The Kenny G argument - important musician or exploiter

Back in the early 90s while I was making good money playing weddings in a wedding band as a sax player and playing Kenny G songs for couples' first dance I heard this argument come up time and time again. I decided to look Kenny G up; find out who he really was and what his experience as a musician was and discovered he had paid his dues as a musician in jazz and funk bands for many years before becoming famous. Wondering how bad Kenny G might be as everyone said he was and the fact that I was smitten with a young woman at work I decided to ask her out on a date to see Kenny G play live at Radio City Music Hall. I figured this would satisfy on both fronts. Nothing went further with the young woman than the concert as I hoped but I was left with a deep appreciation for Kenny G's musicianship and showmanship as an entertainer (specifically when he surprised everyone by walking down the aisles and playing from the back of the auditorium all the way to the stage playing up and down scales using his 'circular breathing' technique while appearing not to take a breath the entire time. Very exciting I must say and of course the audience went wild.) I would honestly have to put that concert in the top 5 I've ever seen, the 1st being my first jazz concert that my Mom took me to at Town Hall featuring two of my saxophone heroes, Sonny Rollins and Grover Washington Jr. playing together on the same stage. Both Grover and Kenny G took the experiences they absorbed playing in authentic jazz and funk bands and created something much more commercial that the average listener could relate to. Could they both run rings around a Coltrane inspired solo? I bet you they could. But laughing all the way to the bank, why should they? Covering a Louis Armstrong song the way Kenny G did as Pat Matheny so adamantly mentions and abhors is one thing, especially if it were a song from Louis' Hot Five days but he instead covers a Pop song that has been featured in movies that is very familiar to the masses and not just jazz fans. Therefore I think Matheny's argument is wasted. What is popular music? What is "good" music? How much do you really know about jazz and its history? Do purists sometimes get jealous of the money those who "cross over" make while getting out in the same genre as they play and create? How much did record labels dictate the genres Kenny G's music fell into? Does Kenny G deserve respect for where he came from and how he brought the instrument back into the mainstream as a solo instrument? Like Grover and countless well-respected jazz artists (Miles included) when they "crossed over" for a more Pop appeal, Kenny G combined pure, fun, entertainment with techniques he mastered through his life experiences on the road playing much more complicated styles of music and chose to make the most out of keeping it simpler with scales like the "pentatonic scale"; a 5 note scale void of any harsh tones making it very pleasing to anyone's ear (equipping it with enough chromatic passing tones and blue notes to make it difficult for the average listener to resist). We are as a society quick to judge but rarely truly look at a man for all he has accomplished and where he came from? 

Written 25m ago