L ifestyle /C ulture
Without his Saxophone, Who is Kenny G?
T E L EVISION
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
IN 1974, FRANKLIN High
School student Kenneth Gorelick
was asked by mentor and composer
James Gardiner to perform a
saxophone solo at a Seattle Center
Opera House concert.

Gardiner expected Gorelick
to improvise a complicated lick
to impress the masses. Instead,
the young musician held one
note for over 10 minutes, the
spotlight shining directly on
him. “That was the moment little
Kenny Gorelick became the ‘G
Man,’” Gardiner said.

Dubbed the “best-selling
instrumentalist of all time,”
Kenny G’s reputation ranges
from sax symbol to blowhard
— notoriety that documen-
tarian Penny Lane doesn’t
shy away from in her film
“Listening to Kenny G,” now
streaming on HBO Max as
part of the “Music Box” series
created by Bill Simmons.

“I don’t think I’m a person-
ality to people; I think I’m a
sound,” Kenny G said to the
camera, standing on an empty
stage. Yet his sound was near-in-
stantly recognizable to so many,
becoming iconic in the 1980s.

Composer of “Songbird,”
which sold 5 million copies
in the U.S. and reached No.

4 on the “Billboard Hot 100,”
Kenny G and his music were
cast as the pinnacle of romance
to some.

With long, breathy notes,
Kenny G’s music was the
perfect background for offices,
dentist waiting rooms and
elevators. Entire radio stations,
including Philadelphia’s WJJZ,
were designated to Kenny G’s
music and the “smooth jazz”
genre he helped to popularize.

His long, curly, Ashkenazi
locks made Kenny G further
recognizable, not
only as a musician but as a pop
18 JANUARY 20, 2022
Born Kenneth Gorelick, Kenny G is considered the “best-selling
instrumentalist of all time.”
“Listening to Kenny G” is documentarian Penny Lane’s contribution to
the HBO series “Music Box.”
Courtesy of HBO Max
culture star, even as his pop
stardom was eclipsed in the
21st century. Appearing on
pop artist Katy Perry’s “Last
Friday Night (T.G.I.F)” music
video and Kanye West’s
2019 album “Jesus is King,”
Kenny G earned recognition
from younger generations
who wouldn’t know to attri-
bute “Silhouette” and “Going
Home’’ to the saxophonist.

“Listening to Kenny G”
portrays the musician’s rise to
stardom as easy — to a fault.

Kenny G describes himself as
a young musician as “trying
to become a white Grover
Washington Jr.,” and admitted
that he failed, though it helped
him discover his own sound.

Though he created his distinct
sounds branded as smooth jazz,
Kenny G was accused by critics
as drawing generously from the
wealth of jazz tradition, steeped
heavily in Black American
culture, without paying homage
to the Black thinkers and
musicians who paved the way
for the genre.

On his early records, Kenny
G would be shown as a silhou-
ette with shadows obscuring
his white skin, making him
appear dark-skinned
to market him to a younger Black
audience. “I’ve never really thought
about that before,” he said,
considering whether his white-
ness was a driving factor in
his success. “I’m going to say I
probably benefited.”
The ease to which Kenny
G rose to stardom is his
greatest gift and most obvious
shortcoming. Reminiscing with producers
while looking at a wall of
framed childhood pictures,
Kenny G remarks that he was
always the happy-go-lucky guy
the audience now sees him as
in front of the camera. Sure,
he would kvetch, he said, but
he defines the meaning of the
Yiddish word as transient: His
anger or frustrations would go
as quickly as they came.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Meticulously dressed and
with a smile always plastered
on, Kenny G attributed his
success to his hard work (and,
in fairness, to Arista Records
former president Clive Davis,
who signed him). Practice,
he said, is what made him a
success at whatever task he was
looking to master, claiming
success at golf, investing and
even parenting.

Kenny G’s confidence and
positivity are off-putting at
times. For every fan who loved
his music is a music scholar
who found his records insuf-
ferable. Kenny G said that’s just
how he makes music.

When allowed to dig
deeper, reveal something about
his music or his past, Kenny
G instead remains neutral
and nonoffensive, but not too
compelling. In this case, maybe
the personality is the same as
the sound.

“Listening to Kenny G”
allows the titular musician to
be his most honest self, but
instead, Kenny G comes across
as disingenuous at times,
despite his self-awareness.

Kenny G doesn’t admit any
culpability to his audience or
show any sign of struggle, and
in the end, it doesn’t do him
any favors. Though he wonders
why he’s not known for his
personality, Kenny G gives the
documentary’s audience little
insight into who he actually is
when he’s not playing the sax. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM