Customer Reviews

Classics in the Key of G

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(105)

 

 

If you like Kenny G, you will love this album. "Summertime" is, by itself, worth the price of the album. This sensuous, soulful rendition is awesome. Buy it already.

This album by Kenny G is so smooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooth!!!!!!!!! It is the smoooooooooooooooooooothest album I know. And I love smooooooooooooooooooooooooth albums!

Kenny's talent is quite teeny.

Before listening to this album, I had not heard Kenny G. play. After listening to this album, I have no intention of ever listening to Kenny G. again. Enough said.

In the comments for one of Mr. G's other albums a user posted jazz guitarist Pat Metheny's comments on G's over-dubbing of Louis Armstrong's classic "What a wonderful world." The key phrase from that was "musical necrophilia."

I can't really top the economy of such a phrase, but I'll elaborate for those who don't know the history. Armstrong was perhaps the most dominant force in the development of jazz in the early 1920s. His playing of jazz trumpet modernized the music of the time in leaps and bounds, while at the same time remaining accessible to the public. Jazz was the *popular* music of the time until further innovators that jazz purists like to cite (e.g. Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane) pushed the music into another realm, admittedly less accessible. The reaction to that was the birth of rock and roll.

What this means is basically, no Louis, no rock and roll. No rock and roll, no pop. Granted, some people might find this link a little tenuous, but still, it's there.

So, to take a signature tune of a musical legend and imbue it with all the overproduction and commercialism symptomatic of a lot of music these days is basically the last straw. It's sickening.

All of you who do like this sort of music, at the very least search for the more commerical records of true musicians. While labeled as 'cheese' by most jazz purists, the more commerical output of musicians like Stan Getz or Wes Montgomery is much in the same vein as Kenny G's music, although played with more creativity, more flair and much more likely to lead you to listening to music that really touches the soul.

On a side note: while you may not appreciate my argument, try the simple maths - you can get many classic jazz CDs for much cheaper than you can for a "top 40" CD like this. Take the road less travelled. See where it goes. Try Stan Getz with the Oscar Peterson Trio, or Getz/Gilberto. Louis Armstrong with Ella Fitzgerald, or the Nat King Cole trio.

I had to give one star to finish the form. My real vote is negative five stars.

Kenny G has no sense of history, art, or ethics. Such must be true for anyone who would overdub his passionless, cliche-ridden, formulaic, and pseudo-jazz ramblings over the genuis of Louis Armstrong.

Pat Metheny is right, this is "a new low in modern culture." It is "musical necrophilia."

To be constructive: Listen, really listen, to some genuine jazz, such as "Pat Metheny Trio 99-00" or the classic Miles Davis, "Kind of Blue" of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps." Then you will never return to the sad, small world of Kenny G.

Doug Groothuis

Strong opinions aside, I simply didn't get anything out of this. Of course, as a musician, I have my beefs with Kenny G. This album made me curious enough to at least listen to it, and I did so without trying to hate it before it started. Well, I didn't like it. Not to say that the man can't play. Of course he can, that's why he can record. But this is not about his technique or whether or not he has style. Technique does not pack the same punch as asthetics (Beethoven knew that), and style is a manner of taste. Thus, I'm really not interested in duking it out with Kenny G fans. To say that it is "easy listening" is restating the obvious about Kenny G. Of course it's easy to listen to, that's the point of "smooth jazz." The people that like that sort of thing are attracted to it by it's very nature. That's why Kenny G sells big. My musical brethren are quite offended that the world hails him as the "world's greatest instrumentalist." Well, the world doesn't have our background, and you really can't expect it to. Kenny G sells, that's that. But one of my mentors once told me about "art" music... "if what we do were more popular, it would have less value." If you're in tune with that you will understand it, and maybe you won't feel the need to attack Kenny G. It's like bashing Brittany Spears... what's the point? Buy this album if you like Kenny G. Go in Peace.

The only thing this cd me made do is appreciate Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon more. Make the effort and give these cats a listen.

Indulge me for a moment and imagine if you will a film about a massive graveyard where all the great jazz players have been buried. It is this place where all the icons of the idiom have been laid to rest: Lady Day, Satch, Pres, Hawk, Art Tatum, Cootie, Jelly Roll, Django, Duke, The Count, Mingus, Dizzy, Bird, Monk, Bud Powell, Trane, Albert Ayler, Miles, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry and countless others. Now imagine that during the course of this story some land developers, totally oblivious and ignorant to the proprietors' of what the developers see as "a waste of prime real estate" decide to purchase the land. After which, not unlike in another horror film, "Poltergiest," decide to forego the costly endeavor of having the bodies relocated and just remove the headstones. After which they undergo the entrepeneurial task of constructing a rather large shopping mall, enabling consumers from far and wide to sip mocha grandes at Starbucks and restock on khakis at The Gap... which is of course very, VERY important. Everyone has a very MEANINGFUL shopping experience and all the storeowners reap some very substantial profits. If such a film were to be made, this album by Kenny G would be the soundtrack. Mr. G's interpretations of these classics leave an impression equal to having read an edition of "Cliff's Notes" in order to better comprehend the content of works by Milton or Byron. From what I understand, proceeds from the sales of this embarassing collection go towards an endowment aimed at keeping musical education programs intact within our public education cirriculum. Such a charity I will salute, support and commend. But not even the most noble of causes, no matter how well intended, can rectify a project so insufferably devoid of craft. Another reviewer was right in stating, "It isn't bad for what it is." The problem is that what it is is a fetid pile of manure.

This is the kind of "music" that gives elevators and dentist office a bad name.