Kenny G.

I said I wasn't going to write about Kenny G. here, but this is my blog, and here is a footnote that I added to an Amazon review of Kenny G's Greatest Hits CD. I put it in here because it explains some of my thinking about jazz.

I think one of the reasons so many people like Kenny G's music is simply that they don't realize that there is so much better music out there. It is a bit like people who admire the paintings of Thomas Kinkade ("The Painter of Light") not knowing about the paintings of Monet--the original painter of light. Jazz is not played much on the radio and music education in schools is pretty lacking.

On the other hand, I am not sure if telling people they ought to listen to Miles Davis and John Coltrane is the answer. While there are some resemblances in the general ambience of a lot of Davis's recordings and those of Kenny G., Coltrane can be extremely challenging, and though he is a fine player of ballads, the honking and squawking in some of his more avant garde material would put off anyone. I guess an album like Miles Davis's Plays Classic Ballads would appeal to the G. set, though personally I don't care for it a lot as the tone of that muted trumpet reminds me a bit too much of G. himself and I personally prefer other instruments such as clarinet, harmonica, guitar, piano, or vibes but used copies are available on Amazon for as little as 30 cents and I am listening to it as I write this. If you like G., I am sure you would like it.

Then there is also the question of the identity of the musicians. I suspect a lot of Kenny G. fans are wary of black men who were heroin addicts and whose careers where blighted by their alcohol and drug use, leading to relatively early deaths for both, whereas G., as far as I know, has no such demons.

One would think, though, that anyone who enjoyed the music of Kenny G. would be very taken with the recordings of Chet Baker (another heroin addict, I am afraid), for example on the album "Chet", which is quite G-like in tempo, with pretty tunes, but much, much better. If you want something to relax to after a hard day at work, Chet's rendition of "You'd be so nice to come home to" ought to do the trick nicely.

Is it legitimate to review Kenny G's CDs if you are not a fan of his work? Well, part of the process of reviewing an individual CD is to express an opinion on where that CD lies in relation to that artist's other work and in relation to recordings of comparable music by other artists, and by comparison to the whole universe of CDs. When I give a star rating, 5 stars means that you are looking at one of the finest CDs you can get, both the best of artist and the best of genre. Now, on this Greatest Hits CD, even those who give it a five star review are admitting that it contains material not previously released (greatest hits?) and that it is often boring and repetitive. Supposing the album contained nothing but Greatest Hits and was widely acclaimed as a classic of its genre, then how many stars would it get? Still five stars, no?

I have compiled a Miles Davis/JOhn Coltrane-free list called The 100 Best Jazz CDs That Are Actually Listener Friendly. At this point in time there are actually only 40 albums on the list, though several of them are doubles. All of these are fairly easy listening jazz of fantastic quality that people who find Kenny G relaxing will be knocked unconscious by.

If Kenny G is Tylenol, these albums are heroin! Once they get under your skin, you will be hooked for life.

If you pull up the list you can play sample tracks and see for yourself. If you want something slow and soothing, maybe try out the Chet Baker album first and see how many stars it merits relative to this album. Here is a quote from one of the Amazon reviewers:

"I own 20 Chet Baker CDs, and I play them virtually every day. As a "50 something" jazz fan with over 250 jazz CDs I can honestly say that the only time my wife will join me in the music room is when I have a Chet Baker Cd playing. I think that this is significant...Chet Baker's appeal seems to cross over more lines than that of any other jazz performer. I used to think that it was the VOICE that grabbed my wife's attention, but her favorite Chet Baker album is this one..."CHET". This album has no singing."

Or the Getz/Gilberto album, or the Sarah Vaughan, or the Ben Webster. Check them out and listen to the samples to hear the difference for yourself.

MYy 100 Best Jazz CDs list