Yes, we all depend on our "favorite 5 licks" but Kenny's are just too sappy and formulaic. Junior Walker only played 5 notes but he knew when and how to play them

And I would guess more than half the professional saxophonists on the planet think they can play better than Mr. Gorelick. For that genre of music, I'd take Grover Washington Jr. or Najee any day.

And as far as Kenny "Selling Out" - I have no problem with any musician selling out. If you find something that works, and they are paying you to do it, then do it until it doesn't work anymore. Playing commercial music is better than a day gig - and yes you can make more money selling drugs, but that's a very dangerous profession (unless you are a pharmacist).

And I play commercial music for a living. I enjoy most of the songs I play, but if I had my druthers, I wouldn't play "Yakety Sax" anymore - but when someone asks for that, I play it the best that I can and actually enjoy playing it in spite of my self.

So Kenny is doing what he should be doing, making tons of money, playing to thousands of adoring fans, and enjoying life.

And some artists do get "fat and lazy" when they get older, others keep on getting better and better - Jeff Beck is playing better now than he ever did, Jimmy Smith never lost it, neither did Stan Getz.

And yes, Carly wrote some very memorable songs, plays piano well, and sings decently, but she isn't the best of the best. There are plenty of singers with better voices, better control, and more versatility out there. That's not to take anything away from her talent.

When I was playing at the "Hilton Of The Palm Beaches" saxophonist Tom Scott dropped in after he finished the "Steve & Eydie" concert. We got to talking about talent and Tom said this (and I'll paraphrase), "I know there is a saxophone player playing in a Holiday Inn somewhere like Valparaiso Indiana that can put me in his back pocket. But I was in the right place at the right time, knew the right people, showed up straight and did the job." Tom is an excellent saxophonist, and it is wonderful to hear someone that famous be that humble.

In sports, among those who have been scouted, the best rise to the top. But art is not that way. We have singing stars who can't sing without auto-tune as well as singers who are at the top of their craft and talent. The singers who can't sing can actually make more money - depending on promotion. One of the best singers of the last half of the 20th century is Mark Murphy but most non-jazz people never heard of him. But that's the breaks. Same goes for visual arts, Jackson Pollock painted what to me looks like a house painter's drop cloth and because he knew the right people, he got to be famous.

I saw a documentary once about a woman who bought a Pollock in a thrift shop because she thought it was the ugliest thing she had ever seen. Someone mentioned it was from Pollock so she took it to the most famous art dealers and critics all over the country. They all said "Definitely not a Pollock, this was done by someone with absolutely no talent." After years of investigation, somebody found Pollock's fingerprint on the back of the canvas, then suddenly the piece of trash was a work of art that is worth millions of dollars.

In art, an ounce of promotion is worth a pound of substance.

But no matter how good you are, there is somebody better and somebody not as good. That's something we all have to remember.

And if somebody comes up to me with admiration in their eyes and tells me that I sound like Kenny G, I'll take it as a supreme compliment.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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