Staying Fit
He’s Kenny G and you’re not. The man whose animated doppelgänger, a soprano-sax-wielding, frizzy-haired purveyor of “smooth jazz,” obliterated the musical universe in the 2020 film Trolls World Tour, and who was summoned by no less than Kanye West to serenade his then-wife Kim Kardashian on Valentine’s Day is not some jazz purist’s feverish nightmare, but a self-effacing Seattle native who just happened to sell 75 million albums around the world.
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With his first album in six years, New Standards, arriving in December, along with a new HBO documentary, Listening to Kenny G, which explores the conundrum of being at once one of the most successful yet more reviled musicians among critical types, the skilled airplane pilot and golfer has emerged from his pandemic quarantine busier than ever.
With his legendary work ethic — he still practices three hours a day upon waking each morning — Kenny G agrees he’s a product of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours, but says there’s also a little something else that goes into it, namely talent. A graduate of the same Seattle high school that produced cartoonist Lynda Barry and choreographer Mark Morris, Kenny Gorelick studied accounting at the University of Washington in between music gigs. He asked his father, owner of a plumbing supply company dubbed Thrifty, for a brief time to pursue his muse before joining the firm. The rest is history, of course. His 1992 album Breathless, a Diamond award honoree, 12-times platinum, is the best selling instrumental album ever. His song “Going Home” is the official anthem in China for the end of each workday. And he really upped his hip quotient by playing on Kanye West’s 2019 Grammy-winning Jesus Is King album.
Kenny G put down the sax to talk with AARP about the world of being, well, Kenny G and how comfortable he is — or isn’t — with how his fame sits with certain folks.
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