Althouse: "Kenny G's Revenge."

June 3, 2014

"Kenny G's Revenge."

"When did the weird lopping sax become so popular in pop music?"

25 comments:

madAsHell said...: My wife was invited to a Kenny G concert at a local jazz venue last month. He was playing Christmas carols in May.

A Jewish guy playing Christmas carols in May.

The apocalypse is upon us.; 6/3/14, 2:07 PM
JRoberts said...: I stream a jazz radio station from Cal State Long Beach everyday. I never hear Kenny G, but they do play other contemporary jazz artists.

Not that I'm a fan of Kenny G, but I've wondered if it's a snub.; 6/3/14, 2:29 PM
Nonapod said...: It's easy to write pop stuff featuring a Soprano, Alto, or Tenor Sax, but somebody needs to write a hit song featuring a giant subcontrabass sax.; 6/3/14, 2:42 PM
traditionalguy said...: Wynton Marsalis is better.; 6/3/14, 3:07 PM
SGT Ted said...: Lots of sax used in 70s and 80s pop and rock music, long before Kenny G.; 6/3/14, 3:26 PM
Paul said...: "Wynton Marsalis is better.'

You know he plays trumpet not saxophone right?; 6/3/14, 3:43 PM
David said...: The very existence of Kenny G's music is someone's revenge. God maybe.; 6/3/14, 5:02 PM
Jason said...: We do it just to piss off Pat Metheny.; 6/3/14, 5:11 PM
cold pizza said...: Heh. I read MadAsHell's comment as "The 'apocalypso' is upon us" and wondered if that was a new genre featuring a Harry Belafonte/Death Metal mashup. It's bombin' in de Caribbean, mon. -CP; 6/3/14, 5:33 PM
Joe said...: I really dislike the sound of "loopy" sax. It's way overused in romantic movies.; 6/3/14, 6:02 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Did anyone click through to the new music that was getting compared to Kenny G?; 6/3/14, 6:02 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: This is what you get, man. When you chase all the black people away. It ain't no fun.

You motherfuckers will be back to singing "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" in no time,...; 6/3/14, 6:13 PM
Jason said...: Yes, JRoberts. It's a snub.; 6/3/14, 6:52 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: With "revenge" in the title, I thought this was going to link to this. Heh.; 6/3/14, 7:07 PM
Carol said...: what the hell is "lopping" sax? I'm a musician and never heard that term before.; 6/3/14, 7:14 PM
Anonymous said...: I always liked the saxophone featured in "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits.; 6/3/14, 7:38 PM
Anonymous said...: You know, at pissed off as Miles Davis was for all his reasons, and despite slipping into addiction, at least he made great music.

As pissed off as Muhammad Ali was for all his reasons, especially after deciding to follow Elijah Muhammad, he was still heavyweight champion of the world, and a superb athlete.; 6/3/14, 8:56 PM
madAsHell said...: When you chase all the black people away.

Have you ever been chased by white people?

....and you can't reference that time you dined-n-dashed at Pizza Haven, because everybody does that.; 6/3/14, 9:40 PM
SGT Ted said...: Wow, all these white people chasing black people away from things. You'd think there'd be video of this sort of racism to prove it in the YouTube Age.

Oh, there isn't any showing that?

So it's just whiney racist bullshit designed to keep whites feeling guilty for things they had no part in and actively oppose. And when the accuser is a black person, the accuser gets to excuse their own lack of character and failures in life by laying them at the feet of people they've never met who have never done them any personal harm. That way, nothing gets solved.

As usual.; 6/4/14, 8:29 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: madAsHell,

"Have you ever been chased by white people?

....and you can't reference that time you dined-n-dashed at Pizza Haven, because everybody does that."

OK. I've already related that I've been chased from an ATM in France because they didn't think a black had a reason to be there.

And there was the time I ran into Nazis - but that's all Europe. You're talking about in the good ol' USA, right-right? Check it out:

This SF bar is called "Zeitgeist". I named it. I designed it's logo. I set up it's DJ booth.

I got chased away, at night and on foot - without being paid for any of my work - by a group of skin heads they hired to attack local blacks. They laughed about it - the owners and the skin heads.

The owner got murdered. His family wanted to claim his assets against his business interests. I was asked to testify in court, which I did in exchange for receiving what I was owed - they ripped me off again, claiming the statute of limitations had run out, so they didn't have to do right by me.

I've seen my work for them spread all over the world and I got nothing for it.

Is that the glorious American tale you're demanding?

Makes whites look great, as always, huh? What did Ta-Nahisi Coates call it? Ah yes:

PLUNDER - from slavery right up to today,….; 6/4/14, 9:10 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: madashell,

I especially like how you made it like I was the thief when it was really whites all along.

Always the cherry on top, that one,...; 6/4/14, 9:12 AM
Focko Smitherman said...: "I agree with Pat Metheny, Kenny's talents are too teeny . . ."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucgZQGPZOpk; 6/4/14, 10:51 AM
eddie willers said...: Kenny G. was the only person I know who could take the soul out of a saxophone.

There's a good example of a moanful sax on Al Kooper's "Somethin' Goin' On" off his Blood Sweat & Tears Child Is Father To The Man album.

Go to the 5:15 mark for the sax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrsH4GJ0oQM&feature=kp; 6/4/14, 11:39 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Kenny G. was the only person I know who could take the soul out of a saxophone."

Bill Clinton?; 6/4/14, 12:00 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: SGT Ted,

"Wow, all these white people chasing black people away from things. You'd think there'd be video of this sort of racism to prove it in the YouTube Age."

Nope - that was in the '90s (which is still waaay past when you liars say such things stopped happening) so, nowadays, you mostly see videos of white boys getting knocked-the-fuck-out.

Times are a-changing,...; 6/4/14, 12:48 PM