Awesome Honesty - Pat Metheny on Kenny G

[The Computer Audiophile]

Question:

 

Pat, could you tell us your opinion about Kenny G - it appears you were quoted as being less than enthusiastic about him and his music. I would say that most of the serious music listeners in the world would not find your opinion surprising or unlikely - but you were vocal about it for the first time. You are generally supportive of other musicians it seems.

 

 

Pat's Answer:

 

Kenny G is not a musician I really had much of an opinion about at all until recently. There was not much about the way he played that interested me one way or the other either live or on records.

 

I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style. He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music.

 

Much more of his answer at - http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm

 

 

[sphinxsix]

I remember years ago my neighbour who knew I was interested in music and who was a musician herself (kind of - wedding parties musician) tried to impress me with the information that her teen son listened to Kenny G whom she liked too. I did my best (wasn't easy) to keep a straight face. Probably succeeded 'cause she didn't stop responding to my 'hello'..

 

BTW try to guess guys what's his son's last name is..

Ok, I'll give you a hint..

(BTW don't you think that they go to the same hairdresser.?)

 

 

And one more thing - remember that Mc Hammer song?

 

 

[Booster MPS]

Wow, not sure where to start after reading that.  First, I am a big fan of Pat Metheny as he is a musician that really expanded my imagination on the vast landscape that a song could cover over 10 minutes and multiple time signatures.  He is a national treasure on guitar.  I am surprised at the detail that he would cover on the topic of Kenny G in a thousand words or more.  I get that he is not a fan and has had some specific negative experiences but man is he detailed about it!

 

I can't disagree with anything Metheny offers in that discussion.  It's all true.  Kenny G is really good at playing to the lowest common denominator.  But "musical necrophilia" might be a bit much.  At some point you have to say "there is something for everybody and if somebody likes Kenny G, then good on them."  It's kind of like when Tidal comes up and audiophiles at CA puke all over the mention of Jay Z again and again and again.  There is something for everybody, and that is totally ok!  That is what makes music great as a hobby.

[firedog]

Too bad Pat M. is afraid to let us know what he thinks...

Quote

 

Not long ago, Kenny G put out a recording where he overdubbed himself on top of a 30+ year old Louis Armstrong record, the track "What a Wonderful World". With this single move, Kenny G became one of the few people on earth I can say that I really can't use at all - as a man, for his incredible arrogance to even consider such a thing, and as a musician, for presuming to share the stage with the single most important figure in our music.

 This type of musical necrophilia - the technique of overdubbing on the preexisting tracks of already dead performers - was weird when Natalie Cole did it with her dad on "Unforgettable" a few years ago, but it was her dad. When Tony Bennett did it with Billie Holiday it was bizarre, but we are talking about two of the greatest singers of the 20th century who were on roughly the same level of artistic accomplishment. When Larry Coryell presumed to overdub himself on top of a Wes Montgomery track, I lost a lot of the respect that I ever had for him - and I have to seriously question the fact that I did have respect for someone who could turn out to have such unbelievably bad taste and be that disrespectful to one of my personal heroes.

But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis's tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture - something that we all should be totally embarrassed about - and afraid of. We ignore this, "let it slide", at our own peril.

 His callous disregard for the larger issues of what this crass gesture implies is exacerbated by the fact that the only reason he possibly have for doing something this inherently wrong (on both human and musical terms) was for the record sales and the money it would bring. 

Since that record came out - in protest, as insignificant as it may be, I encourage everyone to boycott Kenny G recordings, concerts and anything he is associated with. If asked about Kenny G, I will diss him and his music with the same passion that is in evidence in this little essay. 

Normally, I feel that musicians all have a hard enough time, regardless of their level, just trying to play good and don't really benefit from public criticism, particularly from their fellow players. but, this is different.
 
There ARE some things that are sacred - and amongst any musician that has ever attempted to address jazz at even the most basic of levels, Louis Armstrong and his music is hallowed ground. To ignore this trespass is to agree that NOTHING any musician has attempted to do with their life in music has any intrinsic value - and I refuse to do that. (I am also amazed that there HASN'T already been an outcry against this among music critics - where ARE they on this?????!?!?!?!, magazines, etc.). Everything I said here is exactly the same as what I would say to Gorelick if I ever saw him in person. and if I ever DO see him anywhere, at any function - he WILL get a piece of my mind and (maybe a guitar wrapped around his head.)

 

 

[AnotherSpin]

I guess this was an old interview? Gorelik overdubbed himself on Armstrong about two decades ago, I believe.

 

[duxservit]

I remember this piece. I for one agree with Pat M, but I'm biased - been a fan size Bright Size Life. Even met him once in the 1980s. 

 

The same types of arguments/ conflicts occur also in visual arts: is "Hello Kitty" considered art?  Is gluing together a bunch of "found" parts (read: junk) considered to be sculpture? etc. etc. 

[PAP]

I am a big Pat Metheny fan but I do not understand that he chooses to comment on music he does not like.

I do not like Kenny G either but lots of people does so....I would rather have Pat put his energy in promoting new talent.

[Tumbling Yak]

This was indeed a while ago....and Richard Thompson weighed in on Pat's side:  I Agree With Pat Metheny

[Ralf11]

I disagree with Pat Metheny calling Kenny G.  a musician.

[rando]

Days later I'm still chucking about his son Max G.  With both kinds of music, Country & Western, deep in the pits of 80's sleaze rock right now.  I could unfortunately see an incorrigibly bad acoustic guitar wielding Max G being the Summer sensation with rap aficianados.  Nightmarish enough that middle America would swallow hard and push it right up the charts.