Quote:

<...>
Let's see If Notes is way better than KG, and Leilani is better than Carly Simon, how come it is that Y'all are playing retirement homes, and they are legends!


Opps did I say that out loud! Just kiddin' there Notes ole buddy!!<...>



I know that was in jest. And I took it as good-natured teasing.

...but...

Seriously, it's who you know. Carly is from the Simon & Schuster family - with that money and those connections she could be almost anywhere. However, I read that she wanted to be a folk singer back 'in the day', but the folk community didn't accept her because she was too rich and well-connected, so she decided to be a pop star instead. And she is talented, but simply not the best of the best.

Kenny just happened to be at the right place at the right time and knew the right people. Or perhaps he just has better hair

I was in the right place at the right time but our band's manager hired the wrong lawyers and the negotiations between them and Motown eventually failed over money.

We played huge concerts in large venues at the time, including Cobo Hall in Detroit. We opened up for headliners of the day while their records were #1 on billboard. In 1966 I was making $400 per week, playing two 45 minute sets of music per week (That's the equivalent of making $2,890.96 per week today according to the US Dept of Labor). There was even talk about releasing a solo sax LP, since I was playing a lot like Junior Walker at the time. But when the negotiations broke down between our lawyers and Motown, suddenly nobody wanted to talk to us anymore. I don't know all of what happened there, I'm sure the lawyers did the best they could, after all, they were going to get a piece of our profits.

Unfortunately being a star in the music business doesn't mean you are the best of the best. For every Sinatra, Elvis, Aretha and Whitney you have, there are also people with severe intonation problems like Astaire, Fabian, and the modern poster children for auto-tune like Taylor Swift, Britney, Kanye West, T-Pain, and Kesha.

Nobody ever said life would be fair.

And even though most saxophonists on the "Sax On The Web" forum truly believe we play better than Kenny Gorelick, if someone comes up to me and tells me that I sound like Kenny G, I take it as a compliment.

BTW, compliment is a polite expression of praise or admiration

while

complement is a thing that completes or brings to perfection.

And right now I'm playing yacht clubs, country clubs, retirement communities, and other venues for people over 40 years old, but they pay better for fewer nights, and there are no fights on the dance floor - plus, I'm in my 60s so I have no desire to play the top40 market again (even if the kids would accept me - and that's a long shot).

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks