Kenny G | |
|---|---|
 Kenny G in 2013 | |
| Born | Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (1956-06-05)June 5, 1956 (age 69) |
| Education | Franklin High School |
| Alma mater | University of Washington (BS,magna cum laude) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Full list |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instruments | |
| Works | Kenny G discography |
| Labels | |
| Website | kennyg |
Musical artist | |
| Signature | |
 | |
Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (born June 5, 1956) is an Americansmooth jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer.[1] His 1986 albumDuotones brought him commercial success.[1] Kenny G is one of thebest-selling artists of all time, with global sales totaling more than 75 million records,[2] making him also the best-selling instrumentalist in history.[3]
Kenny G was born in Seattle, Washington and started playing the saxophone at the age of ten, inspired by a performance onThe Ed Sullivan Show. He attended several schools in Seattle, including theUniversity of Washington. During high school, he took private saxophone lessons and played in the school jazz band.
Kenny G's professional career began withBarry White'sThe Love Unlimited Orchestra at age 17. He played with the Seattle funk band Cold, Bold & Together before joining theJeff Lorber Fusion in 1980. His solo career took off after signing withArista Records in 1982. His debut album,Kenny G, was recorded with members of the Jeff Lorber Fusion and released in 1982. Kenny G's fourth solo album,Duotones (1986), marked the start of his most commercially successful period, featuring the hit single "Songbird". His 1992 album,Breathless, became the best-selling instrumental album ever, and his first holiday album,Miracles: The Holiday Album, sold over 13 million copies. He has worked on soundtracks for films such asThe Bodyguard and collaborated with artists, includingAndrea Bocelli andFrank Sinatra.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Kenny G released several albums, includingParadise andBrazilian Nights. He made appearances in commercials and music videos and continued to perform worldwide. Kenny G's popularity in China is notable, with his song "Going Home" widely used in public places. Despite facing criticism from some jazz musicians, Kenny G remains a highly successful and influential figure in contemporary instrumental music.
Kenneth Bruce Gorelick was born inSeattle, Washington to aJewish family. His mother was aCanadian Jew fromSaskatchewan. He came into contact with the saxophone when he heard a performance onThe Ed Sullivan Show.[1] He started playing the saxophone, aBuffet Crampon alto, in 1966 when he was 10 years old.[4]
He attended Whitworth Elementary School,Sharples Junior High School (since renamed Kurose Middle School),Franklin High School, and theUniversity of Washington, all in his home city of Seattle. When he entered high school, he failed at his first attempt to get into the jazz band but auditioned again the following year and earned first chair.[5][6] His Franklin High School classmate Robert Damper (piano, keyboards) plays in his band.[7][8] In addition to his studies while in high school, he took private lessons on the saxophone and clarinet from Johnny Jessen, once a week for a year.[citation needed]
Kenny G's career started with a job as a sideman forBarry White'sLove Unlimited Orchestra in 1973, when he was 17 and still in high school.[9][10] He continued to play professionally while studying for amajor in accounting at theUniversity of Washington in Seattle, and graduatedPhi Beta Kappa[11] andmagna cum laude.[9][12] He qualified, and only needed to pass theCPA exam to get into practice.[13]
Using the name Kenny Gorelick, he playedflute and saxophones with the Seattlefunk band Cold, Bold & Together during 1975–1976[12][14] before becoming a credited member of theJeff Lorber Fusion in 1980.[10] He then left the band, later stating that he had outgrown them.[15]
Kenny G signed withArista Records as a solo artist in 1982, after label presidentClive Davis heard his rendition of "Dancing Queen" byABBA.[10] He adopted Kenny G as his stage name because it "had a nice ring to it".[11] His debut studio album,Kenny G, was recorded in 1981 with members of the Jeff Lorber Fusion, and released in the following year. The album received warm reviews from critics, and reached No. 10 on theBillboard Jazz Albums chart. Kenny G followed his debut withG Force in January 1983 andGravity in May 1985, both of which reachedPlatinum certification in the US for selling one million copies. During this time, he collaborated with musician, singer, songwriter, and producerKashif on many tracks, including the 1985 single "Love on the Rise".
In 1986, Kenny G entered the most commercially successful period of his career. His fourth solo album,Duotones, was released in September 1986 and features an original instrumental track, "Songbird", inspired by his decision to move from Seattle to Los Angeles, which marked the start of a new life for him.[15] The album went on to sell five million copies in the US alone and increased his profile worldwide as a result. "Songbird" reached No. 4 on theBillboard Hot 100 and the lead single, "Don't Make Me Wait for Love", featuringLenny Williams on lead vocals, went to No. 15 on the Hot 100 and No. 2 on theBillboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1987.
Kenny G worked in the mid-to-late 1980s with jazz and R&B artists such asGeorge Benson,Patti LaBelle andAretha Franklin. The 1987 hit single "Love Power", aDionne Warwick duet withJeffrey Osborne that featured G as a guest saxophonist, peaked at No. 12 on theBillboard Hot 100, and No. 5 on R&B/Hip-Hop songs.
His first live album,Kenny G Live, included popular songs, among which "Going Home" achieved great success in thePeople's Republic of China. Kenny G has collaborated with a wide variety of artists, such asAndrea Bocelli,[16]Aaron Neville,Toni Braxton,DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince,[17]Natalie Cole,[18]Steve Miller,[19]Weezer,Dudley Moore,Lee Ritenour,The Rippingtons,Michael Bolton,Celine Dion,Frank Sinatra,Bebel Gilberto, andSmokey Robinson.[16] Influenced by saxophonistGrover Washington Jr., his albums are usually classified assmooth jazz.
Kenny G has worked on several film soundtracks, includingDying Young andThe Bodyguard. The song "Theme forDying Young", written for that movie, was nominated for the Grammy forBest Pop Instrumental Performance. Kenny G appears on the soundtrack ofThe Bodyguard, starringKevin Costner andWhitney Houston, performing "Waiting for You" and "Even If My Heart Would Break". His music was also included inThe Shadow andMiracle on 34th Street.
His sixth studio album,Breathless, was released in 1992, and went on to become the best-selling instrumental album ever, with over 15 million copies sold worldwide, selling 12 million copies in the United States alone. The album included many hits such as "Forever in Love", the recipient of theGrammy Award for theBest Instrumental Composition and which charted in theBillboard Year-End Hot 100. "Sentimental" charted at No. 27 on the Adult Contemporary Chart, and "By the Time This Night Is Over", a collaboration withPeabo Bryson, peaked at No. 25 on the Hot 100.
His first holiday album,Miracles, sold over 13 million copies, making it the most successful Christmas album to date.[12] He also performed the "National Anthem of the United States" at the1994 FIFA World Cup closing ceremony at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on July 17, 1994.[20]
Kenny G earned a place in theGuinness Book of World Records in 1997 for playing the longest note ever recorded on a saxophone. Usingcircular breathing, Kenny G held an E-flat for 45 minutes and 47 seconds at J&R Music World in New York City.[21] The same year, his song "Havana", from the albumThe Moment, was remixed byTodd Terry andTony Moran and released to dance clubs in the U.S. The mixes went to No. 1 on theBillboardDance/Club Play Songs chart in April 1997.[22]
Kenny G's second holiday album,Faith, is thebest selling holiday album of 1999 in the United States selling 2 million units according to Nielsen/SoundScan. The singles taken from the album, the traditional "Auld Lang Syne", reached No. 7 on the Hot 100. His rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" was, at the time of charting, popularized by the then-upcoming New Year celebration for 2000. At the time of its peak, it was also the oldest-written song to make the Hot 100 charts.[23]
In February 2000, Kenny G was invited to the White House and performed for state governors and members of the Clinton Cabinet.[24]
He released his eighth studio album,Paradise in 2002. The album featured R&B singerBrian McKnight and included the single "One More Time", a duet withChanté Moore.
OnAt Last...The Duets Album, he collaborated with friends and colleaguesDavid Sanborn,David Benoit;Daryl Hall, lead singer ofHall & Oates;Burt Bacharach, andBarbra Streisand. It includes covers such asCareless Whisper, andElton John's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", a collaboration withRichard Marx. The album is certified Gold in the US.
In 2006, Kenny G released his eleventh studio album, entitledI'm in the Mood for Love...The Most Romantic Melodies of All Time featuring renditions ofThe Beatles's songs, the love theme from Shakespeare'sRomeo and Juliet, the Secret Garden's hit song "You Raise Me Up", andJames Blunt's "You're Beautiful", as well as the Chinese ballad "The Moon Represents My Heart".
Kenny G was named the 25th highest-selling artist in America by theRIAA, with 48 million albums sold in the U.S. as of July 31, 2006.[25]
In October 2009, Kenny G appeared with the bandWeezer in anAOL promotion of their albumRaditude by soloing during "I'm Your Daddy". Kenny G said he knew nothing of Weezer before the performance.[26] Though some music critics thereby rejoined in the common criticism of his work,[27][28] the unlikely combination was fairly well received by AOL's magazinesSpinner.com and Popeater.com.[26][29]
His 2010 albumHeart and Soul is strongly influenced byR&B, featuringRobin Thicke and his long-time collaboratorBabyface. It received positive reviews from critics.
In February 2011, Kenny G appeared in theSuper Bowl XLV ad forAudi called "Release the Hounds".[30] He starred in a short as Head of Riot Suppression for a luxury Prison.[31]
He made an appearance in the music video for Katy Perry's single "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" as Uncle Kenny. On the October 8, 2011 episode ofSaturday Night Live, he performed with alternative rock bandFoster the People on the song "Houdini".
Kenny G hosts a radio show with Sandy Kovach onWLOQ inOrlando.[32]
HisBrazilian Nights was announced on October 28, 2014. The album was inspired byCannonball Adderley's bossa nova recordings,Paul Desmond, andStan Getz. The album was released in January 2015.[33] It helped Kenny G get back to theBillboard 200 at number 86. He started The Brazilian Tour for the album, traveling throughout North America and Asia throughout the year.
Kenny G posted Twitter images of his visit to the site of the2014 Hong Kong protests, which the PRC government has declared illegal, saying, "I wish everyone a peaceful and positive conclusion to this situation". The feed provoked an immediate angry reaction from the Chinese foreign ministry. Kenny G issued a clarification, "I don't really know anything about the situation and my impromptu visit to the site was just part of an innocent walk around Hong Kong...I only wanted to share my wish for peace for Hong Kong and for all of China as I feel close to and care about China very much".[34][35][36][37]
In February 2017, Kenny G was satirized byAndy Samberg in theNetflix program "Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special". At the end of the scene, Kenny G appears as a janitor.[38] He competed in an episode ofDrop the Mic against country singerJake Owen.[39]
In October 2019, Kenny G appeared on theKanye West gospel albumJesus Is King, on the song "Use This Gospel".[40] Reaching 37 on theBillboard Hot 100, the song was his first entry on the chart since 2000 and resulted in his becoming one of just five artists—alongsideMichael Jackson,Madonna,U2 and"Weird Al" Yankovic—to have appeared in the top 40 every decade from the 1980s to the 2010s.[41][42]
In October 2020,the Weeknd released a remix of the popular song "In Your Eyes" featuring Kenny G.[43]
Kenny G contributed to the soundtrack ofThe SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run in 2021 with his covers of "My Heart Will Go On" as well as "Gary's Song", which had been written for theSpongeBob SquarePants episode "Have You Seen This Snail?"[44] TheNickelodeon series parodies the artist with the character Kelpy G.[45]
In 2022, he appeared onavant-garde metal bandImperial Triumphant's song "Merkurius Gilded" alongside his son Max Gorelick on guitar.[46][47][48]
Kenny G is featured on saxophone on the song "Cry" from American singerCharlie Puth's 2026 albumWhatever's Clever!. The song was released as a single on February 6, 2026, prior to Puth's performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" atSuper Bowl LX inSanta Clara, California, during which he was accompanied by Kenny G on saxophone.[49]
Kenny G has recorded Chinese songs such as "Jasmine Flower" (茉莉花) and "The Moon Represents My Heart" (月亮代表我的心).[50]
Since 1989, Kenny G's recording "Going Home" from theKenny G Live album has become an unconventional mega-hit throughout China: It has become the unofficial national closing song for many businesses such as food courts, outdoor markets, health clubs, shopping malls and train stations throughout the country.[51] Many businesses begin piping the music over their loudspeakers shortly before closing at night. Television stations also play the song before ending their evening broadcasts. Many Chinese, when asked, say they associate the song with the need to finish their activity or business and go home (although they may not even know the name of the song or its artist).[52][34]
 | This"criticism" or "controversy" sectionmay compromise the article'sneutrality. Please helpintegrate negative information into other sections or removeundue focus on minor aspects throughdiscussion on thetalk page.(July 2025) |
Kenny G has attracted significant criticism from mainstream jazz musicians and enthusiasts.Pat Metheny found him "not really an advanced player, even [among pop-oriented sax players of that time]", adding that, according to his opinion, Kenny G had "major rhythmic problems" and his "harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly topentatonic-based and blues-lick derived patterns". Metheny stated that the "controversy" that has surrounded Kenny G "among musicians and serious listeners" is due to the fact that "he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years".[53] Saxophonist, composer and bandleaderBranford Marsalis, stating that he was refusing to "fight that silly war between jazz and smooth jazz", called on G's critics as follows: "When all these jazz guys get in a tizzy over Kenny G, they need to leave Kenny alone. He's not stealing jazz. The audience he has wouldn't be caught dead at a real jazz concert or club. It's not like some guy says, 'You know, I used to listen toMiles,Trane andOrnette. And then I heard Kenny G, and I never put on another Miles record.' It's a completely different audience."[54]
Kenny G's 1999 single "What a Wonderful World" was particularly criticized for itsoverdubbing ofLouis Armstrong's recording of the same song. Mark Sabbatini found G's cover to be an "unconscionable act of auditory graffiti" over the Armstrong song.[55]The New York Times'Ben Ratliff opined that a recording by Armstrong, known especially for improvisation, should not be altered by a musician "whose range and depth of understanding was already in question."[56] Alto saxophonistCharles McPherson expressed "mixed feelings", stating that Kenny G's "audience probably does not know Armstrong orGetz orCharlie Parker. So, if he feels like his audience should be more familiar with those people, I can't see anything aesthetically wrong with that." On the other hand, pianistFred Hersch, commenting on the occasion of that cover track, said that Kenny G is "not a jazz musician."[57]
Critic Josef Woodard found Kenny G serving "a noble purpose by offering musicians a paradigm of whatnot to do" in aJazzTimes poll in which, though, players such asStan Kenton,Maynard Ferguson,Miles Davis,John Coltrane, andOrnette Coleman were characterized as "overrated".[58]
In 2021,HBO released a documentary on Kenny G,Listening to Kenny G, directed byPenny Lane. Lane stated she chose Kenny G as her subject because he is "a musician who is objectively popular, by way of record sales, but is also hated by the 'critical class'."[59]Richard Brody, in aNew Yorker report, cited Kenny G in the film responding "cheerful[ly]" to a question about what he loves about music, with, "I don't know if I love music that much," and continuing, "when I listen to music, I think about the musicians and I just think about what it takes to make that music and how much they had to practice."[60]
Kenny G plays theSelmer Mark VI soprano, alto and tenor saxophones. He has created his own line of saxophones called "Kenny G Saxophones".[61]
Kenny G married Janice DeLeon in 1980, and they divorced in 1987.[62] He married Lyndie Benson in 1992, and the couple had two sons.[63] His son Max was the guitarist for the experimental metal bandImperial Triumphant in 2016.[64] In January 2012, Benson-Gorelick filed for legal separation.[65] Kenny G filed for divorce in August 2012.[66]
Kenny G built a house inHunts Point, Washington, in 1996 which he sold in 1999 toCraig McCaw.[67] Kenny G now lives inMalibu, California.[68] He is an avid golfer and has ahandicap of +0.6.[5] He has participated in theAT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am tournament seven times as of 2007, and he teamed up withPhil Mickelson to share the AT&T pro-am title in 2001 with the team ofTiger Woods and Jerry Chang.[6] In theGolf Digest rankings of Top 100 in Music, according to golf handicap indexes of major musicians, he was first in 2006[5] and second in 2008.[69] He is a member ofSherwood Country Club inThousand Oaks, California.[70]
Kenny G is anaircraft pilot. He has aDe Havilland Beaver seaplane, which he flies regularly.[71] He is a personal friend of formerStarbuckschairman andchief executive officerHoward Schultz and was an early investor in the coffeehouse chain.[72]
Studio albums
Headlining
Co-headlining
Having been a member at Sherwood Country Club for the last 20 years, Gorelick is interested to see how Champions Tour players like Bernard Langer, John Daly, Tom Lehman and Corey Pavin play on a course he knows so well.
