I posted Pat Metheny's comments on Kenny G here a while back. I get a lot of hits for that post and someone googled "kenny g on pat metheny's remarks.' So in the interest of fair play, I thought I'd see what, if anything, Kenny G had to say. My personal opinion is, he's probably better off not saying anything. Let his record sales do the talking. If there were to be a response, better have some other person do it.
I haven't found any comments from Kenny G. But I did find this follow up comment [it looks reasonably authentic, though I haven't analyzed it word for word to see if the style is just like the original] from Pat Metheny (and it's from way back in June) on his surprise at how his comments on a small music forum with a tiny audience got splashed across the internet. It's a bit long and could use some editing, but I think this paragraph from jazzguitar.com is the most useful:
One last thing - it is a little alarming to me to see that my little rant on this topic seems to have generated such a relatively huge response. it makes me feel that in this day and age, even within the "jazz community", controversy, especially PUBLIC controversy, has the chance to "win" over musical substance, even in terms of what gets discussed - people seem to absolutely love it. I have seen (and have never dug) at least one of my peers banking on this for a few years now with his public pronouncements and I have to admit that I underestimated the impact/interest that a "negative" public comment even on an obscure corner of the web can manifest. I guess I wish that the actual playing and writing could generate the kind of discussion that what was essentially an off the cuff cultural/political blurb into cyberspace seemed to. again, it seems more practicing and better music needs to be involved - gonna continue to work hard on that (finding the good notes) as a goal.
I thought about just making this an update on the other post, but I suspect not too many of you were planning on revisiting that post. I'd also note that the comment above is from the year 2000, so this debate really lives on.
Here is a forum that was begun by a Kenny G fan after a concert. When I copied this I hid the remarks by the Metheny fan (I've covered that already) but I mention it here so you know what they are reacting to.
PAT METHENY DECLARES WAR ON KENNY G
Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny has slammed soccer moms' favorite Kenny G by saying he "plays the dumbest music on the planet" and threatening to wrap a guitar around his head.
On his special. Metheny had asked an audience of children to prize legends like John Coltrane over the shopping-mall-friendly, shaggy-haired saxman G.
Metheny said on his Web site that he told the kids "not to get confused by the sometimes overwhelming volume of music that falls under the jazz umbrella ... I went on to say that I think, for instance, 'Kenny G plays the dumbest music on the planet' - something that all 8- to 11-year [old] kids on the planet already intrinsically know."
After this posting on his Web site, Metheny was asked by users to explain himself further. He didn't hold back. Particular ire was reserved for 1999's "What a Wonderful World," an electronically engineered duet between G and the long-dead jazz giant Louis Armstrong. Metheny dismissed the track as "musical necrophilia." But he was just getting started. What comes next is not for the fainthearted.
"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, f*cked 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 [sic] musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, sh*t 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."
You might want to go and lie down now.
Metheny concluded by swearing to deliver a beat-down on Kenny G if he saw him again. "Everything I said here is exactly the same as what I would say to Gorelick [Kenny's real last name - Ed.] 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.)" The punctuation is all Metheny's own.
VH1.com asks that Pat not waste a perfectly good guitar on G. And we also warn him that sometimes threatening to physically deal with a musician doesn't always pan out in practice, as we discovered when we once passed Dave Stewart on the street.
Although Metheny even went so far as to demand a boycott of Kenny G, he seemed to have cooled down over the weekend. As message boards at his Web site spilled over with debate at his remarks, he admitted, "I underestimated the impact/interest that a negative public comment, even on an obscure corner of the Web, can manifest."
During his career, Metheny has won 13 Grammy Awards for his instrumental performances and compositions like 1990's "Change of Heart." Kenny G, on the other hand, has only a single Grammy on his mantelpiece. He won Best Instrumental Composition in 1993 for "Forever in Love." He shouldn't be too worried, though. G's 1999 release Faith was one of the holiday season's best-selling albums.
You are an idiot. Everyone is entitled to an opinion; but you are still an idiot. Kenny G is the best saxophonist on the planet. Period! Pat WHO? Never heard of him. Thousands of others who were at the concert would agree! MORON!
And apparently someone thinks there are enough Kenny G fans in Anchorage to bring him up to the Dena'ina Center on August 18. But $84-106? For Kenny G? I thought we were in a recession and that half of the US was in credit card debt. You think everyone buying tickets is in the black on their credit cards? No? But they can can fork over $84 to hear Kenny G. live? Scary. [I did find a discount ticket site that has tickets for $82. But really, those of you who are paying 20% interest on your credit card debt, use the money to pay off the principle, and ride your bike during the concert.]
I guess I posted the Pat Metheny piece because I had been trying to figure out why I am so negative about Kenny G. Metheny had a lot more reasons than I could ever have articulated. At least all the Kenny G fans will be off the streets for an hour or two that night. (You know I'm just teasing you. It's good that different people like different things. I'm sure there are even people I know and like who will be at that concert. Just don't tell me ok?)
Maybe you should have discussed (and listened) to Kenny G in Hope. It's a relaxed sortaplace.
As to our all-too-human fascination with emotion and internet send-key comments? We can only take so much Kenny G, after all. Someone just had to take that bait.
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Maybe you should have discussed (and listened) to Kenny G in Hope. It's a relaxed sortaplace.
ReplyDeleteAs to our all-too-human fascination with emotion and internet send-key comments? We can only take so much Kenny G, after all. Someone just had to take that bait.