Education: Graduated magna cum laude in accounting from the University of Washington. Kenny continued to broaden his musical horizons over the next few years, playing with visiting performers such For the Record …īorn Kenneth Gorelick, c. But I did a great job -I even got a standing ovation because I had such a long solo. When I showed up, the band could not believe it -here was this little tiny kid. And I came on with the whole bar mitzvah look -plaid jacket, maroon pants, and maroon tie to match, of course. They said suit and tie -and everybody knows that means dark suit, dark tie. I didn ’t know anything about the business world of playing. “It was very funny, because I hadn ’t played professionally before. “They needed a sax player who could read and solo in a soulful style, and I really was the only person in Seattle that could do both, ” Kenny recalled in Down Beat. While still in high school, he was invited to play with R&B singer Barry White ’s Love Unlimited Orchestra. It was a combination of luck and musical prowess that landed Kenny his first gig. I ’ve been lucky so far that it hasn ’t happened to me. They ’re not going to hear from you again. ’ The history of instrumentalists in pop is that you get a big hit and that ’s the end of it. “I remember when Duotones came out, and I had a hit with ’Songbird. “I ’m lucky, ” Kenny admitted in the Detroit Free Press. In truth, his rapid and seemingly effortless rise to success may be part of the reason critics and musicians come down so hard on him. In little more than a decade he went from being just another backup sax player to selling millions of records worldwide and, following an onstage jam with Bill Clinton, being billed as the U.S. Kenny G is certainly one dreamer whose fantasies have come to life. ![]() ![]() Maybe I ’m a dreamer, but I think the ordinary guy has as much right to say, This is a good song ’ as somebody who is in the music business. People read these things and think that these are the people who know the most. “It ’s the intellectuals who write the reviews. “I don ’t think anyone has been exceptionally mean to me, ” he explained in Entertainment Weekly. Kenny himself tries to take it in stride. ![]() In fact, critical disparagement seems to run inversely to Kenny ’s popularity. The heaps of invective flung in Kenny ’s direction intensified when his follow-up, 1988 ’s Silhouette, went platinum. Ever since the release of the multimillion-selling Duotones in 1986, he has withstood a veritable onslaught of abuse from critics and fellow musicians alike. Soft-spoken saxophonist Kenny G is a lot tougher than either his boyish grin or his mild, atmospheric records would tend to suggest.
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