[Dixielandjazz] Pat Metheny on Kenny G. Is it Jazz? Yes, but . . . .

[Steve barbone]

Long, but worth the read, especially the references to Louis Armstrong in
the last four or five paragraphs.

Cheers,
Steve


Pat Metheny on Kenny G: (2004)

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. But he did show a knack for connecting to the basest impulses
of the large crowd by deploying his two or three most effective licks
(holding long notes and playing fast runs - never mind that there were lots
of harmonic clams in them) at the key moments to elicit a powerful crowd
reaction (over and over again).

The other main thing I noticed was that he also, as he does to this day,
played horribly out of tune - consistently sharp. Of course, I am aware of
what he has played since, the success it has had, and the controversy that
has surrounded him among musicians and serious listeners. This controversy
seems to be largely fueled by the fact that he sells an enormous amount of
records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to
the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or
seventy years. And honestly, there is no small amount of envy involved from
musicians who see one of their fellow players doing so well financially,
especially when so many of them who are far superior as improvisers and
musicians in general have trouble just making a living. There must be
hundreds, if not thousands of sax players around the world who are simply
better improvising musicians than Kenny G on his chosen instruments. It
would really surprise me if even he disagreed with that statement.

Having said that, it has gotten me to thinking lately why so many jazz
musicians (myself included, given the right "bait" of a question, as I will
explain later) and audiences have gone so far as to say that what he is
playing is not even jazz at all. Stepping back for a minute, if we examine
the way he plays, especially if one can remove the actual improvising from
the often mundane background environment that it is delivered in, we see
that his saxophone style is in fact clearly in the tradition of the kind of
playing that most reasonably objective listeners WOULD normally quantify as
being jazz. It's just that as jazz or even as music in a general sense, with
these standards in mind, it is simply not up to the level of playing that we
historically associate with professional improvising musicians. So, lately I
have been advocating that we go ahead and just include it under the word
jazz - since pretty much of the rest of the world OUTSIDE of the jazz
community does anyway - and let the chips fall where they may. And after
all, why he should be judged by any other standard, why he should be exempt
from that that all other serious musicians on his instrument are judged by
if they attempt to use their abilities in an improvisational context playing
with a rhythm section as he does? He SHOULD be compared to John Coltrane or
Wayne Shorter, for instance, on his abilities (or lack thereof) to play the
soprano saxophone and his success (or lack thereof) at finding a way to
deploy that instrument in an ensemble in order to accurately gauge his
abilities and put them in the context of his instrument's legacy and
potential. As a composer of even eighth note-based music, he SHOULD be
compared to Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver or even Grover Washington. Suffice
it to say, on all above counts, at this point in his development, he
wouldn't fare well. But, like I said at the top, this relatively benign view
was all "until recently".

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 enny 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.)