This is why Smooth Jazz is inferior:

1.) I can play it effectively--how difficult can it be?
2.) They play straight eight notes over a blues scale, and don`t cut the notes off short.
3.) It uses many corny licks, and twiddling of the fingers.
4.) Highly reduced ratio of improvisation to direct melody of song(a good number of smooth jazz songs don`t really have improvisation).
5.) Reduces artistic merit
6.) They get a "good" tone, but it is in fact shallow and lacks depth.


I`m sorry, but if you disagree, prove me wrong.

I did not say anything bad about either type of music, I like both of them!!!!!!

I forgot these reasons:

~Smooth Jazz is often just a takeoff of pop or funk, and should not technically be considered "jazz". Even Kenny G admitted that he was not playing jazz, he was playing easy listening.

~I have not found one very good artist in the depths of smooth jazz, although I`m sure most of them are good musicians.

~It gives a bad name to the real jazz. As soon as you tell someone that you listen to jazz and like jazz, at least whoever I`ve talked to, they seem to think that you`re talking about smooth jazz, the kind of thing they hear on the radio that they foolishly equate to all versions of jazz.

~And the most important reason is that Stan Getz did not play smooth Jazz.

SPEND $200,000 ON SOUND EQUIPMENT.

I PERSONALLY FIND THE SOUND OF BOOTS
RANDOLPH TO BE THE PINNACLE OF TENOR
SAX TECHNIQUE. HE BLOWS THEM ALL AWAY...EVEN AT HIS AGE! HE PLAYS A
DUKOFF D-9.

KENNY G PLAYS A DUKOFF D-8 ON SOPRANO SAX. I TRIED THIS AND COULD
DO NOTHING WITH IT. WHO KNOWS?
GOOD LUCK.

If you want a good old fashioned "kenny g. sound", try going to the Berklee school of music in boston massachusetts. There are a lot of dudes there who will help you morph into one-ness with your horn the way G does. Thats my tip.

b] Not just a sound, it is a way of being. Dont forget to grow hair long. Maybe into a mudflap or a perm. Hair gel is also good. Show it with your body language that you like or even love the way you look and sound. Try exotic and/or "foreign" styling approach to sound and look. It is like acting and playing music at the same time.

And don`t forget to play from the side of your mouth...

No, I don`t hate Kenny G, but agree with what most of you guys said about smooth jazz: it`s corrupting opinions of good jazz. I like listening to Kenny G but wouldn`t put him in the same category as getz, coltrane, brecker, desmond, etc. yadda yadda yadda list goes on. I will say some players that play smooth jazz are pretty good (Gerald Albright plays some poppy tunes and he kicks @$$)...

I`m a proffesional jazz musician and I like and respect smooth jazz. It just a different type of instrumental music. Trying to compare smooth jazz with traditional jazz is a waste of time. For me is an option. I don`t play a specific type of music all the time. I like playing swing, ballads, bebop and sometimes I enjoyed playing smooth jazz. There is nothing wrong with it!

You have to get the feeling of having a nice sound. I am 16 and i play the alto, tenor, and bari. You have to have right articulation, a good sax and equiptment, and u have to have it in your heart or you will not excell in playing.

oh yeah those of you that say kenny g sucks let`s see you get out there and play the way he does i bet you can`t

jazzy jessica preach on kenny g rocks

I suggest that you buy a selmer mark 6 or 7 with matching mouthpiece of good ligature, try 2.5 reed La Voz, blow your sax against a walling and try to hear your sound.

P.S. Anybody could send me a copy of Kenny G`s music sheet like silhouette, or any piece? I`m an alto sax player of a University Orchestra here in the Philippines and I have no pieces of Kenny G especially during beauty pageant.

I dreamt to get the sound of Kenny G even before I was playing the soprano. After 8 years and 2 soprano saxs, I only managed to get CLOSE TO Kenny`s sound when I bought the DUKOFF mouthpiece.... go to www.dukoff.com to find out more...

Regards,
Alan

Kenny G, Charlie parker, who cares.
Play how you want to play and screw anyone who tells you your going in the wrong direction. I use to get the same remarks because I sounded like Sanborn. Although, listening to the old Jazz Giants like Parker, Coltrane and the new cats like Antonio Hart & Joshua Redman can really expand your Horizons. It`s good to imitate at first. This is our way of learning. Eventually we speak our own mind, Unless we`ve been brain washed.

Saxophone is a beutiful and very expressive instrument. As saxophone players let focus ourselves in things that we have in common, and what we can do to inovate music with this instrument. Its about put musicians together instead of separating them because of their preferences