A Real Musician?
Charles Bryant | Jacksonville, FL | 08/08/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If a musician doesn't play music for an audience what is the purpose in ever coming out of practice. Why don't musicians continually only play for themselves in solitary hours, days, month, years of practice? Why? Because they want to be heard and appreciated for what they can do; they want to please the crowd. If a 6 year old girl can please a crowd with her fairly on note and rhythm rendition of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," and please the crowd just as good as an old virtuoso violinist playing "Concert Fantasy on 'Carmen'" who is better at what the musician's purpose is? In fact, more pleasure may come from the 6 year old because the crowd can recognize how difficult or unusual it is for a 6 year old to sing like that than some 'old dude' doing something on a violin when they don't have a clue how hard whatever is considered difficult on a violin is. Anyway, Kenny G pleases the crowd, whether holding long notes or doing crazy runs that sound difficult (SOUND DIFFICULT, not necessarily are difficult, he plays for laymen crowd) Kenny G pleases the crowd and he is rewarded for it by having a bigger crowd because most people are laymen. Mix the hard sounding stuff with smooth, cool, pretty sounding stuff and you have a number 1 crowd pleaser. Doing this stuff on top of a great like Louis Armstrong, if you haven't heard listen to Kenny G's "Classics in the Key of G," was this out of line? How many do this sort of thing in practice; emulating your musical mentor? I guess Kenny extended his love of practice to the recording studio and know the live stage to DVD. The DVD or the Classics albums were not the smartest thing to do in the eyes of some, but novel and the crowds love them. I thought it was great marketing, a way to get the crowd ready for Kenny's new musical offerings through presentation (marketing) and not just his playing. This may have taken away a little of his musicianship, by relying on marketing, but does it take away from or disrespect Mr. Armstrong or Kenny's ability to please the crowd? No more than Jamie Foxx doing a movie about Ray Charles (named Ray) and then using Mr. Charles' music and likeness in his music recordings, music videos, and live shows. This introduced Ray to a brand new generation who would have never known him in the numbers that they know him now. Now they are singing parts of his songs and understanding the struggle he went through to please the crowd. Kenny could have done the same thing, by getting a band to recreate the sound and likeness of the greats while also sampling, but the way he did it was less money no band or movie cast/crew needed, although this didn't help other musicians and artists, but it kept him in the picture. It would be hard to sell Mr. Armstrong as a long haired white boy, plus Kenny was easier to market on his own because he was a white boy in jazz (good musicianship and business savvy). If these stuffy serious musicians and the music critics who can't play can ever understand that they need to please the crowd, play the game, they may bring jazz back instead of drive it deeper into obscurity. Please the crowd, give them something they want mixed with something they need, an education on greatness in music so future generations can appreciate true greatness. So go path the way for the future. The old jazz musicians did that and that is why we remember them as a mass market over multiple generations. If you are a great technical player, but no one connects with you because your technique is too pure to be understood by laymen then maybe you aren't a master musician, crowd pleaser. Just my two cents, very late but here none the less. Kenny G is great for what he is...a musician and this will never be posted, huh. Sorry for the length."
Awesome CD
C. Wise | Corona, CA | 06/09/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you want to relieve stress and feel more relaxed this is the CD for you........what an amazing performer and selection of songs......."
Track Listings (19) - Disc #1
