I loved the diss Pat Metheny gave Mr. Gorelick:
Not long ago, Kenny G put out a recording where he overdubbed himself on top of a 30+ year old Louis Armstrong record, the track "What a Wonderful World". With this single move, Kenny G became one of the few people on earth I can say that I really can't use at all - as a man, for his incredible arrogance to even consider such a thing, and as a musician, for presuming to share the stage with the single most important figure in our music..... But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, f'd up playing all over one of the great Louis's tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, s--t all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture - something that we all should be totally embarrassed about - and afraid of. We ignore this, "let it slide", at our own peril.
And to top it off, Richard Thompson recorded a song called, "I Agree with Pat Metheny, Kenny's Talents are Too Teeny"
That is an awesome rant.
Kenny G merely follows a hallowed tradition in popular music - easily digestable mediocrity sells, as the public majority’s critical skills remain undeveloped. Most people cannot discern. The same is true in all arts, starting with the execrable Thomas Kinkade, and many, many figures in rock that I wouldn’t dare mention here now for fear of provoking another world war.
What was it that Theodore Sturgeon said, that “ninety percent of everything is crud”. (Wikipedia has a good article about the source of the quote.) Some, like Kenny and Danielle Steel, are more offensive than others. Others, like John Tesh, are actually tolerable if cheap.
his picture is in the encyclopedia next to ‘banal’..
Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays are fabulous musicians. Another bunch of fearless fusion players -- Steps Ahead ... all of them, and Michael Brecker (RIP) on the EWI ... on the SA album Magnetic, his rendition of In a Sentimental Mood gives me goose bumps every time. A FAR FAR cry from Kenny G!