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Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Pat Metheny on Kenny G: Follow Up

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. 

SteveG
Newcomer

Posted 19 December 2009 09:45 AM
RE: Link

An amazing performance! Of course 2nd row seats in the pit helped. Great when you take advantage of presale announcements for tickets!

Kenny G Concert December 18, 2009

Posts: 13 | Registered: 12 February 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post

Regular

Posted 19 December 2009 10:16 AM Hide Post
This guy really knows his craft! Beautiful music.

Posts: 50 | Registered: 14 December 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post

Ignored post by a true voice posted 19 December 2009 10:33 AM Show Post

Ignored post by a true voice posted 19 December 2009 02:31 PM Show Post



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Newcomer

Posted 20 December 2009 06:46 AM Hide Post
Voice

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!

Posts: 13 | Registered: 21 June 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post


Hall of Famer

Posted 20 December 2009 12:46 PM Hide Post
While I have no "dog in the hunt" so to speak, for Catwoman to say, "Pat WHO? Never heard of him" shows her ignorance of the Jazz genre.

She may be a fan of pop music, but she certainly doesn't know jazz and actually makes Matheny's point with her post.

Posts: 282 | Registered: 07 July 2006


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?)

1 comment:

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete

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