29 May 2022

Smooth operator: How Kenny G created his own genre

From Sunday Morning, 10:25 am on 29 May 2022

Love him or loathe him (and most people fall into one of those two categories), you can't deny the fact that musician Kenny G is the best-selling instrumentalist of all time with over 75 million record sales.

Jazz aficionados sometimes scoff at Kenny G's (real name Kenneth Gorelick) contribution to the genre, but his influence has been such that the term used to describe his music, smooth jazz, was coined expressly for him.

In 'Listening to Kenny G,' director Penny Lane traces the composer and saxophonist's rise from his beginnings as a high school musician in Seattle through to the current day, highlighting what makes him tick and why people love (or love to hate) his music.

But the real charm of the documentary comes from the frankness of the man himself, who is an entertaining, self-deprecating and extremely generous interview subject.

Lane - a professor in the Film department at Colgate University - is with us to discuss the documentary and why Kenny G is one of the most balanced and joyful people she has ever met.

'Listening to Kenny G' will be making its way to Aotearoa New Zealand at Doc Edge's Film Festival screening in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and online

Photo: