A Conversation with Kenny G – HuffPost 7.20.12

Mike Ragogna: Kenny, how did your recording an album with Rahul Sharma come about?

Kenny G: Well, I was down in India doing a show at a hotel, which is always a fun thing to do on the road because you can just go from your hotel room to the venue downstairs. (laughs) After I finished the gig, I was back in my room and the phone rang. It was actually a guy that had just attended the gig. I’m still not sure how he got my room number, but I wasn’t upset about it or anything. He wanted me to come and meet him because he’s a Santoor player and wanted to play some things with me. I had never been in India before, so I thought I would go ahead and take the chance. I went down and met him and played with him a bit. After that, I told him he should just email me some of his music, and we’d see what happened. So he did, and I found his music very interesting so I started adding my sax. One thing led to another, and all of a sudden we had a CD.

MR: Were you surprised by how well these two instruments blended?

KG: Yeah, absolutely. His songwriting is definitely different than anything I’ve played on before. I mean, he comes from the other side of the world with a completely different instrument that plays tones that are not quite on my scale. So, to blend the two was challenging, but also very exciting.

MR: Did you take away anything from this experience that may influence the way that you play in the future?

KG: Well, I don’t know. Maybe the biggest thing that I’ve learned musically is that anything is possible. Things can work when maybe they don’t seem like they can. It also forced me to be open to new things. The basic concept of the album was to show that two guys from opposite ends of the world can meld their types of music together. I mean, we did this whole album via uploading and downloading material and using all of the modern technology that’s out there. It opened my eyes to the fact that I could do this same thing with a guy in China and try doing some Chinese music.

MR: And you’re no stranger to that part of the world either.

KG: Not to China, no. I go there at least once a year and I spend time in Asia at least twice a year. I’ve been doing that for over 25 years and I’ve done some great stuff collaborating with some Chinese singers and musicians. There are a couple of songs that I’ve done there that are super-famous in China that nobody would know here. When I’m there, they get very excited and beg me to play those songs. (laughs) It’s really fun.

MR: Here in the States, you’re known for big hits like “Silhouette,” “Songbird,” and “Don’t Make Me Wait For Love,” but abroad, don’t you have almost an entirely different kind of following?

KG: Yes, mainly in Asia. There are a few countries that, for whatever reason, really enjoy listening to my music. Other than Asia, I’ve gone to Brazil and Mexico and they also really enjoy my music. In Europe, it would probably be Holland and Spain where I have the biggest following, and it isn’t until recently that I started visiting more of the eastern European countries like Romania and Russia. That part of the world has really started to open up to me. It’s quite a bit of fun. People discover your music at different times in your career.

MR: Are you ever surprised by the response?

KG: Well, I don’t want to sound like I expect it, but I have been doing this a long time. I’ve been performing since I was in high school, so I’ve seen people react to my music and my playing. I’m always appreciative when people like the music, but I’m not shocked. Luckily–and I say this in the most humble way–I’ve played these songs and people have reacted in a positive way so if I continue playing music, I am very appreciative that people continue to react positively. But I wouldn’t say I’m ever surprised by the reaction, just very appreciative of it.

MR: Now, getting to your new album Namaste, there is a remix of the title track that was done by Kid Tricky. Did you work with him directly on that?

KG: No, I didn’t. That’s one of those situations where I play the music and mix it the way that I envision it sounding, and then comes the business of trying to put the music out there. So, in that regard, you try to expose the music to a lot of different areas and you do remixes and such to expose the music to different arenas. I don’t know much about that, it’s not my area of expertise. I kind of let those who know about that and thought it was a good idea to pursue that. I don’t think too much on the remixes. I don’t love them, but I don’t dislike them. In my mind, those are there to serve a purpose.

MR: Kenny, what is one of your favorite songs from this project?

KG: Well, I like the last track, which is called, “Transcendental Consciousness,” because it’s very cool. It’s unexpected when a voice comes in and starts speaking. I don’t know what the words translate to exactly, but I love the way it all sounds.

MR: Did you find that there was a learning curve for this project, like maybe with the Santoor?

KG: Not really, though I did learn a lot from Rahul showing me how the instrument works and hearing the sounds of it. He would usually just send me songs the way that he played them, then we’d talk about some of the songs and where I would best blend in. Basically, I just learned through working with him.

MR: Was he familiar with your material when you first met?

KG: Yes, he was familiar with my material, but I wasn’t familiar with any of his. But I did Google him and found out that he was a legitimate musician from a family of musicians. I believe his father played the same instrument, so it’s been in his family for a while now. It sounded very cool to me to be able to play with him and to see if there was anything that we could do together that would mesh well. It had to be rooted in my sound. I mean, I didn’t want to just lose myself in his music. I’m also sure that he didn’t want me to overshadow what he was doing, so we had to find a very nice balance.

MR: Speaking of collaborations, you’ve played with artists like Andrea Bocelli, the late Whitney Houston, Aaron Neville, Toni Braxton, and Natalie Cole. I imagine that oftentimes, they’ve already recorded a great deal of their songs, and you come in later and weave yourself almost seamlessly into those songs. Is there a process you use when you work on projects like that?

KG: No, there’s no process. I just put the song on in my studio, set up my microphone, and dissect the song. There are no rules, you know? I just listen to the song and add things where I hear my saxophone. I put the notes in that I think sound right and send it to the producer. Then they give me feedback, which is often that they love it but I need to play more. Sometimes, I’ve already played pretty much everywhere I think it should be played. (laughs) Every now and then, they do tell me that I’ve played too much, but it doesn’t happen that often. It’s actually even easier for me that way because all I have to do is erase a few of the parts I added. When they say play more I really have to scratch my head and figure out if there is more for me to play. But I do try. A lot of times, I send them what I think I should be playing, and I just have to sign off on what feels good to me and leave it at that. If a producer doesn’t like what he hears, or decides they want more than I want to give, they may have to just find someone else.

MR: Now, rumor has it that you were once a part of Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra.

KG: I was. I booked that in high school for a few gigs. It was my first professional job, and it was a really great learning experience. It pretty much showed me that I could hang with the pros, and that was a big thing for me. Without that job, I don’t know if I would have had this career because I wouldn’t have known if I could have a career.

MR: Nice. I’ve also heard that there’s a story involving you, Clive Davis and the song, “Dancing Queen.” Is that true?

KG: (laughs) There’s actually no story there. I’ve read that, and I don’t know where it came from, but it’s a complete fabrication. I read that in some magazine when I was in a hotel room in Malaysia, and I remember thinking, “Wait a minute. None of that’s true!” (laughs) I don’t know anything about that.

MR: (laughs) Okay, can you tell us who some of your musical influences were?

KG: Well, Grover Washington was my main influence and when I went to college, I started listening to more of the jazz masters like Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, and John Coltrane. You won’t hear a bunch of their traditional be-bop jazz in my playing, but if you listen to some of my solos, I’m sure you’d hear some of those same influences in my improvisation. But any saxophone player will have those influences come through in their music in a very different way. I can listen to the same 10 sax players as someone else for my entire life and we’ll both play completely differently. That’s the beauty of being a musician. You get to have your own voice, and if you’re lucky and people like it, you can have a great career. I have been very lucky.

MR: You started playing pretty young, around the age of 10, right?

KG: I did. I just started as a part of the public school music program. I took lessons at the school every Friday and was a part of the school band. I was just a normal kid taking instrumental lessons at school, nothing special.

MR: Again proving that one should pursue their dream.

KG: Absolutely. It was nice to get my start in the public school program, so if you don’t have a music department in your school, I feel bad for you. I wish that there was funding enough for every school to do it because I am living proof that it works. You don’t have to be born a prodigy and take private lessons your whole life to become a professional musician. Anybody can do it, it’s just a matter of working hard and practicing all the time. When I was in high school, I really started practicing quite a bit, and today after this interview, I will being my three-hour practice session.

MR: Wow. Do you have any advice for new artists trying to pursue a career in music?

KG: Well, I would say that that depends on where they are in their career. If they’re a new artist that wants to make an album, or a new artist that has already made one, there’s very different advice. I would say if you want to make an album and are trying to get a record deal, I can tell you now that the concept of that has become really tricky these days; it’s not easy. But the main thing is to practice and play the music that you enjoy. I guess that advice also applies to the group who may have already made albums. Do what you feel is true to you, don’t do something because you think it’s going to sell. Be your own voice, and that should take you where you’re supposed to go.

MR: And that’s what you did?

KG: That is what I did, I got lucky. I was lucky that my voice seemed to resonate with a lot of people, and that I was doing it at a time when getting national exposure wasn’t as hard as it is right now. I also had Clive Davis in my corner getting people to play my music. But the key to it all was doing what I felt was true to me. If you’re trying to do music like me and it’s not true to you, I can guarantee you’re probably not going to have a very good career. I mean I like traditional jazz, but if I were to make a traditional jazz album, it wouldn’t sound anything like the ones that were made by Charlie Parker. I would make a jazz record that was totally different; it would have my signature vibe on it. Who knows? I may even do that someday.

MR: I also wanted to ask you about the circular breathing technique that you use. You made it into The Guinness Book Of World Records using it.

KG: I did. It’s actually a technique that a lot of sax players know how to do, some don’t. I guess I kind of took it to its maximum. (laughs) It is possible, though, to breathe in and continue to play. I’m not born with a third lung or anything.

MR: (laughs) Good to know. Will you be touring to promote this new album with Raul?

KG: Well, I tour all the time. I don’t really tour to promote records, I’ve never done that. I’ve always kind of been on the road or at home. If I’m out playing a gig, it’s not necessarily because I’m out promoting a record. It doesn’t really work like that these days, at least not for artists like me. When people come to hear me play, I think it’s more because they know conceptually what my music sounds like and they want to spend an evening with me and my music. So, we will be out on the road playing a few gigs in California this month, and a few on the east coast in August. Summer is nice in some regard, because I’m mostly free, but it usually picks up in the Fall again. Now, that’s not to say that I might not hook up with Rahul at some point and do a few concerts of this music. It all just depends on how those logistics work out.

MR: What do you think when you look back over your career and some of your bigger hit songs?

KG: I don’t do that very often. (laughs) I just think about practicing and getting better. When I do a concert, I play my songs that are most well known, different every night. If you’re listening to it, it may sound the same, but I am putting new nuances in and changing and improvising in certain sections. I am just concentrating on getting better. I appreciate my career very much, but I also realize that as a musician, I need to concentrate on practicing and doing the best I can moving forward.

MR: Well, you must know that any time someone picks up a soprano saxophone, your name inevitably comes up, right?

KG: And I love that. (laughs) It’s one of those things that just kind of grew with me as a musician. I mean, I didn’t start on soprano saxophone. I played alto for seven years, and when I was in eleventh grade, I started playing soprano and loved it. That was around the time that I was listening to a lot of Grover Washington, and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get my soprano sax to sound like his. I wasn’t happy at all. I remember the guys in my high school telling me that my soprano sound was so different, and I was so frustrated because I thought I was failing at even getting a regular soprano sax sound. Obviously, that turned out to be a good thing because my sound is now my sound. What happened was that when I was creating music, I heard the music through the sounds of a soprano sax. For whatever reason, I heard it from that instrument more than the other horns. It wasn’t necessarily because I thought it was a better instrument. It became my primary instrument and I’m so proud that when people pick up a tenor sax, they think of me. That’s huge.

MR: I also wanted to bring up what I think is an interesting live performance for you, which was your appearance on SNL with Foster The People.

KG: Yeah. They also have that skit on SNL called, “What Up With That?” where they have the guy in the background making fun of me. There was also an episode of South Park where they made a little cartoon version of me and completely made fun of me, I love it. (laughs) I’m super-flattered. I feel super cool to even be on the radar of these people. But, of course, above all of that, my main concern is getting into the studio and getting better at my craft. When someone from Foster The People called me in the first place, I was amazed that I was even on their radar, but he explained to me that his mom had taken him to one of my concerts when he was young and he loved it. As he was working on a song, he thought about me and thought it would be amazing if I could play the solo on the song, so of course I obliged. It was really nice to be able to get some exposure with a younger group. When those types of phone calls come, if the project is right, it’s a lot of fun.

MR: And you’re no stranger to the Grammys.

KG: Well, I have the one. I’ve been nominated 20 times and won once. So, I guess I’m the biggest loser. (laughs) I think I may be high on the list of people that have been nominated quite a bit and lost most of them. I mean when “Songbird” was nominated, it was a number one pop song and it didn’t win. You would think that it would have won hands down. Then again, I guess it shows that the Grammys are not a popularity contest, it’s done through votes from your peers, and I guess my peers didn’t like that I was selling a lot of records. But I can tell you that if you listen to the other instrumentalists that were nominated at the time, there wasn’t anything better. Anyway, I’m certainly not bitter about it. I have had a great career. That just happened to be at a very successful point in my career. I had “Silhouette” as well as “Songbird,” and the records were selling in the millions. I just didn’t happen to win any Grammys at that time.

MR: Then again, not many jazz musician have been a part of a big Super Bowl ad campaign, right?

KG: (laughs) No, that’s true. The Audi commercial was a lot of fun, and like other things, it sort of came out of nowhere. They called and asked me if they could use my music in an Audi commercial, and how much it would be. We responded that we’d love to put “Songbird” into the commercial, but asked how they’d feel about actually having me in the commercial. We were able to work out all of those details, and it turned out really well.

MR: Kenny, thank you so much for taking time out and spending it with us today.

KG: Thanks so much for having me, Mike.

Transcribed by Kyle Pongan