Kenny G (album)
Kenny G is the debut studio album by American jazz saxophonist Kenny G, released in 1982. It was released by Arista Records in 1982 and reached number 10 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.
Kenny G
Since 1989, Kenny G's recording "Going Home" from the "Kenny G Live" album has become an unconventional mega-hit throughout China: It has become the unofficial national closing song for businesses such as food courts, outdoor markets, health clubs, shopping malls and train stations throughout the country. Many businesses begin piping the music over their loudspeakers shortly before closing at night. Television stations also play the song before ending their evening broadcasts at night. Many Chinese, when asked, say they associate the song with the need to finish their activity or business and go home (although they may not even know the name of the song or its artist).
Kenny G has attracted significant criticism from mainstream jazz musicians and enthusiasts. Pat Metheny stated that he was a "pop" saxophonist, "but was not really an advanced player, even in that style", adding that he had "major rhythmic problems" and that his "harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns". Metheny believes that the main reason why Kenny G has become unpopular and easy to attack by accomplished jazz musicians is due to the "fact that he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years". Branford Marsalis once stated in an interview with "Jazziz" magazine: "When all these jazz guys get in a tizzy over Kenny G, they need to leave Kenny alone. He's not stealing jazz. The audience he has wouldn't be caught dead at a real jazz concert or club. It's not like some guy says, ‘You know, I used to listen to Miles, 'Trane and Ornette. And then I heard Kenny G, and I never put on another Miles record.' It's a completely different audience."