Kenny Gorelick
a.k.a.
Kenny Gorelick, Kenneth Gorelick
G WHIZ Kenny G Is Still the Smooth Jazz King
Saxophonist Kenny G has been the main man of smooth jazz since the breakthrough success of his 1986 album Duotones and its instrumental hit "Songbird." Millions of album sales later, 2002 finds him with two new releases, Paradise which pairs him with R&B crooners Bryan McKnight and Chante Moore, and his third holiday recording Wishes. A familiar whipping boy for jazz purists, the hit-making saxophonist spoke with Ted Panken about his artistic growth and influences, and even shared with us his own version of how Charlie Parker acquired his nickname.
Barnes & Noble.com: How do you feel your saxophone playing has evolved from when you emerged as a solo artist 20 years ago?
Kenny G: I think now I play a lot more in-tune. I think my sense of melody is a lot stronger, so that when I perform a song on my records, I think that instead of maybe kind of embellishing the melody...I'd probably embellish it more ten years ago than I do now. Now I play melodies a little more straight. But I'm much more in tune. I think that my songwriting has gotten a lot stronger in terms of just being able to do different kinds of things, not just the same kind of song. So I feel really good about it. I also think that my technique, in terms of playing note-for-note, is a lot better than it used to be. Because I've practiced. Anything you do over a period of 10 years or 20 years or 30 years, you're going to keep getting better.
B&N.com: You originally heard a saxophonist on The Ed Sullivan Show, you took to it, you had a good band program in Seattle, you were working by the age of 16 or so.
KG: Yes. I'm lucky that I got a chance to do all that work early on. Because what it showed me when I was 16-17 years old was that I could hang in a professional world and be as good as the guys who are out there doing it for a living. So I knew then that I was capable of making music a career. It's like getting a real early picture that, "Okay, you can do this," so I don't have to worry about getting a job at a bank.
B&N.com: But then you did become an accounting major.
KG: Yeah. Well, I'm a numbers guy. I like numbers. I like studying things, and I enjoyed the learning process. Learning about music wasn't interesting to me, but playing it has always been a joy. Learning about numbers and...I mean, I took calculus and economics and all that stuff. I just enjoy those subjects.
B&N.com: Once you got past the beginning stages, was your process of learning an emulative process? You were studying Grover Washington Jr., in college, and your band director turned you on to Bird and Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. Were you accumulating vocabulary in a very systematic way, or were you learning things and applying them on gigs as needed?
KG: You hit it right on the head with the first one. I started by definitely being a copycat. That's the way it was. I mean, I wanted to be the white Grover Washington Jr., and I think I became the white Grover Washington Jr. Then, when I started to hear other saxophone players, like Sonny Rollins or Coltrane, I heard this different way of playing that I had not really had a lot of access to, I thought, "Well, I've got to learn these licks." So I started to learn all that stuff. And pretty soon, after years of practicing this and practicing that, at some point I decided that my own style emerged, and I play the way that I play. It's cool. Because any time, I know that if I wanted to, I could play the fast Coltrane licks, and if I need to play soulfully, I can always play in a certain kind of style. I've got a lot of different ways that I could play the saxophone, and I know that.
B&N.com: What are some of your favorite Washington, Coltrane, and Parker recordings?
KG: The Grover Washington one that I listened to a lot when I was a kid was called "Inner City Blues." As for Coltrane, of course, "Giant Steps" is the main one that he did, and he also did a rendition of "My Favorite Things." With Charlie Parker, there are just so many different records. I don't say this to be disrespectful, but when you listen to Charlie Parker, on pretty much any record he's going to sound the same. He's going to be unbelievable. He'll be playing the fastest lines in that style. He was the fastest. Nobody played faster and more cleanly than him. Except that there was another saxophone player named Sonny Stitt. He was actually an almost exact duplicate of Charlie Parker, except he played it even cleaner. Charlie Parker would squeak a lot, and that's why they called him Bird, because his reed would chirp.
B&N.com: You think that's why they called him Bird? That's interesting.
KG: That is why they called him Bird. That was the deal. He played so fast, and his reed would chirp because it...I don't know, it just couldn't take the speed of his fingers. But Sonny Stitt used to do it without the chirping thing, and played beautiful. But I don't think he ever got the same accolades that Charlie Parker did, mainly because Charlie Parker was the first one. Anyway, I know a lot about that kind of music, and I admire those players. But I am not motivated to try to copy what they do or play in that style, because there's no way that anybody can play better than Charlie Parker. You can't. So what's the point? I mean, even if I played every note exactly the way he played it, at exactly the speed, it's not going to be better.
B&N.com: Well, then you wouldn't be you. You'd be a copycat.
KG: Yeah. And you know, it's fun as a technical exercise to take those tunes...like a song called "Scrapple from the Apple." You take that song, and you learn those licks, and that's a great test of technique. You can learn the "Giant Steps" solo of John Coltrane's. You learn that, that's an unbelievable feat of showing-off, of technique. But that's all it is to me. It's not something that requires...I wouldn't put my musical career as doing that. That doesn't motivate me. But there's a lot of people that like to do that. There's a lot of guys who like to play these things, and they think that they are the best players in the world because they can play these John Coltrane things. I go, "Great, but I just feel like creating new stuff...whether you like it or not."
B&N.com: Categories are a tricky thing. In the press release, it says you've bridged the worlds of jazz and contemporary and R&B and so on. Do you think of yourself as a jazz musician? Do you think of yourself as something other than a jazz musician?
KG: Well, personally, I do think of myself as a jazz musician. But I grew up with the word "jazz." To me, it meant instrumental and it meant improvisation. It really doesn't matter the style. I don't play the traditional Charlie Parker songs. But I do improvise and I do create with my instrument, and that to me is jazz. But there are people who use the word "jazz" only in a traditional sense, and they would be offended by that, and that's fine. They should be, if that's what they feel. But that's just my opinion. I think everybody has to kind of decide what the word "jazz" means to them, and that's fine. Just figure out what you think jazz is, and then if it fits into that category, it's jazz, and if it doesn't, it isn't. It's no big deal.
B&N.com: What sort of things are in your personal listening rotation at this point? Do you listen to a lot of music?
KG: No, I don't listen to a lot of music at all. I'm actually more into...I don't know. I'm just more into playing golf. It's a great thing. I work on my music, and I play my albums, and when I'm done, I'm done.
--October 2002
© 2009 All Media Guide, LLC