain void in relatively inoffensive instrumental music that’s handy for the same uses that Muzak is, except in his case, it’s sort of original-ish by comparison. By that, I mean that Muzak in my experience is almost always instrumental covers of pop songs or show tunes.
So when you’re confronted with studio musicians playing smooth instrumental covers of “California Love” (swear to God!) or “Colors of the Wind”, I suppose by comparison Kenny G may stand out as being somewhat interesting, or at least that’s the way I always thought about it.
Still don’t understand the Top 40 love for him in the late 80s though. He always seemed like something that should be played in waiting rooms, bathrooms and elevators to me.
The wife likes Kenny G. I got her a video of him playing some of his music once, and it was interspersed with an interview. One remark he made cracked me up. This was back when Dudley Moore was still alive, and Moore was a fair musician himself. Seems he called up Kenny G one day and invited him over to his house to jam. And Kenny G said, apparently in all seriousness: “When Dudley Moore calls, you go!”
I mean, come on! “When the American President calls, you go!” “When the Queen of England calls, you go!” “When the Pope calls, you go!” Those I could understand. But … Dudley Moore? 
To tell the truth, Dudley Moore was probably more fun to hang out with then the President, Pope or Queen.
What’s the big deal with Kenny G “recording” a song with a dead singer? Don’t other artists do this from time to time?
His newest album: Kenny G Sucks For Another Decade!
Here is the complete text of Pat Metheny’s diatribe against Kenny. He also doesn’t like him because he’s a bad musician.
Harsh, if probably fair.
But interesting to me for entirely tangential point, because I had no idea Larry Coryell had dubbed himself over Wes Montgomery. I haven’t listened to Coryell in years, if not decades, but he was once my gateway into fusion ( which I don’t listen to anymore either ) along with John McLaughlin. It is rather disappointing to hear about that, as it does seem to be in questionable taste and kind of egotistic/narcissistic.
Women will scream over Scott Peterson and the Menendez brothers.
Another common denominator between Kenny G, Yanni and Michael Bolton is the poodle hairdo, the sex symbol status among fans, and the famous first names (such as Oprah, Sting, Madonna). All of these invite criticism even without a cognoscenti’s evaluation of the music itself.
I’m glad this thread came back when it did. I have a friend who’s a jazz professor and is turning 60 next month. Now I know what to get him.
I don’t care for any of the musicians discussed in the OP either (neither now, nor back in 2003), but I do love me some John Tesh. Not his music, mind you, I’d rather have a jackhammer on the street corner in the background; no, it’s the fist pump. It never fails to make me giggle.
I came in here to say Kenny G is the Ned Flanders of jazz.
Poor Kenny. He’s probably crying all the way to the bank.
So does fiberglass insulation. Doesn’t mean it’s not irritating when you come in contact with it.
Sure, he can dry his eyes with thousand-dollar bills but it would still suck to be disrespected by other musicians to the degree he is. Look at Thomas Kincaide and how pathetic and miserable his life ended up being.
He’s a surprisingly good golfer-- something like a 1 handicap. Not that I’ll be looking for him, but I’ll probably see him in Carmel this week at the AT&T.