KENNY G
Kenneth Gorelick, 1959, Seattle, Washington, USA. Gorelick learned saxophone as a child and toured Europe in 1974 with the Franklin High School band. Two years later he played with Barry White \\\'s Love Unlimited Orchestra in Seattle before entering the University of Washington to study accounting. Gorelick first recorded with local funk band Cold, Bold & Together and also backed many leading artists on their Seattle shows. After graduation, he joined the Jeff Lorber Fusion, recording with the jazz-rock band for Arista Records, the label which in 1981 signed him to a solo contract. Produced by Preston Glass and Narada Michael Walden, Duotones was a major success and it included \\\'Songbird\\\', a Top 10 hit in 1987. Like much of his other work, it featured a flawless, melodic alto saxophone solo. By now, Kenny G was in demand to play solos on albums by such singers as Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole and Aretha Franklin. Among the guest artists on Silhouette was Smokey Robinson who sang \\\'We\\\'ve Saved The Best Till Last\\\'. Like its predecessor, the album sold over three million copies worldwide. G\\\'s extraordinary success has continued into the 90s with the multi-platinum Breathless, and he has been acknowledged as fellow musician President Clinton\\\'s favourite saxophonist. The crossover into pop is felt to be too strong, as the type of music
He plays is very structured and contrived. Popular music has at least given rise to the \\\'great crossover debate\\\'. Arguments aside; Kenny G. is a phenomenon, he sells albums in rock group proportions and his popularity is consistent. His Miracles: The Holiday Album rocketed to the top of the US pop chart, re-igniting interest in Breathless which, by the mid-90s had sold over 11 million copies in the USA alone and had remained at the top of the Billboard jazz chart for well over 18 months. It was finally toppled in October 1996 after an incredible run. The rude interloper to this wasThe Moment, the new album from . . . Kenny G.
KENNY G BELIEVES IN MIRACLES BY: DINAH ENG, GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
September 24, 1999
Jazz saxophonist Kenny G believes in the miracle of music.
As a child, he watched a sax player on The Ed Sullivan Show and decided he wanted to be a musician, too.
Fortunately, the public school he attended in Seattle had a great music program, and he learned the fundamentals that launched a legendary career.
He has sold more than 30 million records around the world, and received accolades ranging from the Grammy to a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Now, he's established The Kenny G Miracles Foundation to help keep music alive in public schools whose programs have been hit by cutbacks in funding for the arts.
"Our society concentrates an over-emphasis on money and jobs, and not enough on beauty and art," said Kenny G, who announced the foundation with the release of his new album, Classics in the Key of G.
The album, which pays tribute to composers and musicians who have inspired his work, "borrows from the past, and I thought I should give to the future."
So Kenny G (G for Gorelick) presented the foundation's first $ 250,000 donation to Communities In Schools, Inc., which works with needy schools to help young people stay enrolled and prepare for life.
He decided to donate 100% of the profits from What A Wonderful World, a single from the Classics album, to the foundation, and aims to raise $ 1 million by the end of 2000 for distribution to various school organizations.
His hope is that under-served children will be exposed to the joys of music, and that tomorrow's musicians will receive the same kind of encouragement and inspiration that he got in school.
While educators often focus on the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, a complete education requires more than these fundamentals.
If we are to help children grow into mature, caring adults, we must encourage them to develop more than their minds -- we must help them get in touch with their hearts. And there is no better vehicle than music and the arts.
"You don't get inspired because you make a lot of money," said Kenny G, a married father of two young sons. "You get inspired because you get creative. Music is what makes me feel alive. Hitting a perfect note. Mixing sounds until they're seamless. For me, it's about listening to the music I've made, and knowing I've stretched out as far as I can in the song."
As a parent, the musician is concerned about the violence, sexual images and gritty language found in mediums ranging from TV to the Internet.
"The television is a great thing, if used properly," said Kenny G. "But there's a lot of violence on TV because it's got shock value. The more sex, nudity and violence you put in, the more it'll get talked about. I don't let my 6-year-old son have the remote to surf channels, and I don't let him surf the Internet. The goal should be to get kids into music and things that are creative, not things with a thrill factor."
The kind of music Kenny G writes and performs takes listeners on journeys of the heart. His soulful sax taps into the moment, evoking different emotions for everyone.
"My music gives people an opportunity to get into whatever they need to," he said. "One person may listen, and feel great joy inside. Another person may listen to the same song, and feel sad. It's all about the mood, and what's inside them.
"Most people are afraid to take the bad with the good. They want the good with the good. But life isn't that way. Nothing's going to be great all the time.
"But it isn't going to be bad every time either." Kenny G Takes On Standards On 'Key of G' Arista Set Includes 'Wonderful World' Remake With Armstrong Vocals By Charles Karel Bouley
Los Angeles-On "Classics In the Key of G," due June 29 on Arista, superstar instrumentalist Kenny G hopes to introduce a new generation to some old standards.
"I'm very lucky in that I have a lot of fans across the world," he comments. "I hope that I can use the success I've been given to spur people to buy this record of new old classics."
His 11th outing for Arista is a departure for an artist whose recordings typically have an overt pop leaning. "I don't try to classify my music," he says. "I know that sounds like I'm evading the question of categorization, but I'm not. There are a lot of different qualifications for that. Some think that jazz is the only traditional way that people can play instrumental music, but for me, I'm just a sax player, and I play whatever I feel at the time." Kenny G emerged into mainstream consciousness in 1982 with an eponymous set, but it wasn't until his fourth album, 'Duotones"-which boasted the hit single "Songbird"-that the world took notice. Since then, he has gone on to become, according to Arista VP of marketing Adam Sexton, "the largest-selling solo instrumentalist of all time."
"It took me a few records before anyone even knew I existed," Kenny G reflects. "Clive Davis is one of those guys who goes out of his way to help his artists. I wasn't selling enough records to justify them retaining me. Then, finally, I hit."
Once established, Kenny G built upon his success with each release. He hopes that momentum will carry "Classics In The Key of G." It's an album laced with interesting reworkings of classics such as "The Look of Love," "Summertime" (featuring George Benson), "The Girl From Ipanema" (featuring Babel Gilberto), and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow." The lead contender for the first single is a duet 50 years in the making-a rendition of "What A Wonderful World" featuring vocals taken from its original recording by Louis Armstrong.
"I couldn't imagine who-outside of Louis Armstrong-could sing it," Kenny G says. "So, I got hold of the original vocals. David Foster agreed to produce it, much like the Natalie Cole duet 'Unforgettable' with her father. It's an incredible experience to listen to, and it was beyond belief to create."
"What A Wonderful World" is not jus a commercial endeavor for Kenny G and Arista; it's a philanthropic one as well. "All the proceeds from that song will go to a new foundation I have established for at-risk children," says Kenny G. "The foundation will funnel the money to charities to purchase musical instruments and to supplement funding for the arts in schools. I've decided since the government has decided to cut back, it's time for me to give back."
"Wonderful World" has a sentimental hold on many Americans, but will that translate into sales?
"We never take anything for granted," says Sexton. "However, we are confident that this is the perfect vehicle to showcase what this album is-classic American repertoire."
Some retailers view Kenny G as an evergreen artist whose fan base is unwaveringly loyal. "He has an appeal that transcends trends," says John Wilkes, assistant buyer for Compact Disc World, a nine-store chain based in South Plainfield, N.J. "The material on this album sounds like a natural for him."
Marketing an album of standards presents interesting challenges for Arista. "This album will broaden his demographic and cuts across a variety of fan bases," Sexton says. "In an industry that likes to put people in boxes, Kenny crosses so many different genres. Kenny G has always been a special type of artist who charts his own path, and he doesn't do things like other artists"
Those ideas include a heavy television campaign featuring major talk shows, a PBS special, and a satellite media tour from New York, tentatively set for June 30. Starbucks will have point-of-sale items, and Barnes & Noble's Internet sales site is starting a new online music source with Kenny G as the first featured artist. Also, Web retailer Cdnow is doing a "Flyaway" contest, giving people a chance to win a trip to New York in August to see Kenny G in concert.
"The Web allows us to cut out the middleman and go directly from Arista to the Kenny G fan at home with soundclips, video, electronic press kits every tool we could want or need directly to the consumer," Sexton says.
Kenny G will support the album with a tour that kicks off in September in Los Angeles and spreads across the globe. He is managed by Dennis Turner of Turner Management and
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 1998
A \\\"CLASSIC\\\" MOMENT FOR KENNY G
Kenny G credits his great success to all the composers and musicians who have inspired him. And what inspiration: The legendary saxophonist is the best-selling instrumentalist/musician in the world having sold over 30 million records around the globe. This multi-platinum recording superstar has had a constant presence on Billboard’s top ten charts for more than 15 years, and he has garnered every coveted accolades ranging from POP to R&B. Kenny has been the recipient of many prestigious awards including a Grammy, American Music Awards, Soul Train Award, World Music Award and the N.A.A.C.P. Image Award. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
But recently, in spite of the overwhelming success that might have made others more complacent, Kenny was restless: He felt an overwhelming gratitude to his musical heroes, and wanted to find some appropriate way to honor them. At the same time, Kenny wanted to create a recording that would inspire others in the same way that he had been moved to write and perform his own music. As an older, more mature Kenny was now himself taking on the role of father to his own sons, what could he do to give them and other children the same inspirational passion that had fueled his creative fire? One day, an epiphany came to him: Why not throw an all-star musical party, and invite those who had meant the most to him in his formative years as a musician? And thus was born, Classics in the Key of G, Kenny’s newest release -- a heartfelt \\\"thank you\\\" to his past, and a gift to future dreamers everywhere.
Classics in the Key of G is a tribute to the composers and recording artists who have set the \\\"standards\\\" for which Kenny has always held the highest esteem. As an instrumentalist who constantly strives to create new and pioneering tones in his own contemporary sound, Kenny has imprinted his musical signature on the old classics, re-interpreting in his own style such musical landmarks as George Gershwin’s \\\"Summertime\\\" (also featuring George Benson), George David Weiss’s \\\"What A Wonderful World,\\\" (a \\\"virtual duet\\\" with Louis Armstrong), Sour, Heyman and Green’s \\\"Body And Soul,\\\" Duke Ellington’s \\\"In a Sentimental Mood,\\\" Thelonius Monk’s \\\"Round Midnight,\\\" Burt Bacharach’s \\\"The Look of Love,\\\" Antonio Carlos Jobim’s \\\"Desafinado\\\" and \\\"The Girl From Ipanema\\\" (with guest vocalist Bebel Gilberto, daughter of the song’s original artists, Astrid and Joao Gilberto), Acker Bilk’s \\\"Stranger On the Shore\\\" and Harold Arlen’s \\\"Over the Rainbow.\\\"
Additionally, Kenny has taken his mission to inspire others one dramatic step further: Concurrent with the release of Classics in the Key of G, and in special commemoration of all the artists who have had a profound effect on his work, Kenny has created his own special charitable network, \\\"The Kenny G Miracles Foundation.\\\" This newly formed organization is dedicated to promoting and exposing underserved youth to arts and music appreciation nationally, and has been established by Kenny to help restore or expand programs in areas where community school budgets have been reduced or even eliminated. A single from the Classics recording, the popular ballad, \\\"What A Wonderful World,\\\" -- featuring the \\\"duet\\\" between Kenny G and Louis Armstrong -- will be released in June, 1999, with 100% of the profits going to the new Foundation.
\\\"I was devastated to learn how badly our national music and arts programs had been drastically reduced in the last few years,\\\" said Kenny. \\\"The Foundation’s goal is to help ensure today’s budding musicians will be able to obtain the same positive encouragement, inspiration and confidence that I received when I was in school,\\\" he added.
In fact, Kenny G (G for Gorelick) played sax in the high school band in his hometown of Seattle, Washington. At the age of 17, he performed his first professional gig, backing up Barry White at a concert in Seattle. He enrolled at the University of Washington -- an accounting student by day -- but a musician by night, playing in the touring concerts of Johnny Mathis, The Spinners, Liberace and other performers passing through Seattle. After graduation from college, Kenny joined the band, Jeff Lorber Fusion, where he was discovered by Arista Records president, Clive Davis, who offered him a recording contract: In 1982, his first release, simply entitled, Kenny G, was produced, and a new era in instrumental music was launched.
Two more recordings followed, -- G-Force and Gravity -- and in 1986, Kenny’s fourth release, Duotones, introduced the classic, \\\"Songbird.\\\" In 1988, Silhouette joined the top 10 on pop charts, followed by Kenny G Live, (1989), Breathless (the best selling instrumental album in history having been certified 15x platinum — 1994), Miracles: The Holiday Album (the best selling Christmas album in history selling over 8 million albums to date - 1994), The Moment (1996), and his milestone, Kenny G’s Greatest Hits (1997).
Kenny has been one of the most sought-after special guest performers in the recording industry, and has shared the stage with the \\\"Who’s Who\\\" of contemporary music including Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, Toni Braxton, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Babyface and Frank Sinatra. He even took his talents to the silver screen in 1991, performing the score and theme for the Julia Roberts film, Dying Young.
Making his home in Seattle with his wife, Lyndie, and their two sons, Max and Noah, Kenny spends his time composing in his custom-designed state-of-the-art recording studio (\\\"Studio G\\\"), playing golf and piloting his own seaplane.
As this millennium draws to a close, Kenny G looks forward to the next, with its new challenges and opportunities for his constantly expanding and reinventing musical style.
\\\"Classics in the Key of G is Kenny at his best: The love and respect.
KENNY G\'s \'CLASSICS IN THE KEY OF G\' - A \"DREAM PROJECT\" PRESENTS TEN POPULAR AND JAZZ STANDARDS
\'Virtual\' duet with Louis Armstrong on \"What a Wonderful World\" is the first single, profits to benefit Miracles Foundation, founded by Kenny G
New album follows-up \'Greatest Hits,\' Billboard\'s #1 Contemporary Jazz album of 1998
(May 28, 1999) Arista recording artist Kenny G is helping musicians of the future by reaching into his past for CLASSICS IN THE KEY OF G, a brand new collection of ten standards from the 20th century songbook, hand-picked by the saxophonist, and produced and arranged by Walter Afanasieff. In-store date for the album has been set for June 29th.
CLASSICS IN THE KEY OF G, a \"dream project\" for Kenny G, comprises ten of his favorite tunes from the pop and jazz repertoire. In addition to \"What a Wonderful World,\" there is \"The Look of Love\" (first popularized by Dusty Springfield); the Gershwins\' \"Summertime\" (with guest George Benson on guitar); Antonio Carlos Jobim\'s \"The Girl From Ipanema\" (with vocalis Bebel Gilberto, daughter of original artists Astrud Gilberto and Joao Gilberto); Jobim\'s \"Desafinado\" (popularized by Stan Getz); Thelonius Monk\'s \"\'Round Midnight\"; \"Body and Soul\" (via Coleman Hawkins and Billie Holiday); Duke Ellington\'s \"In a Sentimental Mood\"; Mr. Acker Bilk\'s \"Stranger On the Shore\"; and the timeless \"Over the Rainbow,\" a duet by Kenny G and producer Afanasieff.
Kenny\'s all-star group of top session players for this album consisted of Greg Phillinganes on Fender Rhodes electric keyboards, Ranyd Waldman on piano, bassist Nathan East, drummer Ricky Lawson, percussionist Paulinho DaCosta and, on certain tracks, Dean Parks on acoustic guitar. Orchestral arrangers and conductors were Jeremy Lubbock and William Ross.
Concurrent with the release of CLASSICS IN THE KEY OF G, and in special honor and commemoration of all the artists who have had a profound effect on his work, Kenny has created his own charitable network \"The Kenny G Miracles Foundation.\" Kenny\'s \"virtual\" duet with Louis Armstrong on \"What a Wonderful World\" has been chosen as the album\'s first single and will be the first driver of funding for the Miracles Foundation. This newly formed foundation is dedicated to promoting and exposing underserved youth to arts and music appreciation and was established to offset government cutbacks in arts funding for inner city schools by awarding music grants, purchasing instruments and equipment. A portion of the net profits from the sale of this single will be donated to Communities in School, a part of Colin Powell\'s America\'s Promise network.
Kenny\'s North American fans will get a special taste of CLASSICS IN THE KEY OF G on PBS when he performs in the Independence Day concert, \"A Capitol Fourth 1999.\" The program, which is broadcast live from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, airs on Sunday, July 4th at 8:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) and features Kenny and other guest artists performing with the internationally renowned National Symphony Orchestra.
CLASSICS IN THE KEY OF G builds upon the extraordinary success of last year\'s career retrospective, Kenny G\'s Greatest Hits. That album grabbed hold of Billboard\'s Contemporary Jazz chart on its release in early 1998 and didn\'t let go - it spent nearly a year in the #1 position (with 37 of those weeks in 1998). In Billboard\'s \"1998 - The Year In Music\" special year-end issue, Kenny was named #1 Contemporary Jazz Artist of the year. The album\'s unique success led Arista Records to victory as Top Combined Jazz Label, Top Contemporary Jazz Label, Top Combined Jazz Imprints, Top Combined Jazz Imprints, and Top Combine Jazz Distributor (BMG).
Classics In The Key Of G will be the subject of one of the most far-reaching marketing campaigns in Arista and BMG history. The focal point of the campaign will be the Kenny G website on Arista.com and BMG\'s C2M Site, created as the direct Internet vehicle to serve his fans around the world. Yahoo will feature the album and sound bites prior to release date and Kenny will take part in a live chat to promote that feature. Kenny will also be the first featured artist when Barnes & Noble on-line launched their retail E-commerce site on June 1st, and he will be featured the entire month. In addition to exclusive visibility on the home-page before and after release date, the site will offer audio and video streaming of a specially designed electronic press kit for media.
KENNY G SET TO RELEASE NEW HOLIDAY ALBUM ON NOVEMBER 16
'FAITH - A HOLIDAY ALBUM,' SEQUEL TO 8x-PLATINUM #1 CATALOG STAPLE, 'MIRACLES - A HOLIDAY ALBUM'
Classics In The Key Of G' - 17 weeks at #1 on Contemporary Jazz chart
FAITH - A HOLIDAY ALBUM offers an entirely new program of seasonal classics from both the traditional songbook ("The First Noel," "O' Christmas Tree," "Ave Maria," and a medley of "We Three Kings/Carol Of the Bells") and the contemporary repertoire ("Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," "Let It Snow," "I'll Be Home For Christmas," "Sleigh Ride"), along with a brand new title composed for the occasion by Kenny G and Walter Afanasieff, "Eternal Light (A Chanukah Song)." Kenny also does a special arrangement of "Auld Lang Syne" that is sure to be a millennium favorite!
The tracks feature Kenny on soprano and alto saxophone with Afanasieff contributing to the production. Top musicians and an award-winning conductor add to this holiday inspired collection. Kenny performs with the rhythm section of Randy Waldman (piano), Greg Phillinganes (Fender Rhodes keyboard), Nathan East (bass), Ricky Lawson (drums) and Paulinho Da'Costa (percussion). On all tracks, the orchestra is arranged and conducted by famed William Ross.
Since its release in November 1994, Miracles - The Holiday Album - which was #1 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart for three weeks - has gone on to become not only the best selling holiday album in history but continues as an annual #1 staple of the seasonal catalog album charts. Kenny's current album, Classics In The Key Of G, ten of his favorite tunes from the pop and jazz repertoire, entered the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart at #1, where it remains in its 17th week.