Kenneth Bruce Gorelick, better known as Kenny G, was roughly 10 years old when he had an epiphany. He was at home with his family watching "The Ed Sullivan Show" on television.
"There was a big band on the show and this sax player stood up to do a solo and the sax was so cool in his hands," Gorelick, 68, told IBD. "It looked like he was enjoying himself. It looked like he was expressing something cool through the sax, and I thought I wish I could do that some day."
Gorelick's wish came true. Kenneth Gorelick became Kenny G and went on to sell over 75 million records. That makes him one of the bestselling instrumentalists of all time. While he was lucky to find his passion so early in life, it took time to discover the right road to fulfill his dreams.
Explore Your Options Like Kenny G
In high school in Seattle, Gorelick joined the school's jazz band. Music gave him confidence. A scrawny kid frequently picked on, he found comfort in the band room, where everyone got along.
"Remember, in those days there was no internet or computers or cellphones," he said. "So I couldn't reach out and see what was happening in the world. All I could do was play and compare myself to the people who were in my high school band."
Within that limited sample, Gorelick was clearly a standout. "I began to think that I'm playing pretty much better than anyone I was hearing there," he said.
Kenny G: Find Your Inspiration
Gorelick's Franklin High School music teacher agreed. He recommended Gorelick, then just 17 years old, to sit in with Barry White's orchestra in Seattle. White was playing in West Coast venues at the time with his Love Unlimited Orchestra tour.
Not surprisingly, Gorelick was a tad naive, "They told me to wear a suit. I know now they meant a black suit," he said. "But the only suit I owned was my bar mitzvah suit, which consisted of a plaid jacket, maroon pants and a white shirt with a maroon tie. Those were the only dress clothes I owned."
But embarrassed as he was, the show went on and a lesson was learned. He was better dressed for his many future gigs. His college band director recommended him for shows with Liberace, the Ringling Brothers circus, and Sammy Davis Jr., among others.
Develop Your Own Style
But while those jobs were fun and helped him pay for school, they did not make him a unique musician. He needed to find his own sound.
"I was lucky in that no matter how hard I wanted to sound like the greats — John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins or Grover Washington Jr., or anybody I was learning licks from — I only sounded like me. At first that was frustrating," Gorelick said.
Understandably, the young saxophonist initially wanted to imitate the sounds of the greats. But he soon came to recognize that to be successful he had to find his own way.
"I don't know how I found my own sound. It wasn't a conscious effort," Gorelick said. "It was just the way I approached learning the saxophone, which was I would hear something that Cannonball (Adderley) or Grover (Washington) or Stan Getz played. I would write down that little passage, but then I'd end up changing it."
Listen To Your Own Voice
Gorelick recognized that he had to follow his instincts. "It wouldn't be exactly the way they played it. I would change it because it just sounded better to me. I ended up playing the sax in a way that didn't sound like anybody else, because it was a little of this and a little of that," he said.
Monty Montford has mixed the sound at Kenny G concerts since 1987, when the saxophonist was still an opening act. Asked what makes Gorelick's sound so special, he said it was hard to explain unless you have a jazz vocabulary.
"He has such broad appeal because, as they say in the jazz business, he stays within the chords," Montford said. While Gorelick improvises, "he stays inside the notes that belong to the chord, whereas Branford Marsalis will go outside the chord" on flights of improvisational fancy that can sound discordant to some.
Connect With Your Audience Like Kenny G
Gorelick's sound resonated with many people.
"Fortunately, people liked my sound," Gorelick said. "It could have gone the other way. People could have listened and said, 'He's different. We don't like him.'"
That sound became known as smooth jazz, and there did indeed exist a body of people who didn't like it. Many were jazz purists who felt his music was not jazz. Some were musicians jealous of his success.
Gorelick even shares jokes people make about him in his newly published memoir, "Life in the Key of G," to deflect the criticism.
Ignore The Critics
On a more serious level. Gorelick argues that he refused to let naysayers bother him — or to apologize for his success.
"Listen. I'm playing my music the way I play my music. If people respond to it and they don't respond the same way to someone else, I'm not to blame," Gorelick said. "It worked out that people really liked what I do and I'm really successful. Lucky me. I never looked for commercial success. I just wanted to do music my way."
Come Alive In Front Of A Group
But success is not just about the music, but the way it's presented, especially live. Part of Kenny G's shtick is his long hair. "I can tell you this: Whenever I've polled an audience about whether or not I should cut my hair, everyone says no," he said.
Another piece of the success puzzle is Gorelick's willingness to try something new. At one of his gigs, "a sound man came up to me and said, 'They just invented this new thing. It's called a wireless microphone. You can clip it on your saxophone and you don't have to point it at microphone. You can be mobile.'"
"I did it that night, and (the freedom to walk the stage) was so much fun," Gorelick said. "The next night he goes, 'Now that you're mobile, walk off the stage and get out in the audience.' I told him, 'That's kind of unheard of.' And he just said, 'You gotta do it, you gotta do it.'"
Gorelick tried walking around "and the audience went crazy," he said. "It hadn't been done before, or if it had the performer was limited to the length of the wire his mike was attached it. It was unbelievable for me and the audience."
Know When To Say No Like Kenny G
Not everyone was a fan. Gorelick was slated to open for Whitney Houston on her 1987 Moment of Truth tour. Before it began, Houston's tour manager laid down ground rules for Gorelick and his band: Don't talk to her. Don't make eye contact. Also: Don't go in the audience.
Gorelick, who admits "conflict is not something I seek out," this time decided that the tour's name was entirely appropriate. He looked. He spoke. And he walked out in the audience.
Then he dared the manager to can him. The manager backed down. And even walked out in the audience with him to help clear a path.
Kenny G: Never Stop Practicing
All these years later, Gorelick still has a full tour schedule (though now he's the headliner) and still practices three hours a day.
"I've been playing live shows since I was 17. I'm sure if I stopped practicing, I'd still be good," Gorelick said. "But I want to get better."
Gorelick's focus on improvement is like anyone at the top of their game. "It's like hitting golf balls on the driving range," Gorelick said. "You've got to go out there and see if all that practice makes its way into your game."
He tells an anecdote attributed to the famed cellist Pablo Casals. "He was like in his 90s and world famous, and in an interview he said 'I still practice three hours a day.' And his little joke was, 'You know, a couple of weeks ago, I started to notice a little improvement.'"
"This morning when I did my three hours of practicing, there were a couple of things where I said, 'You know what? I'm getting better at this,'" Gorelick said.
Kenny G's Keys
- One of the top-selling instrumental recording artists of all time.
- Overcame: Skepticism about his career and his music.
- Lesson: "You've got to walk your own path, and to hell with anyone who tried to tell you you can't."
