Kenny G

Kenneth Bruce Gorelick, better known by his stage name Kenny G, is a smooth/contemporary jazz saxophonist. He is one of those successful smooth jazz instrumentalist whose recordings have reached the contemporary jazz, smooth jazz, pop, and R&B charts in the 1980s and 1990s,

Kenny G’s career got started with a job as a sideman for Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1973; at the time he was just 17 and still in high school.  In the mid-to-late 1980s he worked with jazz and R&B artists such as George Benson, Patti LaBelle and Aretha Franklin. His 1986 album, Duotones, brought him commercial success. He is one of the best-selling Smooth/contemporary jazz artists of all time, with global sales totaling more than 75 million records.

Born: Seattle, Washington, USA

Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Easy Listening

Kenny G was born (June 5, 1956) in Seattle, Washington. He grew up in Seattle’s Seward Park neighborhood, which is a center of the city’s Jewish community. He became interested with the saxophone when he heard a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and started playing the instrument, a Buffet Crampon alto saxophone, in 1966 when he was 10 years old.

He attended Whitworth Elementary School, Sharples Junior High School, Franklin High School, and the University of Washington, all in his home city of Seattle. When he entered high school he failed at his first attempt to get into the jazz band but auditioned again the following year and earned first chair. His Franklin High School classmate Robert Damper (piano, keyboards) plays in his band. In addition to his studies while in high school, he took private lessons on the saxophone and clarinet from Johnny Jessen, once a week for a year.

Kenny G’s career started with a job as a sideman for Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1973; he was 17 and still in high school. He continued to play professionally while studying for a major in accounting at the University of Washington in Seattle, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He played with the funk band Cold, Bold and Together before becoming a credited member of The Jeff Lorber Fusion. He began his solo career after his period with Lorber.

Kenny G signed with Arista Records as a solo artist in 1982, after label president Clive Davis heard his rendition of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”. He released his self-titled first album with the help of The Jeff Lorber Fusion.

The album received warm reviews from critics. He achieved success quite early on, with both G Force and Gravity, his second and third studio albums respectively, achieving platinum status in the United States. At that time, he collaborated with Kashif on many tracks, such as the single “Love on the Rise”, which was released in 1985 and went on to chart.

His fourth studio album, Duotones, sold over five million copies in the U.S. alone. It featured the songs “Songbird”, with reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single “Don’t Make Me Wait for Love”, which featured vocals from Lenny Williams, charted at No. 15 on the Hot 100, and No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary charts in 1987.

Kenny G worked in the mid-to-late 1980s with jazz and R&B artists such as George Benson, Patti LaBelle and Aretha Franklin. The 1987 hit-single “Love Power”, a Dionne Warwick duet with Jeffrey Osborne that featured G as a guest saxophonist, peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 5 on R&B/Hip-Hop songs.

His first live album, titled Kenny G Live, included popular songs, among which “Going Home” achieved great success in the People’s Republic of China. Kenny G has collaborated with a wide variety of artists, such as Andrea Bocelli, Aaron Neville, Toni Braxton, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Natalie Cole, Steve Miller, Weezer, Dudley Moore, Lee Ritenour, The Rippingtons, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Frank Sinatra, Bebel Gilberto and Smokey Robinson. Influenced by saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., his albums are usually classified as smooth jazz.

Biographical information courtesy of Wiki; for more reading see link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_G