Guilty Pleasure: Fuzak

[Rarebird]

I fail to understand why Kenny G needs to be killed, or forced to make different music. To each their own. If I don't like Kenny G, I just don't listen to his music. If someone else likes his music, good for him. Someone else might hate Magma, should he tell that Christian Vander should be killed, or forced to make different music? I don't think so. There is a lot of music I like and enough music I don't like, or that leaves me indifferent. No-one is telling me to buy the music of an artist I don't like. If someone doesn't like my music, well so be it. I'm not going to throw dog-shit around, like some German choreographer.

[Mister Triscuits]

I love a lot of the 70s CTI stuff and related things.

CTI gets a bad rap. I guess if you absolutely can't take string arrangements with your jazz, then yeah, there's a problem. But I have awesome albums from them by Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell, Hubert Laws, etc. And yeah, even Grover Washington Jr.

[Jacob Holm-Lupo]

CTI gets a bad rap. I guess if you absolutely can't take string arrangements with your jazz, then yeah, there's a problem. But I have awesome albums from them by Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell, Hubert Laws, etc. And yeah, even Grover Washington Jr.

Stanley Turrentine's Sugar is one of my all-time CTI faves. What a dream-team on that record, and what killer grooves!

[Mister Triscuits]

Stanley Turrentine's Sugar is one of my all-time CTI faves. What a dream-team on that record, and what killer grooves!

[JJ88]

I fail to understand why Kenny G needs to be killed, or forced to make different music. To each their own. If I don't like Kenny G, I just don't listen to his music. If someone else likes his music, good for him.

Agreed. Definitely not my bag but I wouldn't wish ill on the guy, even in jest.

Freddie Hubbard

I quite like the version of 'Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey' he did, and prior to that on a different album, 'Cold Turkey'.

[Quantum Cat]

I fail to understand why Kenny G needs to be killed, or forced to make different music. To each their own. If I don't like Kenny G, I just don't listen to his music. If someone else likes his music, good for him. Someone else might hate Magma, should he tell that Christian Vander should be killed, or forced to make different music? I don't think so. There is a lot of music I like and enough music I don't like, or that leaves me indifferent. No-one is telling me to buy the music of an artist I don't like. If someone doesn't like my music, well so be it. I'm not going to throw dog-shit around, like some German choreographer.

The problem is that you're not taking this seriously enough. Yes, of course, Vander's execution should be carried out immediately under such circumstances. Probably all these musicians need to be killed, but please start with Kenny G. Maybe we need a separate thread to debate the order of executions, but again, I'm pretty sure that all musicians should be eliminated.

[aith01]

Pat Metheny's essay on Kenny G is quite enlightening. No offense to any of Kenny G's fans, but the guy is a hack (IMO). He learned how to mass market himself and make money off of his name, which I can respect in a way -- but there's no substance underneath. Musically, he never put in the work to advance beyond being merely competent. And the guy had the nerve to overdub himself playing along with Louis Armstrong on "What a Wonderful World" in some kind of posthumous duet?

Tasteless and presumptuous.

Also, some people can't take a joke evidently.

[StarThrower]

CTI gets a bad rap. I guess if you absolutely can't take string arrangements with your jazz, then yeah, there's a problem. But I have awesome albums from them by Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell, Hubert Laws, etc. And yeah, even Grover Washington Jr.

A couple other good ones are George Benson: Beyond The Blue Horizon, and Ron Carter: Yellow and Green.

[Mascodagama]

I've never gone far into the CTI catalogue, mainly as I was put off by the bad rap. Seems like I should rectify that.

[JJ88]

I've never gone far into the CTI catalogue, mainly as I was put off by the bad rap. Seems like I should rectify that.

I mean, I can't deny the slickness of some of it, but I like it for what it is.

But the earlier albums like Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay and George Benson's Beyond The Blue Horizon are pretty straight-ahead. I don't remember strings on those. Not really even 'crossover'.

[Mascodagama]

Pat Metheny's essay on Kenny G is quite enlightening. No offense to any of Kenny G's fans, but the guy is a hack (IMO). He learned how to mass market himself and make money off of his name, which I can respect in a way -- but there's no substance underneath. Musically, he never put in the work to advance beyond being merely competent. And the guy had the nerve to overdub himself playing along with Louis Armstrong on "What a Wonderful World" in some kind of posthumous duet?

Tasteless and presumptuous.

Also, some people can't take a joke evidently.

I just read the Pat Metheny piece. Shooting him might have been kinder.

[Mascodagama]

I mean, I can't deny the slickness of some of it, but I like it for what it is.

But the earlier albums like Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay and George Benson's Beyond The Blue Horizon are pretty straight-ahead. I don't remember strings on those. Not really even 'crossover'.

Not much of a jazz with strings fan (though there are exceptions). But in general I find myself less of a Puritan about music than I used to be. Back in the day I always snubbed Windham Hill and anything associated with New Age. But the recent New Age thread here made me curious and subsequent explorations have lead to me having a small Windham Hill collection. I mean there is some bland and tedious stuff on the label, but some real gems too.

[StarThrower]

But the recent New Age thread here made me curious and subsequent explorations have lead to me having a small Windham Hill collection. I mean there is some bland and tedious stuff on the label, but some real gems too.

Some great stuff there if you're into acoustic guitar. Michael Hedges, Alex DeGrassi, Will Ackerman, David Qualey.

[Mascodagama]

Some great stuff there if you're into acoustic guitar. Michael Hedges, Alex DeGrassi, Will Ackerman, David Qualey.

Absolutely. Michael Hedges! I'd never heard him before. What a player.

[StarThrower]

Absolutely. Michael Hedges! I'd never heard him before. What a player.

Aerial Boundaries is a classic! Unfortunately, he was killed tragically in an auto accident 25 years ago.

[wideopenears]

Stanley Turrentine's Sugar is one of my all-time CTI faves. What a dream-team on that record, and what killer grooves!

hell ya!

[pb2015]

Becker repeated, but didn't invent, the Kenny G joke.

http://sdarchive.com/blindfold.html

Now, of course, we have a whole new wave of sopranists that have never heard jazz, like they've only heard you-know-who. The most hated figure in pop music, ask any sax player. You have a gun with two bullets and you're in a room with Hitler, Mussolini and Kenny G., who do you shoot? Kenny G. twice, just to make sure. You never heard that one? I think Bob Sheppard told it to me three times.

[pb2015]

I mean, I can't deny the slickness of some of it, but I like it for what it is.

But the earlier albums like Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay and George Benson's Beyond The Blue Horizon are pretty straight-ahead. I don't remember strings on those. Not really even 'crossover'.

Red Clay is great. The later CTI albums I've heard, where I think they usually recorded rhythm tracks and then had the soloist overdub at a later session, aren't bad but aren't very exciting either.

[Progbear]

"Povo" and "Red Clay" are my favorite Freddie Hubbard jams.

There's also this, which could not be considered "smooth jazz" by any stretch of the imagination. The jazz equivalent of Ceremony, in a way:

[Jacob Holm-Lupo]

I saw it was mentioned earlier in the thread that Bob James has a background in free jazz - well, one album at least. What's fascinating to me is that even after he transitioned into more of a smooth jazz performer, he would still incorporate free elements in his live playing. This clip is from the Montreaux festival in 1985, performing his classic number Night Crawler. My favorite rhythm section, Gary King and Harvey Mason are hard at work. And yes, the saxophonist sounds like a pornographer and the guitarist is probably VERY high on cocaine. But nevermind all that - listen to Bob's own solo, where he weaves his way gradually "outwards" towards completely free playing, and then back in again. I think it's a thing of beauty, if you can look past the guitar and saxophone.

[pb2015]

I saw it was mentioned earlier in the thread that Bob James has a background in free jazz - well, one album at least. What's fascinating to me is that even after he transitioned into more of a smooth jazz performer, he would still incorporate free elements in his live playing. This clip is from the Montreaux festival in 1985, performing his classic number Night Crawler. My favorite rhythm section, Gary King and Harvey Mason are hard at work. And yes, the saxophonist sounds like a pornographer and the guitarist is probably VERY high on cocaine. But nevermind all that - listen to Bob's own solo, where he weaves his way gradually "outwards" towards completely free playing, and then back in again. I think it's a thing of beauty, if you can look past the guitar and saxophone.

He goes mildly "out" on the funk tunes like "Westchester Lady" in the Bottom Line recordings from 1979 that I mentioned earlier too. That had Gary King with Idris Muhammad on drums.

[aith01]

I just read the Pat Metheny piece. Shooting him might have been kinder.

What's really funny about it, to me, is how out of character that felt for Metheny. He seems like such a nice, easygoing dude, but that Kenny G. stuff really riled him up -- and with good reason.

[Dave (in MA)]

A late in-law of mine once mentioned that she really liked Kenny G. and then went to the other room and put one of his CDs on. I was able to ignore it well enough until I went to the fridge to grab a coke and I noticed something was off about the way it sounded, so I went to the room where she had it playing and her shelf unit stereo had the balance control all the way to the left. When I mentioned it, she said she did it that way because she usually listened to it in the living room, which is to the left of the room where the stereo is.

[Czyszy]

Kenny G's output is a mixed bag. Some songs are good, while others are garbage IMO.

[pb2015]

I recall reading that there was a documentary a few years ago about Kenny G mulling over his mixed reputation. I haven't watched any of these many music documentaries from the last few years but that sounds kind of interesting.