Kenny G

Kenny G, the single most successful instrumental pop artist of all time (b. Kenneth Gorelick, Seattle, Wash., June 5, 1956). Ken Gorelick comes from a black neighborhood in Seattle. He began playing the sax in the fourth grade, taking lessons in school. Before the year was out, he was first sax in the school band. At age 16, he saw Grover Washington perform circular breathing on stage; impressed, he began practicing the technique, and holds the world’s record for the longest single unbroken note at 45 minutes and 47 seconds! He has been a professional sax player since high school, when a band teacher set him up with a gig as soloist for Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra’s stop on tour in Seattle. He continued backing touring musicians through his matriculation at the Univ. of Wash., backing artists ranging from the Spinners to Liberace. He also worked with the fusion band Cold, Bold and Together, with who he recorded his first sides. Upon graduating Magna Cum Laude with a Phi Beta Kappa key and a degree in accounting (something to fall back on), Gorelick took the sax seat with fellow Pacific-Northwesterner Jeff Lorber and his fusion band. He cut several records with Lorber, and then, cut a deal with Lorber to make a solo album. Lorber cut a deal with his record company to put it out, and Kenny Gorelick became Kenny G and went solo.

His eponymous debut, an unintentional tribute to Grover Washington, sold well for a jazz-fusion record, moving some 100, 000 pieces, as did the somewhat more pallid G-Force and Gravity. All of his early work had a certain lyrical charm, but largely lacked a sense of personality in the attempt to woo the R&B audience. His fourth album, Duotones broke him through on the strength of the monster instrumental hit “Songbird.” Composed in his home studio, with Gorelick playing all the instruments, this lyrical piece of musical confection rose to #4 in the charts. Along with the #15 hit ‘Don’t Make Me Wait for Love” (with vocals by Tower of Power’s Lenny Williams), the album catapulted to #6. Within six months, the album went double platinum. It stands at quintuple platinum.

Where some artists find it tough to follow-up a hit like this, Gorelick did it with aplomb, with Silhouette. While the title track went to #13, the album rose to #8 and sold double platinum within months of release. Eventually it reached the quadruple platinum mark, as did the live album that followed it. The live album, recorded in Seattle, rose to #16 on the charts.

After cutting “Missing You Now,” a duet with Michael Bolton that topped the adult contemporary chart, reaching #12 pop, Gorelick released his major pop statement, Breathless. With vocals by Peabo Bryson and Aaron Neville added to his already well-known soprano sax, the album would have reached his fans on word of mouth. He topped the adult contemporary charts with the #18 pop instrumental “Forever in Love,” and topped it again with his collaboration with Bryson on “By the Time This Night Is Over,” a #25 pop hit. Breathless shipped double platinum and by the end of the century had sold over 12 million copies. “Forever in Love” took home a Grammy in 1994 for Best Instrumental Composition.

Two years after releasing a holiday album that topped the pop album chart for three weeks in 1994, G released The Moment. The album debuted at #4 on the album charts and #1 Contemporary Jazz Chart, replacing Breathless, which stayed on that chart for nearly three years. The Moment held that place for the next year. The album shipped double platinum and eventually sold over four million copies.

His 1998 album, Classics in the Key of G, found him exploring the jazz standard repertoire with mixed results. An electronic duet with Louis Armstrong (a la Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable”) on “What a Wonderful World” was a highlight of the album, with all proceeds from the single going to buy instruments for school music programs. The album sold a relatively modest one million, peaking at #17. He also released another holiday album, Faith, which included a version of “Auld Lang Syne” played over soundbites from the previous century. That album peaked at #6 and went double platinum.

Most jazz fans disparage Kenny G as a mere pop instrumentalist. Kenny G counters that he never claimed to be a jazz musician! As a pop instrumentalist, he is perhaps second only to Herb Alpert as a hitmaker. His playing has done much to popularize the soprano sax sound among listeners of all musical styles.

Discography

Kenny G (1982); G Force (1983); Gravity (1985); Duotones (1986); Silhouette (1988); Kenny G Live (1989); Breathless (1992); Miracles: The Holiday Album (1994); The Moment (1996); Classics in the Key of G (1999); Faith: A Holiday Album (1999).

—Hank Bordowitz