The sound of one hand...What I'd like to hear from you Randy, is some smooth jazz on the slide sax. ;-) With the slide all greased up, it should be insanely smooth.... groan...
The sound of one hand...What I'd like to hear from you Randy, is some smooth jazz on the slide sax. ;-) With the slide all greased up, it should be insanely smooth.... groan...
What I'd like to hear from you Randy, is some smooth jazz on the slide sax. ;-) With the slide all greased up, it should be insanely smooth.... groan...
The sound of one hand...
I remember the 1980's exceptionally well. Kenny G was EVERYWHERE. Shortly thereafter, there were a zillion folks that were producing sopranos. Coltrane was performing at the very end of the "Jazz Era". In 1967, when Coltrane died, you still didn't have the "explosion" in the soprano market. Yamaha wasn't doing much (the YSS-61 was introduced in 1974). Yanagisawa came out with their first soprano in 1968. Buescher had been sold to Selmer USA and probably wouldn't even custom-make a soprano for you. Martin and HN White hadn't had sopranos for years. Conn would make one for you -- if you didn't mind the design was from the 1920's. Keilwerth would custom make one for you, if you didn't mind waiting 6 months. Selmer was producing sopranos ... but they were only Mark VIs: the sopranino, soprano, bari and bass being unpopular enough that Selmer didn't bother transitioning them to the Mark VII design. (Yes, I do know that there are a handful of Mark VIIs in these pitches.)I don't agree with the statement that Kenny G "almost single handedly brought the soprano sax back into vogue." You have to give that credit to John Coltrane. And Grover Washington opened the door the rest of the way. Kenny G was a very late arrival to the party. I remember listening to an interview of Steve Lacy done at WBGO just a week or so before his death. He mentioned how Coltrane started the trend, and how he, Steve Lacy, was so happy to see new sopranos on display in music stores, something he never saw when he was holding down the fort back in the 1950's.
I'm definitely not going there and I didn't think I was implying that. I don't "endorse" Kenny G in any way, shape or form, especially not after THIS.I make no argument to the point that more poeple attend a Kenny G concert than a Ravi Coltrane concert. I don't see that as an endorsement of the quality or worth of the music. After all, more people watch television than go to the art museum.
Oh, you mean this horn? The colored lacquers were rather uncommon, but I think it's quite pretty.As we left the stage that day, he thrust his new black Keilwerth soprano into my hands, telling me to "try it." The horn was brand new, it replaced the mk6 he'd been playing all through the 1970's. So he already had a long track record on the soprano by then .... By the way, Grover's black Keilwerth was simply incredible. One of the best saxophones of any size I've ever played.
I think you're confusing "establishment" with "popularize". Walk up to a random person (not one of your sax playing friends) and ask him if he knows who Kenny G is. Then ask him if he knows who Grover Washington is.I say it again. Grover established the "smooth Jazz" soprano sound long before Kenny G. And Trane brought the soprano out of the storeroom.
Kenny G has achieved one thing that Hawkins, Coltrane, Dolphy, Jacquette and the others will never attain, even in a combined fashion. G has serious penetration into the real world, not just the music world.