Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the
Speaker 1: Studio on iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan Runtag, but
Speaker 1: enough about me. My guest today is the best selling
Speaker 1: instrumentalist of all time and arguably the most famous jazz
Speaker 1: musician alive. Both of these points elicit extremely strong emotions
Speaker 1: in people. Too many. His music inspires peace, serenity, and relaxation.
Speaker 1: Christmas album Miracles marks the start of the holiday season
Speaker 1: in my house, but to a vocal minority, his music
Speaker 1: inspires jokes and occasionally antipathy. Still, he's good natured, confident,
Speaker 1: and wildly successful enough to be unperturbed by the ribbing. Besides,
Speaker 1: he's probably far too busy to care. Following the death
Speaker 1: of James Brown, the Man born Kenneth Bruce Gorelic just
Speaker 1: might be the hardest working man in show business. He
Speaker 1: approaches his musical craft with a focus and clear eyed
Speaker 1: determination of an athlete in training, and he's been training
Speaker 1: for over half a century. He puts in three to
Speaker 1: four hours of practice each day to ensure that his
Speaker 1: playing remains up to his exceedingly high standards. His hard
Speaker 1: efforts have paid off on a new album entitled New Standards,
Speaker 1: a collection of original material designed to evoke the timeless
Speaker 1: spirit of jazz classics. He's also the subject of a
Speaker 1: new documentary by filmmaker Penny Lane called appropriately Enough Listening
Speaker 1: to Kenny G. Premiering December three on HBO. The film
Speaker 1: explores his artistic journey, superhuman work ethic, and his somewhat
Speaker 1: polarizing reputation as a musical figure. It also showcases his
Speaker 1: host of other non musical talents, including baking, flying, and golf,
Speaker 1: and as you're about to find out, he's also really
Speaker 1: good at being interviewed. It's my pleasure to welcome Mr
Speaker 1: Kenny G. So sit back, relax, and enjoy, and maybe
Speaker 1: throw on a Candy G album in the background. Why not?
Speaker 1: I wanted to start with the upcoming h bio documentary
Speaker 1: Listening to Kenny G. It's such a fascinating premise because
Speaker 1: it's not just a biography, it also documents your relationship
Speaker 1: with fans and with your critics. How did this begin
Speaker 1: for you? How did you first link up with with
Speaker 1: Penny Lane, who, in addition to being very talented, has
Speaker 1: an awesome name. She has an awesome name. Definitely, Well,
Speaker 1: you know I got the call from who did I
Speaker 1: get the call from Actually it was from my attorney
Speaker 1: who said he would talk into this guy Bill Singer
Speaker 1: at Ringer Films that they may want to do some
Speaker 1: sort of an HBO doc on me. And so I
Speaker 1: just basically said, sure, I'm interested, and I got together
Speaker 1: with Penny, who was also contacted by them. And here's
Speaker 1: what happened. They contacted Penny and said, would you want
Speaker 1: to do a documentary on a musical person? And she
Speaker 1: came back and had and had the idea to do
Speaker 1: about me. So that's really where it came from. And
Speaker 1: what was the experience like for you making this film?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking back to the old This is
Speaker 1: Your Life programs. I mean, did you learn anything about
Speaker 1: yourself in the process? Um? Well, you know no, I
Speaker 1: mean I pretty much know everything that I that I
Speaker 1: said about myself. But it was, um, it was fun.
Speaker 1: It was actually really fun. Penny made it easy. It
Speaker 1: was um a lot of um, you know, self reflection.
Speaker 1: That was a lot of thoughtfulness, good questions. And also
Speaker 1: I got a chance to see my old high school
Speaker 1: a band teacher, which was awesome because I hadn't seen
Speaker 1: him in twenty plus years. Oh that's incredible. I there's
Speaker 1: a very moving part of the film when I and
Speaker 1: Uh he was saying that you found your soul when
Speaker 1: you played a ten minute note on stage you have.
Speaker 1: Is that a real, uh, crucial turning point in uh
Speaker 1: in your life. Do you remember that moment very well? Well,
Speaker 1: I think he remembers it more than I remember that
Speaker 1: particular moment. I think I was just playing my heart
Speaker 1: out and doing my thing. And I think maybe for him,
Speaker 1: he might have looked at me. You know, a teacher
Speaker 1: might look at a student one day and go, you know,
Speaker 1: he's not really a student anymore. Um, you know, and
Speaker 1: maybe that was his moment like that. But for me,
Speaker 1: it was just a great camaraderie with him, and he
Speaker 1: was super encouraging. So he was a big part of
Speaker 1: me continuing to play because, um, he always made me
Speaker 1: feel like I was a pro. Oh well, I mean
Speaker 1: that's when you're first starting out on any instrument. I mean,
Speaker 1: you need to feel like you're actually going somewhere. And
Speaker 1: that's a crucial thing. I think teachers to give them
Speaker 1: a sense of confidence that you know you're getting somewhere.
Speaker 1: That's a beautiful gift. I agree, I agree. And then
Speaker 1: he did. He gave that to me and and I
Speaker 1: just can't. I took it and ran, is it true
Speaker 1: you still use the same same taxophone. Yeah, yeah, same one,
Speaker 1: same exact one. Yeah. I mean this is my you know,
Speaker 1: my Indiana Jones brain is kicking in. I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like that prolongs and the MU see him. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you have it an a vault? Like? Wow, that's
Speaker 1: unbelievable that that's still I mean, aside from Paul McCartney's Hoffner,
Speaker 1: I can't think of a more you know, iconic instrument
Speaker 1: that's linked to somebody. Wow. Yeah, that's yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's the same one I use all all um, every gig,
Speaker 1: I play everything, I records all the same sacks. Wow.
Speaker 1: That isn't credible. Oh man. I mean I love I mean,
Speaker 1: the film shows off your your your sense of humor,
Speaker 1: and I really love and admire the way that that
Speaker 1: you handle your critics because it doesn't impact your love
Speaker 1: of playing one iota. And I just think that is
Speaker 1: the coolest thing. There was an interview you gave recently,
Speaker 1: I think it was with The Daily Beast for your
Speaker 1: actually complimenting the writing of a of a critical review,
Speaker 1: which I just think is some is like Buddha level
Speaker 1: equanimity and compassion there. And I just think it's so
Speaker 1: important to put this out there because you know, there
Speaker 1: are so many people who talk themselves out of doing
Speaker 1: pursuing any creative avenue for fear of you know, critics,
Speaker 1: what people might say, whatever. And I just think, you know,
Speaker 1: it's so important for someone like you to to I
Speaker 1: just want to know where how did you achieve that
Speaker 1: level of composure and self self assurance. I just think
Speaker 1: that's that's like more people should see that and just
Speaker 1: you know, do their thing. Well. Thank you. You know,
Speaker 1: I do believe that's a really good message, because you're right,
Speaker 1: a lot of people stop the whole process because either
Speaker 1: because they are criticized or their fear of being criticized,
Speaker 1: and it stops a lot of really great ideas from
Speaker 1: getting farther along, great ideas, great music, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to say. But um, you know, I've always had the
Speaker 1: feeling inside of me that when I play my sacks,
Speaker 1: I just know what I want it to sound like,
Speaker 1: and if I accomplish that, whatever anybody says really doesn't
Speaker 1: mean anything to me. Because fortunately for me, when I've
Speaker 1: done that, I've gotten I've gotten a lot of feedback
Speaker 1: positive around the world by millions and millions of people.
Speaker 1: So when when that happens, that's a really good that's
Speaker 1: a really that's really good feedback for trusting yourself. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: if I did that and everybody hated everything I did,
Speaker 1: it would be a lot harder. Maybe too. We have
Speaker 1: that confidence that I still want to do what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: but it's probably would still I have it because when
Speaker 1: I'm in my studio right now, and when i come
Speaker 1: out of the studio with some piece of music recorded
Speaker 1: that I think is good, that's that's it, man, That's
Speaker 1: just it goes out there and whatever happens, I still
Speaker 1: love it. I'm so whenever I talk to people who
Speaker 1: are blessed with the ability to to write music, I'm
Speaker 1: so curious of what compels them to do it. Is
Speaker 1: it a desire to connect with other people or is
Speaker 1: it to just get something out of yourself. If you
Speaker 1: were on a desert island, would you, you know, be
Speaker 1: playing and just as much I would be playing just
Speaker 1: as much. Yeah. For me, it's comes from inside. Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: what is the desire to write a piece of music.
Speaker 1: It's really um one of those things. It's uh, it's
Speaker 1: almost like um so almost like if you were like
Speaker 1: if you opened a box and then you you go, Okay,
Speaker 1: well I wonder what's inside? You just kind of curious.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of what is. I'm curious how I
Speaker 1: hear a couple of notes and go, WHOA, I'm really
Speaker 1: curious about these notes? Can these notes turn into a
Speaker 1: beautiful melody the way that I think they can? And
Speaker 1: for me, it's all about the discovery and the challenge
Speaker 1: of trying to make it work and the mystery of
Speaker 1: whether it will work or not, and then when it
Speaker 1: when it when you play it back. When I play
Speaker 1: it back and I listen, I'm almost like a third
Speaker 1: person listening and going, that's a really beautiful piece of
Speaker 1: music without it being me stroking my own ego. And
Speaker 1: that's something that I think maybe it may be unique,
Speaker 1: but that's how that's how I do it. I'm really
Speaker 1: able to separate myself from myself when I listen back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you more about your your composition
Speaker 1: progress process new standards is is originals? Do you do
Speaker 1: you hear the tune in your head? And put it down.
Speaker 1: Or do you solo and maybe pick a phrase or
Speaker 1: two that you think, Oh, that's really beautiful. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: develop a little more. Or is it a combination. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of factors. It's not it's not any one thing.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I have a melody that's just I've got it
Speaker 1: in my head and I know it's gonna be right,
Speaker 1: and then I just need to find the chords that
Speaker 1: go along with that melody. Sometimes I'm just playing with
Speaker 1: a keyboard player and we're just noodling and then he
Speaker 1: plays a chord. I go play that chord again, and
Speaker 1: then I okay from there, and then we just start
Speaker 1: from there. And it's a lot of ways. It could
Speaker 1: be just could just be humming something and I just
Speaker 1: hear something. It could be it could just be some
Speaker 1: music that I hear that go oh, I'd like to
Speaker 1: play something like that. I hear a certain chord changes,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna come up with something that goes along with
Speaker 1: something like that. And so there's I wish there was
Speaker 1: only one way, and I wish I could just model
Speaker 1: it and then it would be a lot easier. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is this is a question that's going to give
Speaker 1: away the fact that I as much as I love
Speaker 1: music and my job allows me to speak to fantastically
Speaker 1: talented people like you who can write. I've never written
Speaker 1: a song in my life. I play a number of instruments.
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't do it. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's in my head or just something I guess. The
Speaker 1: question is is being a musician so or a composer
Speaker 1: I should say, is that's something that you're born with
Speaker 1: or can you learn to do it? Oh? I think
Speaker 1: you can absolutely learn to do it. I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty easy. But here's how. Here's how I would vise
Speaker 1: anybody that this has trouble doing it or just doesn't
Speaker 1: understand the process. Okay, if you if some of us
Speaker 1: are born with with that those melodies inside of us,
Speaker 1: some of us are, But if you're not, it's really easy.
Speaker 1: Find songs that you like, figure out how they were composed,
Speaker 1: like get the chord changes, play them, and then just
Speaker 1: kind of get used to that and then say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to write something like that, So change the chords,
Speaker 1: change everything, but try to find some similarities where it's
Speaker 1: not too similar, because you obviously don't want to have
Speaker 1: any copyright infringement. But that's how you do it. You
Speaker 1: kind of emulate, and then you'll find your own voice
Speaker 1: because you may go, wow, I really like this, but
Speaker 1: I wish it would go here, and then you find
Speaker 1: that you're creating a brand new song. Was there a
Speaker 1: turning point for you when when you went from being
Speaker 1: somebody who was i'll use the phrase an apprentice musician
Speaker 1: to really knowing that you discovered your own voice in
Speaker 1: your own sounds. I think it was probably when I
Speaker 1: did my album Duo Tones in eighties. Six was when
Speaker 1: what happened was Okay, it's eighty six is like thirty
Speaker 1: five years ago. They the technology just came out with
Speaker 1: what we would call a synthesizer. Now it's just like whatever,
Speaker 1: that's like old school. Like now we're talking about all
Speaker 1: these you know, um computer based things and you can
Speaker 1: trigger sounds with your the keys on your laptop or
Speaker 1: we're just talking about like a piano looking device that
Speaker 1: had sounds in it. It wasn't a piano. It was
Speaker 1: a synthesizer electronic. You could play something on it and
Speaker 1: then hit a button. It would play back when you played.
Speaker 1: That's pretty That was. That was innovative back then, it's
Speaker 1: not innovative now now it's now that's that's like like
Speaker 1: kindergarten stuff. But back then, So what happened was that
Speaker 1: I got my hands on one of these things, and
Speaker 1: since I'm not a piano player, I can noodle, So
Speaker 1: then I started noodling, and then you can fix notes,
Speaker 1: so I would fix. I go, hey, I just created
Speaker 1: a piano track that I've always wanted to play on
Speaker 1: that I could never explain to somebody, and it wouldn't.
Speaker 1: It didn't sound right on a piano, but it sounded
Speaker 1: right on this synthesizer. A sequencer. That's the that's what
Speaker 1: I'm a sequencer. So I played this thing and then
Speaker 1: I hit my button and it's like, whoa, I really
Speaker 1: like this back backing track that I just made. That
Speaker 1: make a melody to it, And that's when I found
Speaker 1: my voice. In the film, they there's a lot of
Speaker 1: attention paid to your your your practice regimen, which is
Speaker 1: formidable three hours a day for approximately fifty years something
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, by Malcolm Gladwell's tenours rule,
Speaker 1: you're a master five times over. And as a lay person,
Speaker 1: I would imagine that that that there must be very
Speaker 1: little for you left to learn. I mean, you're Kenny
Speaker 1: g Why do you practice? Is it to keep limber
Speaker 1: or you still discovering and finding new things? Well, the
Speaker 1: analogy I would use would be somebody like um, you know,
Speaker 1: like a great golfer. Let's say, let's take Tiger Woods.
Speaker 1: So why would Tiger would ever have to go to
Speaker 1: the driving range? Doesn't he have it? I think, doesn't
Speaker 1: he have it? Good point? You know, why would anybody
Speaker 1: go practice? Because practice is what maintains your skill level
Speaker 1: at something that you maybe, let's say you are a
Speaker 1: master at it. Although I'm not saying I'm a master
Speaker 1: with the sacks. I'm trying to master the sacks. And
Speaker 1: I would say that anybody that's playing an instrument or
Speaker 1: golf or any of those things, we all say our
Speaker 1: goal is to keep trying to master something that can
Speaker 1: never be mastered. So it's just the it's the quest
Speaker 1: to keep learning. I mean, I practiced this morning. I
Speaker 1: did my three hours already, and you know, I was
Speaker 1: working on trying to use my phrasing in a different
Speaker 1: way than I than I've done in the past, and
Speaker 1: challenging because I'm so used to doing in a certain way.
Speaker 1: So I thought, let me try to do things a
Speaker 1: different way here, and I'm working on that. I figured,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a couple more years of doing that
Speaker 1: and I'll probably be pretty good at that particular little thing,
Speaker 1: and then I'll be another couple of years for something else,
Speaker 1: and then I'll be in my nineties and I'll just
Speaker 1: keep doing the same thing. I mean, that is an inspiration.
Speaker 1: I mean, you really are. I mean, and they go
Speaker 1: you go through this in the film as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're a pilot, you're a golfer, you're a baker. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're all all these things that that you do that
Speaker 1: you commit a thousand percent to, which is really, you know,
Speaker 1: the way you should do anything. Uh. Is there anything
Speaker 1: that you're sort of at the beginning of your journey
Speaker 1: on hobbies wise or you know, interest wise that you
Speaker 1: just started to learn that you're first now getting into. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm trying. I'm trying to learn how to be French. Really,
Speaker 1: I already know how that's gonna be, already know how
Speaker 1: much that's gonna take, and I am not putting in
Speaker 1: the right kind of time. I just don't have it.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to figure out how I might be
Speaker 1: able to sneak in the right amount of time, and
Speaker 1: I just don't know how to do that yet because
Speaker 1: my life is pretty full. I mean, I I do
Speaker 1: my pray, just saying I got my exercising I like
Speaker 1: to do. I still have to maintain my skill level
Speaker 1: as a pilot. Obviously, we want that because that's your
Speaker 1: life depends on that. I love golf, so I I
Speaker 1: want to dedicate some time to golf. I have a family,
Speaker 1: you know, I have people in my life that I
Speaker 1: want to spend time with. And there's also I'd like
Speaker 1: to do things like nothing like sit around and just
Speaker 1: contemplate things and spend time just being instead of doing.
Speaker 1: So I have all those things, but I still want
Speaker 1: to speak French, so I'm trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to make that happen. I'm not sure if it's gonna happen,
Speaker 1: and I may be one of the things that I
Speaker 1: might have to just go. I'm going to be satisfied
Speaker 1: with a less than stellar skill level at that. But
Speaker 1: maybe if I have just a working French vocabulary and dialogue,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll be happy with it. I'm not sure I
Speaker 1: will be because I'm not wired to be happy with
Speaker 1: anything that's not really great? Are you judging from your
Speaker 1: track record? I have a funny feeling you'll be fluent
Speaker 1: very very shortly. What's that great? You know the painter
Speaker 1: Bob Ross, the you know, the guy on PBS, and
Speaker 1: he would all he'd always say, you know, I hope
Speaker 1: you're plagued with dissatisfaction because that will keep you coming
Speaker 1: back and keep you, you know, wanting to keep on
Speaker 1: painting another and another. And I I you know, it
Speaker 1: seems sounds counterintuitive, It almost sounds negative when you hear it.
Speaker 1: But I think of that a lot, and you know,
Speaker 1: hearing what you just said, it makes me think of
Speaker 1: of you being plagued with dissatisfaction, but in a good
Speaker 1: way to keep moving forward. Yeah, it's almost like that movie, um, Whiplash.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw the movie Whiplash. By
Speaker 1: the way, I never had a teacher like that, not
Speaker 1: like that. He's awful, but he his whole thing was
Speaker 1: he never wanted to tell somebody good job. I remember
Speaker 1: he was saying, because he thought those were the worst
Speaker 1: two words you could ever tell somebody good job. Because
Speaker 1: he felt like if you did that then it would
Speaker 1: stop them from trying harder to get better. I completely
Speaker 1: don't agree with that. I do not agree with it.
Speaker 1: I think you can say good job and still if
Speaker 1: a person is really interested in becoming better and better
Speaker 1: just because body's I mean, I hear it all the time.
Speaker 1: How hey that was a great show. Well, in my mind,
Speaker 1: I know that I missed a note that I wanted
Speaker 1: to hit the way I wanted to hit it, or
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. But I don't mind hearing a good job.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, and that doesn't take any motivation away
Speaker 1: from me to try harder to be better the next
Speaker 1: the next night, at my next gig, no matter even
Speaker 1: if I'm think even if I think, hey, that was
Speaker 1: a really good gig, great, but I'm still motivated to
Speaker 1: do even better tomorrow, isn't it. I So I disagree
Speaker 1: with that, But I get the the velocity of being
Speaker 1: dissatisfied does gives you always trying to be better, but
Speaker 1: hopefully you're not beating yourself up during the process, right,
Speaker 1: That's a delicate balance. I mean, speaking of moving forward,
Speaker 1: your your new album, tell me a little bit about
Speaker 1: the theme behind it. It sounds like you. It's steeped
Speaker 1: in you know, old masters like Coltrane and Miles Davis. Like,
Speaker 1: tell me a little more about the thinking behind the record. Well,
Speaker 1: I love the balance of those uh of the era
Speaker 1: of those those jazz grades. So this is we're talking
Speaker 1: about the fifties and sixties. So you've got your Miles
Speaker 1: Davis and John Bultrain. Those are pretty household names. I
Speaker 1: think even people that aren't into jazz kind of know
Speaker 1: those names. But they're stand Gatz and there's Paul Desmond,
Speaker 1: and there's cannonball Adderly and Sonny Rawlins. Those names are
Speaker 1: probably not so upfront with people. But I love all
Speaker 1: those ballots. And the thing I love about those ballots
Speaker 1: is that they're not, uh, they're not simple. They're complicated.
Speaker 1: And I say complicated in the sense that the composition
Speaker 1: are chords like they're complicated jazz chords, and and it
Speaker 1: gives the player a chance to nuance through the solo
Speaker 1: section of a song and really kind of find a
Speaker 1: way to bring all those complicated chords together. Um. And
Speaker 1: so I wanted to do that, but I also wanted
Speaker 1: the melodies to be my melodies, So I didn't want
Speaker 1: to just go ahead and play the old standards. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to write new songs in that style, but
Speaker 1: make them the melodies that that sing sing to my heart.
Speaker 1: And that's what I did. So that's why it's called
Speaker 1: new standards because they're not the old standards. There are new,
Speaker 1: brand new songs, and I'm hoping that they would be
Speaker 1: considered standards at some point because of the way that
Speaker 1: they're constructed. I mean, that's what I love about those
Speaker 1: those tracks. I mean they are they're complicated when you
Speaker 1: sit down and try and play them, but they they
Speaker 1: don't sound that way. They they cover their tracks, They
Speaker 1: cover the joints and make it seem so seamless and
Speaker 1: make it seem so easy. What is for you? I
Speaker 1: mean the title is so great because to me, the
Speaker 1: thing that makes a standard really is just the passage
Speaker 1: of time. Uh, And so that the the idea of
Speaker 1: a news standard is is it's like jumbo shrimp. It's
Speaker 1: almost it's almost counterintuitive. What is it to you that
Speaker 1: that makes And maybe this is a you know, a
Speaker 1: I the Beholder type question, what is it that makes
Speaker 1: a timeless melody to you? Well, that's a good question,
Speaker 1: and that's what I try to do with every song
Speaker 1: that I record. Um, it's it's a melody that makes sense,
Speaker 1: and it's and played in just the right way that
Speaker 1: the emotion of the melody there. Uh, it's not a
Speaker 1: it's not like a one time take. See that's what
Speaker 1: I That's why I love doing it in my studio
Speaker 1: because I have a chance to tweak things. Because you're
Speaker 1: talking about a timeless melody. You're not talking about Hey,
Speaker 1: Tuesday night I had that was a good take. Okay,
Speaker 1: that was a good take on Tuesday Night. But but
Speaker 1: if that's the take that's going to be around for
Speaker 1: fifty years, I mean maybe. But in a perfect world,
Speaker 1: I think even the jazz grads, Um, now this is
Speaker 1: very presumptuous, but even some of the beautiful ballots of
Speaker 1: the fifties and sixties, if the jazz grads had the
Speaker 1: technology that we have today and they had the knowledge
Speaker 1: of how to do it, which is what I do.
Speaker 1: I have in my studio. I know how to use
Speaker 1: all this gear, so I can take a melody and go,
Speaker 1: you know, I love it. But there's three notes I
Speaker 1: don't like. I can fix those three notes and make
Speaker 1: them exactly the way I want they'll fit in seamlessly.
Speaker 1: Would the jazz grades go back and tweak some of
Speaker 1: their performances just because they had the chance to. I
Speaker 1: would day that maybe some of them would, maybe some
Speaker 1: of them wouldn't. But for me, it's it's about putting
Speaker 1: out a masterpiece that I can listen to forever and
Speaker 1: know that there's It's just I don't know how to
Speaker 1: say it in words. It's like, I like my Christmas album.
Speaker 1: You know, that's how I said about to do Miracles,
Speaker 1: and it was. And so we're gonna do an arrangement
Speaker 1: of White Christmas. It's been done a million times. Okay,
Speaker 1: how why is my arrangement going to be something that's
Speaker 1: gonna stand the test of time? Because it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a classic arrangement. It's not gonna have any funny business
Speaker 1: in it in the sense that it's going to be
Speaker 1: so nuanced that it would only be only be applicable
Speaker 1: for the nineties. Now, this is gonna be something that
Speaker 1: you could listen to if you were in the eighteen
Speaker 1: hundreds or now in two thousand. You know thirty, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's that melody? So I gotta play it in just
Speaker 1: the right way, right nuances, and that's kind of what
Speaker 1: I did with new standards, same same, same intention. It's
Speaker 1: really fascinating how in the last hundred eighty years or
Speaker 1: so the meaning of a song went from being a
Speaker 1: set of notes and chords that was sort of living
Speaker 1: and evolving depend on who is playing it to the
Speaker 1: record is the song? I mean you know that. I
Speaker 1: mean it's a silly example, but something like Sweet Home
Speaker 1: Alabama by Leonard Skinner when they say turn it up
Speaker 1: at the beginning. They have to say that in concert
Speaker 1: now because for most listeners that's become part of the song.
Speaker 1: The accidents are part of the song. Every little you know,
Speaker 1: noe band in the solo, it's become about that recording
Speaker 1: and not sort of the song as a living, breathing standard.
Speaker 1: I guess is probably the term. It's interesting to see
Speaker 1: that evolution over the over the century or twentieth century,
Speaker 1: I suppose. Yeah. So it's a it's a delicate balance
Speaker 1: when you play live, because you don't you do want
Speaker 1: to emulate what you've recorded because people are used to it,
Speaker 1: but then hopefully you give it something special in the
Speaker 1: live performance. So we do our best. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't play every single note exactly the same as I
Speaker 1: did on the recording. During a live performance, I get
Speaker 1: close enough, But then when I'm playing live, there's the
Speaker 1: nuances that just make it special for that for that
Speaker 1: Tuesday night, for the recording, leave it right where it is.
Speaker 1: By performance, I'm probably gonna throw in some a few
Speaker 1: more fancier things that would be exciting for that moment,
Speaker 1: but maybe not something I want to hear every single
Speaker 1: whole time I hear something. I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: about your your virtual duet. I guess it's probably the
Speaker 1: best way to phrase it with uh, stand dance. How
Speaker 1: did that come to be? What was the process of
Speaker 1: doing that? Because this wasn't like Natalie Cole singing with
Speaker 1: with her father on Unforgettable. This is something totally new
Speaker 1: that I've really never heard of being done. Can you
Speaker 1: tell me more about it? Yes, it's actually more like
Speaker 1: a posthumous duet than than virtual, because you know, Stand's
Speaker 1: not around anymore, and it's um in a way. It's
Speaker 1: it's I think. I don't no, I don't know if
Speaker 1: anyone's ever done this before me, and I didn't even
Speaker 1: know anybody. I didn't know it could be done. I
Speaker 1: decided I wanted to write a song, and I wanted
Speaker 1: stand Gets to play my melody. Of course, of course,
Speaker 1: he never would have ever played it because it didn't
Speaker 1: exist while he was alive. So how am I going
Speaker 1: to get stand Gets to play my melody? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to use our fabulous technology that we have
Speaker 1: in two thousand twenty one, and I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: grab notes and I'm gonna have to take those notes
Speaker 1: that he plays with his sound, and I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to change the notes. I'm gonna to change the notes
Speaker 1: and change the phrasing and put notes together that were
Speaker 1: never put together and make him basically play a melody
Speaker 1: that he's never played. And is it gonna sound good?
Speaker 1: Or is it gonna sound like a robotic, choppy thing?
Speaker 1: And it turned out that it worked out really, really well,
Speaker 1: and I'm super proud of it, and I think that
Speaker 1: it's I think it's innovative. I think it's his family
Speaker 1: loves and I played it for the Gets family. They
Speaker 1: love it. They all signed off on this literally and
Speaker 1: figuratively that love this thing. All the money that will
Speaker 1: be generated from this song is going to the stand
Speaker 1: Gets a state. So I would never profit from any
Speaker 1: of this, but I just think it's and also it's
Speaker 1: nice for me to be able to share my fan
Speaker 1: base with somebody's at state that a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know stand Gets, but hopefully they will and they'll
Speaker 1: like it enough, and and maybe they'll go and support
Speaker 1: the whole thing by buying some of the stands guess
Speaker 1: his records, which would be great. So it's kind of cool,
Speaker 1: it's a it's innovative. I'm sure the jazz critics are
Speaker 1: gonna absolutely hate it. I'm sure they will because it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's very presumptuous of me to take stand Gets and
Speaker 1: basically bring him into my world, and they're going to
Speaker 1: think that that was probably very, very uncool, And I
Speaker 1: think it's just the opposite of that. I'm sure if
Speaker 1: you could go to his world you would. But I
Speaker 1: think it's so innovative and so interesting. And as you said,
Speaker 1: I hadn't even thought of that about about, you know,
Speaker 1: turning people who are maybe dipping their toe into jazz
Speaker 1: but don't really know where to start to turn them
Speaker 1: onto to some great names like that. Who are some
Speaker 1: other people that you would recommend that maybe you don't
Speaker 1: want to get into jazz but don't really know where
Speaker 1: to start. Who should they check out? Well, sand Gets
Speaker 1: for for sure. There's a there's a record called Gets
Speaker 1: for Lovers. You get that book, that's that record, Gets
Speaker 1: for Lovers. And even if you're not a stand Gets
Speaker 1: fan and you don't know much about it, if you
Speaker 1: like a beautiful saxophone, because he had a sound that
Speaker 1: was different than anybody other, anybody else's sack sound. His
Speaker 1: nickname was the sound you know. And there's a quote
Speaker 1: from John Coltrane that says something like about Stan Gets.
Speaker 1: He says something like if we uh, we'd all play
Speaker 1: like that if we could. That's you're on Coltrane talking
Speaker 1: about stand Yets. So Stan is just beautiful in his
Speaker 1: uh and it's just his phrasing and everything. It's just
Speaker 1: as a unique sound. He's great. Paul Desmond is great.
Speaker 1: He's got a beautiful light touch. Um Cannonball Adderley is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite. He can get busy. He's probably
Speaker 1: my favorite an alto sacks player. But uh he plays
Speaker 1: a bossa nova called Quiet Nights that I think is
Speaker 1: just one of the greatest greatest performances I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: It's complicated and fast, but you don't feel it. You
Speaker 1: just feel it being awesome. And so yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: good start right there. Those three would be great. Dexter
Speaker 1: Gordon has some beautiful jazz ballads out there. Um, you
Speaker 1: can also just listen some piano jazz from Bill Evans.
Speaker 1: He's great, So that would be a good start. I
Speaker 1: love the stuff Gets did with Gilberto because Guest is
Speaker 1: the one that made the Bossonova world famous and he
Speaker 1: brought Bosanova to the world stage. What happened was that
Speaker 1: Uh I was talking to Stand's widow, Monica, and she
Speaker 1: was telling me how it all happened, that that the government,
Speaker 1: the US government had brought these Brazilian musicians into the
Speaker 1: United States who I don't know. It's like some sort
Speaker 1: of a I don't know, sharing program. Had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with Stand Gets it brought him in. And then
Speaker 1: I guess his wife Monica heard this and said, you know,
Speaker 1: you should do something with these Brazilian players, and I
Speaker 1: guess they got together and Stand wasn't all that that
Speaker 1: uh excited about it. She convinced him that this was
Speaker 1: good to do, and she spearheaded the whole record. That
Speaker 1: one record of the Year and Song of the Year
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four the Grammys, and I understand that
Speaker 1: stands contemporaries, people like Miles. I'm not sure if it
Speaker 1: was actually Miles, but people like that, the contemporaries. We're
Speaker 1: giving stand Aback a really bad time about doing this
Speaker 1: Bosston Nova's like you've got commercial when you've turned your
Speaker 1: back on jazz geez some of the things that I
Speaker 1: hear today about my music. So that's why it doesn't
Speaker 1: bother me anyway. But um so, Stan did not go
Speaker 1: to the Grammys to accept the Grammy, and his wife
Speaker 1: accepted it on his behalf, and it was his most
Speaker 1: famous record. It really spearheaded his career into a new stratosphere.
Speaker 1: And it was all because his wife really saw the
Speaker 1: vision and said, you know, no, this is really gonna
Speaker 1: be okay, and she convinced him to do it. And
Speaker 1: and again he was fighting the jazz purists that we're saying,
Speaker 1: this really isn't a good thing to do. And obviously,
Speaker 1: in hindsight, as we look back, some of those ballots
Speaker 1: jazz ballads, I mean, the Boston Nova's that Stan gets it.
Speaker 1: There's some of the most beloved jazz songs, and now
Speaker 1: I think all there's not one jazz purist that's probably
Speaker 1: would criticize that. So there you go. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. That's an incredible story for and
Speaker 1: incredible for anyone hasn't heard that. Please check that record out.
Speaker 1: It is unbelievable. I mean, Stan gets he's the sound
Speaker 1: brings me to a question about your sound. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been heard your sound referred to with so many
Speaker 1: things are and B adult contemporary, the famous smooth jazz tag,
Speaker 1: which seems like if it was invented for you, if
Speaker 1: not for Grover Washington Jr. How do you categorize your sound?
Speaker 1: What do you call it? Or do you not even
Speaker 1: think of those terms? No, no, no, there, I don't
Speaker 1: categorize it at all. I mean it's I'm lucky that um,
Speaker 1: you know, and people say this to me. You know,
Speaker 1: I just hear a few notes and they know it's
Speaker 1: my saxophone sound. I mean, that's that's a that's a blessing,
Speaker 1: that's a gift, that's a phenomenon. I don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: it just is. It's one of those things wherever happens
Speaker 1: when I put that sacks in my mouth. However, however,
Speaker 1: the air flows out of my body, however my mouth
Speaker 1: is on there, there's a sound that comes out of
Speaker 1: my sacks that sounds different, and that's that's it. That's
Speaker 1: the sound. I mean, it's one of the most identifiable
Speaker 1: sounds in music. I mean, you've been successful and pretty
Speaker 1: much every metrical musician could be successful, which is astonishing
Speaker 1: because I mean, jazz isn't traditionally seen as a mainstream genre.
Speaker 1: I mean, I wish it was, but I feel like
Speaker 1: that's it's that's probably the case. It's not. I feel
Speaker 1: like your career couldn't be something that could be cooked
Speaker 1: up in you know, with a bunch of industry suits.
Speaker 1: Like it's just so, it's just such a truly occurring phenomenon.
Speaker 1: What is it about your music that that resonates with
Speaker 1: people across the globe? Well, that's that's how would I
Speaker 1: answer that question question? But I mean, you know, it's Uh.
Speaker 1: When you when people watch the documentary, you'll see how
Speaker 1: all this kind of happened with with a very important
Speaker 1: performance on Johnny Carson Show in the mid eighties where
Speaker 1: people heard my sound for the first time on a say,
Speaker 1: on a national level. Uh. And so that was a
Speaker 1: big deal back then. You know how why does my
Speaker 1: music resonate with people? I don't know. I just well,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's one of those things. It's like, why
Speaker 1: do you fall in love with somebody? Why does one
Speaker 1: person think that somebody is beautiful and somebody else looks
Speaker 1: think that somebody else is beautiful. It's just one of
Speaker 1: those things. It's a heart touches a heart in a
Speaker 1: certain way, and I'm very lucky that what comes out
Speaker 1: of my heart, which is sincere and organic and natural
Speaker 1: and beloved to me, seems to touch other's hearts in
Speaker 1: that same way. And it's one of those beautiful things
Speaker 1: that that makes life really exciting because it's it's an
Speaker 1: unknown that can't be quantified. Yeah, oh my goodness, Kenny,
Speaker 1: I would I would talk to you all day. I
Speaker 1: don't want to take up too much more of your time,
Speaker 1: but it has been an absolute joy speaking you. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your time today, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: thank you for your your music. Has been really such
Speaker 1: a pleasure. Thank you, my pleasure. I appreciate everything. Thanks
Speaker 1: for the kind words at the beginning. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: of course, we hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside
Speaker 1: the Studio, a production of I Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: episodes of Inside the Studio or other fantastic shows, check
Speaker 1: out the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite podcast.