Kenny G says Whitney Houston was 'amazing', recalls their shared history in memoir
It takes until page 117 for Kenny G to discuss one of the most examined elements of his 50-year career.
No, not the 75 million albums sold. Nor his early career stints performing with Barry White and Miles Davis. Not even his 13-million-selling Christmas album, “Miracles,” or his moonlighting as an ace golfer.
The moment of revelation is about … his hair.
He cares for his flowing tresses by infrequently shampooing – once a week or so – and also abides by the credo, “No man bun. Yuck!”
This disclosure from the good-natured musician born Kenneth Gorelick is but a few paragraphs in his memoir, “Life in the Key of G” (out now from Blackstone Publishing, 232 pages; $29). It's a conversational journey of the career of the saxophonist, 68, who spent his formative years in Seattle (yes, he was an early investor in Starbucks, and yes, it's paid off well), and now splits his time between Los Angeles and Paris ("I’m not really famous there compared to the States," he says. "It we're at a 10 here, I'm a .3 there.").
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As the face of the smooth jazz movement popularized in the late-‘80s, he’s endured plenty of snipes in his career and became an easy punchline because of his supposedly unhip – but hugely popular – music.
But as Kenny G writes and discusses in an interview with USA TODAY, he learned to roll through adversities while advocating for himself. Even when it meant telling label head/friend Clive Davis that he refused to record a “Great American Songbook” album. His defiance led to his retreat from Arista Records, but he couldn’t “betray his integrity” and record another covers album.
Kenny G’s perseverance is a recurring theme in the book, and he tells us now, “I didn’t set out to write with that common thread in mind. And I didn’t realize it myself, but then I look back and recount all of the times someone yelled at me and I didn’t care.”
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Kenny G shares tales of Toni Braxton, Johnny Carson and golf
Kenny G, with an assist from author Philip Lerman, spent a couple of years writing his memoir, an idea presented to him by management after they’d worked on Dolly Parton’s “Songteller: My Life in Lyrics” book.
He relied on memories, both his and those of the band that he’s worked with for four decades, and details tour shenanigans with Toni Braxton; his complicated friendship with Michael Bolton (“We’re on good terms,” Kenny G says. “We just know for us to do a tour won’t work, but we could do a date here and there”); playing golf with President Clinton and Jack Nicklaus; and the career-accelerating moment of being called over to the famed Johnny Carson couch on “The Tonight Show” – a particularly gratifying event because Kenny G boldly called an audible and played “Songbird,” which became his first Top 5 hit, instead of a previously discussed single.
One tale left out of the book, however, is of a fun night with actor Jackie Chan.
“He drove me around Hong Kong in his Bentley, just the two of us, chit chatting, him telling me about how famous I am in China and he wants to be my Chinese manager and if I get into trouble tell them Jackie Chan is your big brother,” Kenny G says.
Kenny G was with Clive Davis when he discovered Whitney Houston
Kenny G’s friendship with record honcho Davis included a fortuitous evening in Harlem in 1982. While the musician was in New York working on his first album for Davis’ Arista Records, Davis invited him to the club Sweetwater’s to hear the young cousin of Dionne Warwick sing.
“I thought she was the most amazing performer I’d ever seen. Incredible voice, incredible stage presence,” Kenny G writes. “You should sign her.”
The singer, of course, was Whitney Houston, whom Kenny G would go on to tour with and join onstage at a momentous Madison Square Garden show in 1987.
Kenny G laughs fondly at the memory, saying, “I told Clive to sign her and he did! I remember him saying, ‘Kenny, do you want to come to Harlem to see this singer?’ and I said, ‘Is it safe to go to Harlem?’ Clive said, ‘Yes, it’s safe. You can come with me in the limo.’”
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Kenny G still practices his sax daily for hours
The vintage joke of “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice” applies tremendously to Kenny G.
From his earliest years of picking up a saxophone after being mesmerized by a player on “The Ed Sullivan Show” (his parents would only rent the instrument initially in case he bailed on his commitment) to the present, Kenny G practices two to three hours a day.
Even while in New York for the start of his book tour, the sax wizard says he’ll play at least 90 minutes in his hotel room.
“I play as softly as I can,” he explains, then adds with a laugh, “And I figure that even if (a hotel neighbor) gets upset, I’m gone the next day.”