Kenny G Artistfacts

June 5, 1956
Kenny G bills himself as the best-selling instrumentalist in history, miles ahead of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and other jazz greats in terms of sales. But is he jazz? He says he just makes music he likes, and whatever you'd like to call it is fine. He chalks up his astounding success to the fact that many other people happen to like the same music he does.
Ever since he started playing saxophone, he's practiced obsessively, typically for three hours a day.
Kenny G has mastered circular breathing, meaning he can blow his horn while taking in air through his nose. This is something many jazz players can do, but in that world, it's considered a party trick. Kenny G learned early that it's a huge crowd pleaser and made it part of his show, holding a note for an extended period of time while using his free hand to hi-five members of the audience.
He was a member of the Portland-based band the Jeff Lorber Fusion when he got the attention of Clive Davis at Arista Records, who noticed how he could work the crowd. But even the legendary Clive Davis wasn't sure what to do with him. His early albums had R&B grooves and the singles were songs with vocalists. After his third album, Gravity in 1985, he asked to focus on his sax-based instrumental compositions, but was told he was making music for "15-year-old kids in the ghetto" (as stated in the 2021 documentary Listening To Kenny G). He threatened to quit the label, but Arista convinced him to cover a Junior Walker song called "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" and see how it goes. He agreed, and on his next album, Duotones, included a song he wrote and recorded on his own called "Songbird," which was the musical direction he wanted to be heading. He was slated to play "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, but went rogue and played "Songbird" instead. The ploy worked: It got a great reaction and seized the attention of Arista Records VP Don Ienner's wife, who told her husband there was a market for songs like that. Clive Davis responded by shifting strategy and promoting "Songbird," which became a rare instrumental hit and the template for many more like it from Kenny G.
An outstanding student, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington with a degree in economics.
On most of his hits, he plays a soprano saxophone, which is straight, distinguishing it from alto or tenor saxophones, which have curved necks. Many listeners thought he was playing a clarinet.
Kenny G is really good at golf. In 2001, he paired with Phil Mickelson to win the Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, and in 2006, Golf Digest named him the top musician golfer of the year.
He's very popular on social media and known to participate in memes, like taking the Ice Bucket Challenge while playing saxophone.
Kenny G is largely responsible for Smooth Jazz radio format, which proliferated in the late '80s after his music caught on. These stations were very research-driven, and research showed that a lot of people really liked his music. Not only that, it was great background music, perfect for at-work listening - a very lucrative segment.
He and Michael Bolton have a long association. Kenny played on Bolton's track "Soul Provider," released in 1989 as Bolton was on the rise. The next year, they toured together with Bolton opening for Kenny. Around this time, Bolton became one of pop music's biggest hitmakers while Kenny's popularity leveled off. When they teamed up for the song "Missing You Now," it was issued on Bolton's 1991 album Time, Love & Tenderness.
He was a core artist on VH1, but Kenny G didn't perform on MTV until 2025, when he opened the Video Music Awards with some smooth sax that led into Doja Cat's performance of "Jealous Type." The performance had an '80s theme, nodding to trends like big hair, mauve lighting, breakdancing, and of course, Kenny G.

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