December 14, 2025 • 25 mins
The conversation continues with Kenny G and Scott!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am all in. This isn't Old Man Music with
Scott Patterson. Everything You've ever wanted to know about the
(00:21):
music of Gilmore Girls, Everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all
in Podcast one eleven Productions. iHeartRadio Media, iHeart podcast. We
are going to bring you part two of our Kenny
g Conversation. Kenny, we have to talk about your collaborations
with like Sinatra, Seline, Dion, Andrew Bocelli and many more.
(00:45):
What was it like? It's Sinatra? Tell me just please.
I grew up listening to Sinatra and my obviously my
parents were obsessed. There was a radio station sid Mark God,
what was the call sign for sidmar rks Sounds of
Sinatra in the Philadelphia in Philadelphia, and every night my
(01:06):
mom would cook to that. And I love Sinatra. I
love everything about Sinatra. Tell me about that collaboration. How
did you meet him? What's going on with that?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I did meet him, but it wasn't while we were
doing this thing. It's like, this was the modern time
when producers would just send it was tape, but a
big tape, you know, a big twenty four track tape,
right he would just Phil Ramone was the producer Okay, hey,
I want you to play with Frank Snatra songs and
we're doing a duets album Frank snatchas Barbara Streisan. It's
(01:37):
bono blah blah blah. And of course you know one instrumentalist,
we're going to have you be the great. So send
me to music. So he sends it to me, and
I do it and just really in the vacuum of
my own studio, but all by myself, and I did
what I thought was the right notes, and I sent
(01:58):
it in and they liked it, and and I met
Frank Sinatrada at a Hollywood party, you know, at some
point with him the next year, and I said, hey,
it was great to be on your record and nice
to meet you. And you know that was about it. Unfortunately, right, sorry,
there was no romance in that one. Unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
That's good. Kay, it's a good look. Look you got
to be on his record, man, I know you met
the dude. That's that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I did, and they and to watch Saturday Night Live
do a spoof on that duet's record and have a
guy play me and play like these screechy notes, just
like it, guys, get this guy out.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Did you did you ever Now, speaking of collaborations, did
you ever turn one down that you wish you wouldn't have?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yes? Yes, so yeah, Luther vandros And and Mariah Endless
Love they did a you know that that the Lionel
Richie song. And Okay, so Tommy Mottola, if Sony calls
(03:11):
and he wants me to do a solo on the record,
I my best friend at the time, was producing it
well with my friend Walter. Unfortunately we're not friends anymore.
And it's not because of this, but Walter said to me,
he goes, bro, I'm producing this record. I just do
not hear a Sack solo here. I know they want
(03:32):
you to because it's marketing, and you got to tell
them no. And because of this is how I am.
I'm a friend, like if I promise something, I don't care.
So he's my bro, you know. I said, Okay, you
got it. So I told him I wouldn't play the solo,
but god damn it, I wish I would have done it. Yeah,
(03:54):
So there you go. That one got away from me,
and for the right reasons. But at the end of
the day, it would have been better. I fact, that
would have been great, Mariah and Luther come on.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well you got to be on this podcast, so that
kind of makes up for it. Anyway, I forgot Luther Man,
you have a chance to be on the anyway. All right,
So this is a factoid that blew my mind when
I read it. Nineteen ninety seven, give us book a
(04:27):
world record. Oh yeah, yeah, you held a note on
the saxophone for forty five minutes and forty seconds, forty
seven seconds using circular breathing, Kenny, What motivated you to
attempt that? And what did did you practice for it?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Well? Okay, so this technique is not you know, it's
not just me, as any instrumentalist can do it. It's
a way of using your cheeks. You blow them air
out of your cheeks, you breathe in your nose at
the same time, like making your head into a bagpipe. Basically.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So I learned how to do it, and I got
really good at it, and I was on the Regis
Philburn Morning show whatever the show that's what's that show
called Regis and Kathy Lee whatever was that? And he somehow, yeah,
I heard you can do this show us. So I
do it, and then I'm back in the green room,
and on the same show, the Guinness people were there
(05:26):
to talk about whatever world records had been set in
the last six months or whatever. And the guy goes,
you know, you should set a world record for the
longest note. I said, what's the world record? He goes,
there isn't one. I said, well, then I think I'm
shot at it. I thought, well, maybe I can do
ten minutes. So we went and tried it, and after
each like four or five minutes and another tan, I go, Okay,
(05:48):
I'll keep going. And I just kept going and I
had no idea I could do it that long and Moe, well,
my lips were so tired at the end, fasted some ice.
After that was over a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
All right, you're kind of a guy in this pop
culture universe, right, Katie Perry video Spongebomb. I mean, how
do you feel about, you know, balancing like serious instrumental
music to more pop culture projects. What do you prefer?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Love it? No? No, no, I mean I prefer my music.
I prefer just doing my thing all alone. That's what
I prefer. But if the Weekend wants me to play
a solo or I just did something that's going to
come out this Christmas for the Jonas Brothers. I just
solo on their song, and I'm in the movie too,
by the way, which is super cool. So that kind
(06:45):
of stuff is like, it's like a puzzle, and my
brain loves puzzles. So how am I going to put
my notes in this song and make it sound like it?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Like?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It works? So I love it. I really love doing it. Obviously,
I have to love the song. It has to be
in the right frame. Like I just did something with
Doja Cab on the VMAs and it was like kind
of figure out this whole thing, what's going to sound
good with and that was really fun. So when that
works out, I really like it when the young people
(07:16):
see they can't you know, A and I can't replace
a guy like me cannot do it right because there's
the nuances of the way that those notes go that
you just can't do with a synthesizer. And that's what
happens is these these pop guys they do a little
sax part and they go, hmmm, let's get a real
sax player, who can we call? And then luckily my
name seems to be at the top of the list,
(07:36):
so I get the call and I get to meet
these guys and do videos. Like the weekend, I did
this cool video with him and we were in this box,
like we ended up in this little box that I'm
playing and between the takes, he goes, you know what,
you're old enough to be my father. And I'm not
going to tell you what I said back to it,
(07:57):
but you know, I said, you know, you're actually right.
Did you think that was gonna make me feel good?
Speaker 1 (08:04):
But yeah, and like what's the point of that?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
He's absolute really really cool? He kind of you said.
It kind of just ridden me a little bit, but
it's it's like, those are moments that are really fun.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
To do, right, Do you have any Okay, So this
is what's your advice for young instrumentalists today breaking into
the business? Is there is there a room for it?
(08:36):
What would you tell them?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Okay? This is the hard part with the young young
musicians these days? Is there The problem is what we're
doing right now? So we're doing this podcast, Like I'm
in Paris, France.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Where are you, by the way, I'm in southern California.
I'm outside of Los Angeles. I'm near Malibu.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
You're near Malibu? Correct?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, and so look, this is unbelievable. I mean thirty
years ago you'd say, huh, we're at the Dick Tracy
phone where you were talking to each other. So this
is great for this, but it's also has a downside.
The downside has been all the musicians in the world
are hearing the same things. They're privy to these things.
(09:15):
Like when I was learning to play the sacks, if
I wanted to hear something, I had to figure out
who I wanted to listen to, go to a record store,
try to find the record, go home and play it.
I didn't have anything then have a tape recorder, so
I had to listen to it, try to figure out
the notes he was playing that I liked, and then
work on it and then try to figure out what
I wanted to do with all that. So I ended
(09:37):
up developing a sound of my own. The young guys,
they are unbelievable technicians. Oh they play some un stuff.
I can't play some of the stuff they can play,
but they're all playing it. So is there room? Means, like,
what are you going to do that's going to stand out?
Other than you can play fast and you can play
(09:58):
these licks that everybodybody else has been playing. You know,
it's like it's good, it's impressive, But where's.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
The where's the soul, Where's where's the pain? Where is it?
What's going on? I know? I go back and I
listened to you know, I love to cook, you know,
for my family, so I go when I'm cooking, I
put on all the old you know. I'll listen to
Eric Clapton early Clapton cream, I'll listen to the Who
(10:27):
early you know, yeah, and it's just and then i'm
you know, I'm in the gym and they have a
track on and it's a they play a track from
Who's Next and they put a drum machine on it.
And I just went up to the front desk and
I said, what is going on? Why would why would
anybody play something or remove Keith Moon from a track
(10:50):
and put this in to a whostle? I said, do
you know what you're doing to me right.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
You're killing me right now?
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Or you know, go back and listen to old like
James Gangs has some really great live recordings, some great
blue stuff. It's just you know, these are yeah, you're right.
These are very gifted musicians who play with technical proficiency,
but it isn't about that. They have the structure. They
(11:20):
have the chops, but they don't let it take over,
and they play with feeling. They play just the right
note at the right time, in the right way, and
you're right. It's lost.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Like Miles Davis, you know he was when he went
on tour. We were we were his opening acts for
like six months.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I'm toured with Miles Davis, not the front door.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And you would think, like, why would Miles want somebody
like me around? But hey, you know what, because I
was selling tickets. I was selling and he was the headliner,
so he was doing great. He came by my dressing
room and he said, he gives me that song you play.
The ladies really like it. Job like that. I went,
(12:06):
thank you, Miles, thank you very much. And it's like, okay, cool.
It's like I playing a sack differently than other people
have played it. You're doing your trumpet different you do.
You have your own sound, like my own sound, and
that you have to. You know, these young players, I
don't know if they're gonna I don't know if they
know how to. They don't even know how to get
(12:27):
their own sound because they're so busy trying to do
what they heard, Like, oh, I got to do what
that guy did because otherwise he's going to be better
than me. It's like I never even compared myself to anybody.
I was just trying to play.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
So that's that's the advice to the young musicians. I mean,
that's not just sax players, but I think is anybody
you know?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I actually I want to answer my own question. I
have advice for young musicians.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Great.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Go and find a copy or listen to a recording
from a pianist named Keith Jarrett and you know what
I'm talking about. Yes, nineteen seventy five live com Germany
called The Comb Concert. It's a white album with him
(13:15):
on the cover. It is the most extraordinary hour plus
of piano, just solo piano music. And this is a
guy who was classically trained and was a prodigy and
walked away from it to study jazz and to do
his own thing. And it is the most powerful, the
most beautiful stuff you will ever hear on a solo.
(13:39):
And he's like Kenny G Level on the piano, you
know what I mean, Like creating these beautiful melodies and
riffing on all of it. I mean, it's just break
your heart to listen to it. Just beautiful. Once did
you really wear.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
The solo shows in San Francisco? And he did that
thing he did he punched over the piano. Yeah, and
after the show it went backstage, not that he cared
by the way that backstage, but because of me, I
could at least get past the guards to get there
and said, you know, it's just something like, Wow, that
(14:15):
was really great, I said, And I asked him, I said,
so what we heard is that rehearsed he goes Absolutely
not he goes. I never I never practiced those things.
That just it's got it's got to be all improvisation.
I said, well, that's very impressive, very impressive. I was.
(14:36):
I was impressed. I never forgot that moment either. So
when you mentioned Keith, Jerry's like, I know what you're
talking about.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Oh man, I mean, I don't know how many times
I've listened to that album, and I just you know,
there's been a couple of decades, and then I, I
don't know, six months ago, I started listening to him
again and it just shattered me. The guy. I mean,
there's just nothing more powerful than you know, an artist
in full command of their instrument and creating in the moment.
(15:04):
It's just I mean, if they're if they're a genius, right,
if they're if they're a musical genius.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, I like those like those. When I listened, I
listened to like the old jazz guys like that, and
stan Getz was is my one of my sacks. Man.
I can just listen to him all day. I do
listen to him all day. You just do it. You
always put on my kids, just go not again, I go.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yeah, you know what.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I try to play because we play music at dinner
every night, and I lay, I lay it a little
uh because I love Pete Jolly, I love that that
that sound. I love Sweet September and all those those
great records from the what was it, late fifties, early
sixties maybe mid sixties, and I so melodic and such
songs and such great piano player.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Are you have a player or a guitar player? What
do you? What do you well?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I played piano a little bit growing up, but it's
more guitar. Yeah, yeah, I composed on guitar.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Composed.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Listen to me, I composed yeah, No, I don't compose.
I write. I try to write songs.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Have you recorded songs? Have you made recordings?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I did an EP in two thousand
and seventeen. I took a serious shot at doing something
and I released a single and it actually and I
was on with Jimmy Fallon for Gilmore Girls reboot and
then he was nice enough to hold up the cover
(16:38):
of the single and I said, yeah, here's the single,
and on the iTunes Indie Rock Top one hundred, I
was number one for a couple about four weeks.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, I was very excited about I mean, nothing ever
came of it, but you know, I thought, wow, that's
the power of you know, being on a top talk show,
right and having.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
A I've never been on Foulon. They've never had me on.
You got one on me there, But I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I've wanted to be on the show. They're just going
it's okay, really yeah, no, no, they're no interest in me.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
But he's a music guy. He loves music. Mans man,
you should be on there. That he's he's That was
a good time. That was a good time. But yeah,
so but you know, I I write, and I have
these dreams and all that, but it's like, you know,
and I did a little tour in a coffeehouse tour
in twenty seventeen summer, but I just you know, I
(17:41):
had a young son, and I just I just didn't
want to be on the road, you know, I just
I it's like, this isn't this is something I should
have done a long long time ago. This is not
the time to be doing this. So I just I
just pulled the plug on it. But I love writing.
And I actually went down to Nashville. I got invited, Yeah,
Warner Chappel invite me down and they put me in
(18:02):
a room with some very very heavy hitters, you know,
some big time songwriters. And man was I out of
my depth. But I played them some songs and yeah,
oh no, no, no, these are these are very technically proficient,
very trained, you know writers, right, and and they were
(18:26):
just they were lovely to be with. And they took
a couple of my songs and did some wonderful things
with them.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, it was a it was a great experience. It
was a great experience.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
You know. Timing is as you mentioned, timing It's really
a big factor in it all because when when I
started going on the road, I mean I was twenty
two and I had no ties to anything, and you know,
driving around the country in a van and playing clubs
and that was great. But if you if today, I
couldn't I couldn't do that today. Fortunately, I've you know,
(18:55):
built up so that it's a you know, my touring
is at a level that you know, it's just great.
So but it takes so many years.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
To do that.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
But you gotta do you gotta. It's gotta be organic.
You have to start at the at the bottom. You
have to play the little clubs and over and over
and hone your stagecraft and all that, and it takes
decades to do it, for years and years, right, you.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Know what's bad? Note today when you say that, it's
like because out of our phones, and we were talking
about modern technology, you can't really like try out stuff
because somebody's gonna record you and then it's gonna be
everywhere if you screw up. Like I was talking to
one of my comedian friends, not to name drop, but
Ray Romano is a friend because we were both golfers.
(19:40):
We became very good friends. And I asked him, I said,
how you know you used to think of here about
these comics that would try out a new act at
a club before they take it out like in public.
You can't do that anymore. He goes, Yeah, you can't
do that anymore. It's not the way it goes. So
it's hard to really try out stuff that you I'm
not sure is going to work because everybody's i mean,
(20:02):
they're they're just recording the whole show. They're not even
your phones.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
They are right in front of me.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
They're just Yeah, so that's a little bit. I wish
we could do no phones. Of course I'm gonna sneak
it in anyway, but if we could do that, that
would be pretty great.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. The phones really take
away from the experience because they're they're not you know,
they're not applauding, they're not interacting with each other. They're
they're sort of turned into sort of cameraman they are. Yeah,
it's yeah, it's a different experience. But anyway. Yeah, So
if you're ever in La playing golf, man, I'm a
(20:39):
big golfer too, I'd love to play with you.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You're probably well. I used to be really good. I
used to be a plus handicap. Oh really, I was
actually a zero. I was a plus one at one point.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Oh my goodness, I used to be.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
But I haven't played for a couple of years. I
haven't even played, so I really probably a nine or
ten handicap at the moment.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I mean, I'm hanging right there too with you, there, bro,
I mean I'm about that. Yeah. Great, you know I
can be Tiger Woods on some holes and Natalie Wood
on the other holes.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
You know, have you played with any of the pros.
I have not. No.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Well, I played with you know, club club pros, but
not any of the people that you would know. No,
And I used to do. I used to do the
celebrity tournaments. I played a bunch of those.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I never did those celebrity tournaments. But what I was
I was invited to the eighteen t tournament up at
pebble Beat.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So, oh my god, you have to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I did it. No, I already did it, like.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Some team, and I like, I played that course once,
and uh wow, what of course, it's an amazing golf course.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
It's amazing to play with those guys like you know, Yeah,
I was up there with Tiger. I was up there
with Phil Nicholson, played with you know, all the young players, Rory,
I've played with, Adam Scott, I played with these guys.
They are just I don't know, to play with it.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I know they're so good. It's just like scary and you.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Think, you think they care about the way you play,
and they really don't. So I was I put a
lot of pressure on myself for no reason. But I'm
thinking they're really interested in what I play. They're not
interested at all, couldn't care.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I mean, it's it's like, especially Pelbye's program, it's got
to be nerve wracking. Get on a T box with
all those people and Tiger staring at Yeah, and you
got to hit a drive. You got to hit your drive.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, it's but you know, after sixteen years you get
used to it. But at the first kind of nervous,
but after a while it's actually super grey. And then
the fun part is on the range because you're on
the range and like I'm walking by and there's Phil
Nicholson hitting golf balls, and there's Jason Day hitting golf balls,
and there's and then and you see what's one of
the friendly ones. And some of them are really friendly,
like hey, come over. Some of them just don't want
(22:52):
to talk. And it's fun when you get the pro
that's that's interesting, Like, Okay, how do you do this?
Chip shots? I Philip, come on, how do you do
that flop shot? Well, he'd show me do that? How
you do come on? Explain it? And you're a terrible
teacher he's got it. Was so fun, got to say.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
They can just do it, they can just feel it
and do it.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
And they can't tell you how to do it. They
can't teach it.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
That's amazing. All right. So you're on tour, you're in,
you're in, you're in Paris. Tell tell me what we
can we can expect and where we can see you
coming up?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Well, go to you know, everything's on my website. But December,
we're more on the East coast, Midwest. You were all
over the place. And then two years I play in
Seattle at I do. I do one jazz club, actually
do two jazz clubs. I do Seattle Jazz Alley. We
played ten shows over five nights and New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Super great, wow, fantastic, everybody. Go check out Kenny's website.
What's the website dot com Kenny G dot com, Go,
get go, get tickets, Go to this guy. He's a master,
he's a genius, and he's a pretty darn good golfer
from what I hear. Absolute pleasure. Please please please come back,
(24:08):
and it was a pleasure speaking to you, and keep
on keeping on. Good luck with the tour. Thank you,
thank you, and please come back and see us. All
the best to you, Kenny, You best fans on the planet.
Go to Kenny's website Kenny G dot com. Get some tickets,
Go see this guy, and I'm gonna check him out too,
because I've never seen a Kenny G show and that's
(24:30):
what's wrong with my life. And I gotta fix it.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
You're gonna love it. It's gonna be I guarantee it.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I can't wait. I'm so excited. Anyway, keep those cards
and let letters coming. We need them. We love them.
Best fans on the planet, Remember everybody, where you lead,
we will follow.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
And stay safe.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Everybody, and don't forget. Follow us on Instagram at I
Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at
iHeartRadio dot com.
I am all in. This isn't Old Man Music with
Scott Patterson. Everything You've ever wanted to know about the
(00:21):
music of Gilmore Girls, Everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all
in Podcast one eleven Productions. iHeartRadio Media, iHeart podcast. We
are going to bring you part two of our Kenny
g Conversation. Kenny, we have to talk about your collaborations
with like Sinatra, Seline, Dion, Andrew Bocelli and many more.
(00:45):
What was it like? It's Sinatra? Tell me just please.
I grew up listening to Sinatra and my obviously my
parents were obsessed. There was a radio station sid Mark God,
what was the call sign for sidmar rks Sounds of
Sinatra in the Philadelphia in Philadelphia, and every night my
(01:06):
mom would cook to that. And I love Sinatra. I
love everything about Sinatra. Tell me about that collaboration. How
did you meet him? What's going on with that?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I did meet him, but it wasn't while we were
doing this thing. It's like, this was the modern time
when producers would just send it was tape, but a
big tape, you know, a big twenty four track tape,
right he would just Phil Ramone was the producer Okay, hey,
I want you to play with Frank Snatra songs and
we're doing a duets album Frank snatchas Barbara Streisan. It's
(01:37):
bono blah blah blah. And of course you know one instrumentalist,
we're going to have you be the great. So send
me to music. So he sends it to me, and
I do it and just really in the vacuum of
my own studio, but all by myself, and I did
what I thought was the right notes, and I sent
(01:58):
it in and they liked it, and and I met
Frank Sinatrada at a Hollywood party, you know, at some
point with him the next year, and I said, hey,
it was great to be on your record and nice
to meet you. And you know that was about it. Unfortunately, right, sorry,
there was no romance in that one. Unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
That's good. Kay, it's a good look. Look you got
to be on his record, man, I know you met
the dude. That's that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I did, and they and to watch Saturday Night Live
do a spoof on that duet's record and have a
guy play me and play like these screechy notes, just
like it, guys, get this guy out.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Did you did you ever Now, speaking of collaborations, did
you ever turn one down that you wish you wouldn't have?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yes? Yes, so yeah, Luther vandros And and Mariah Endless
Love they did a you know that that the Lionel
Richie song. And Okay, so Tommy Mottola, if Sony calls
(03:11):
and he wants me to do a solo on the record,
I my best friend at the time, was producing it
well with my friend Walter. Unfortunately we're not friends anymore.
And it's not because of this, but Walter said to me,
he goes, bro, I'm producing this record. I just do
not hear a Sack solo here. I know they want
(03:32):
you to because it's marketing, and you got to tell
them no. And because of this is how I am.
I'm a friend, like if I promise something, I don't care.
So he's my bro, you know. I said, Okay, you
got it. So I told him I wouldn't play the solo,
but god damn it, I wish I would have done it. Yeah,
(03:54):
So there you go. That one got away from me,
and for the right reasons. But at the end of
the day, it would have been better. I fact, that
would have been great, Mariah and Luther come on.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well you got to be on this podcast, so that
kind of makes up for it. Anyway, I forgot Luther Man,
you have a chance to be on the anyway. All right,
So this is a factoid that blew my mind when
I read it. Nineteen ninety seven, give us book a
(04:27):
world record. Oh yeah, yeah, you held a note on
the saxophone for forty five minutes and forty seconds, forty
seven seconds using circular breathing, Kenny, What motivated you to
attempt that? And what did did you practice for it?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Well? Okay, so this technique is not you know, it's
not just me, as any instrumentalist can do it. It's
a way of using your cheeks. You blow them air
out of your cheeks, you breathe in your nose at
the same time, like making your head into a bagpipe. Basically.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So I learned how to do it, and I got
really good at it, and I was on the Regis
Philburn Morning show whatever the show that's what's that show
called Regis and Kathy Lee whatever was that? And he somehow, yeah,
I heard you can do this show us. So I
do it, and then I'm back in the green room,
and on the same show, the Guinness people were there
(05:26):
to talk about whatever world records had been set in
the last six months or whatever. And the guy goes,
you know, you should set a world record for the
longest note. I said, what's the world record? He goes,
there isn't one. I said, well, then I think I'm
shot at it. I thought, well, maybe I can do
ten minutes. So we went and tried it, and after
each like four or five minutes and another tan, I go, Okay,
(05:48):
I'll keep going. And I just kept going and I
had no idea I could do it that long and Moe, well,
my lips were so tired at the end, fasted some ice.
After that was over a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
All right, you're kind of a guy in this pop
culture universe, right, Katie Perry video Spongebomb. I mean, how
do you feel about, you know, balancing like serious instrumental
music to more pop culture projects. What do you prefer?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Love it? No? No, no, I mean I prefer my music.
I prefer just doing my thing all alone. That's what
I prefer. But if the Weekend wants me to play
a solo or I just did something that's going to
come out this Christmas for the Jonas Brothers. I just
solo on their song, and I'm in the movie too,
by the way, which is super cool. So that kind
(06:45):
of stuff is like, it's like a puzzle, and my
brain loves puzzles. So how am I going to put
my notes in this song and make it sound like it?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Like?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It works? So I love it. I really love doing it. Obviously,
I have to love the song. It has to be
in the right frame. Like I just did something with
Doja Cab on the VMAs and it was like kind
of figure out this whole thing, what's going to sound
good with and that was really fun. So when that
works out, I really like it when the young people
(07:16):
see they can't you know, A and I can't replace
a guy like me cannot do it right because there's
the nuances of the way that those notes go that
you just can't do with a synthesizer. And that's what
happens is these these pop guys they do a little
sax part and they go, hmmm, let's get a real
sax player, who can we call? And then luckily my
name seems to be at the top of the list,
(07:36):
so I get the call and I get to meet
these guys and do videos. Like the weekend, I did
this cool video with him and we were in this box,
like we ended up in this little box that I'm
playing and between the takes, he goes, you know what,
you're old enough to be my father. And I'm not
going to tell you what I said back to it,
(07:57):
but you know, I said, you know, you're actually right.
Did you think that was gonna make me feel good?
Speaker 1 (08:04):
But yeah, and like what's the point of that?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
He's absolute really really cool? He kind of you said.
It kind of just ridden me a little bit, but
it's it's like, those are moments that are really fun.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
To do, right, Do you have any Okay, So this
is what's your advice for young instrumentalists today breaking into
the business? Is there is there a room for it?
(08:36):
What would you tell them?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Okay? This is the hard part with the young young
musicians these days? Is there The problem is what we're
doing right now? So we're doing this podcast, Like I'm
in Paris, France.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Where are you, by the way, I'm in southern California.
I'm outside of Los Angeles. I'm near Malibu.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
You're near Malibu? Correct?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, and so look, this is unbelievable. I mean thirty
years ago you'd say, huh, we're at the Dick Tracy
phone where you were talking to each other. So this
is great for this, but it's also has a downside.
The downside has been all the musicians in the world
are hearing the same things. They're privy to these things.
(09:15):
Like when I was learning to play the sacks, if
I wanted to hear something, I had to figure out
who I wanted to listen to, go to a record store,
try to find the record, go home and play it.
I didn't have anything then have a tape recorder, so
I had to listen to it, try to figure out
the notes he was playing that I liked, and then
work on it and then try to figure out what
I wanted to do with all that. So I ended
(09:37):
up developing a sound of my own. The young guys,
they are unbelievable technicians. Oh they play some un stuff.
I can't play some of the stuff they can play,
but they're all playing it. So is there room? Means, like,
what are you going to do that's going to stand out?
Other than you can play fast and you can play
(09:58):
these licks that everybodybody else has been playing. You know,
it's like it's good, it's impressive, But where's.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
The where's the soul, Where's where's the pain? Where is it?
What's going on? I know? I go back and I
listened to you know, I love to cook, you know,
for my family, so I go when I'm cooking, I
put on all the old you know. I'll listen to
Eric Clapton early Clapton cream, I'll listen to the Who
(10:27):
early you know, yeah, and it's just and then i'm
you know, I'm in the gym and they have a
track on and it's a they play a track from
Who's Next and they put a drum machine on it.
And I just went up to the front desk and
I said, what is going on? Why would why would
anybody play something or remove Keith Moon from a track
(10:50):
and put this in to a whostle? I said, do
you know what you're doing to me right.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
You're killing me right now?
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Or you know, go back and listen to old like
James Gangs has some really great live recordings, some great
blue stuff. It's just you know, these are yeah, you're right.
These are very gifted musicians who play with technical proficiency,
but it isn't about that. They have the structure. They
(11:20):
have the chops, but they don't let it take over,
and they play with feeling. They play just the right
note at the right time, in the right way, and
you're right. It's lost.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Like Miles Davis, you know he was when he went
on tour. We were we were his opening acts for
like six months.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I'm toured with Miles Davis, not the front door.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And you would think, like, why would Miles want somebody
like me around? But hey, you know what, because I
was selling tickets. I was selling and he was the headliner,
so he was doing great. He came by my dressing
room and he said, he gives me that song you play.
The ladies really like it. Job like that. I went,
(12:06):
thank you, Miles, thank you very much. And it's like, okay, cool.
It's like I playing a sack differently than other people
have played it. You're doing your trumpet different you do.
You have your own sound, like my own sound, and
that you have to. You know, these young players, I
don't know if they're gonna I don't know if they
know how to. They don't even know how to get
(12:27):
their own sound because they're so busy trying to do
what they heard, Like, oh, I got to do what
that guy did because otherwise he's going to be better
than me. It's like I never even compared myself to anybody.
I was just trying to play.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
So that's that's the advice to the young musicians. I mean,
that's not just sax players, but I think is anybody
you know?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I actually I want to answer my own question. I
have advice for young musicians.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Great.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Go and find a copy or listen to a recording
from a pianist named Keith Jarrett and you know what
I'm talking about. Yes, nineteen seventy five live com Germany
called The Comb Concert. It's a white album with him
(13:15):
on the cover. It is the most extraordinary hour plus
of piano, just solo piano music. And this is a
guy who was classically trained and was a prodigy and
walked away from it to study jazz and to do
his own thing. And it is the most powerful, the
most beautiful stuff you will ever hear on a solo.
(13:39):
And he's like Kenny G Level on the piano, you
know what I mean, Like creating these beautiful melodies and
riffing on all of it. I mean, it's just break
your heart to listen to it. Just beautiful. Once did
you really wear.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
The solo shows in San Francisco? And he did that
thing he did he punched over the piano. Yeah, and
after the show it went backstage, not that he cared
by the way that backstage, but because of me, I
could at least get past the guards to get there
and said, you know, it's just something like, Wow, that
(14:15):
was really great, I said, And I asked him, I said,
so what we heard is that rehearsed he goes Absolutely
not he goes. I never I never practiced those things.
That just it's got it's got to be all improvisation.
I said, well, that's very impressive, very impressive. I was.
(14:36):
I was impressed. I never forgot that moment either. So
when you mentioned Keith, Jerry's like, I know what you're
talking about.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Oh man, I mean, I don't know how many times
I've listened to that album, and I just you know,
there's been a couple of decades, and then I, I
don't know, six months ago, I started listening to him
again and it just shattered me. The guy. I mean,
there's just nothing more powerful than you know, an artist
in full command of their instrument and creating in the moment.
(15:04):
It's just I mean, if they're if they're a genius, right,
if they're if they're a musical genius.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, I like those like those. When I listened, I
listened to like the old jazz guys like that, and
stan Getz was is my one of my sacks. Man.
I can just listen to him all day. I do
listen to him all day. You just do it. You
always put on my kids, just go not again, I go.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yeah, you know what.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I try to play because we play music at dinner
every night, and I lay, I lay it a little
uh because I love Pete Jolly, I love that that
that sound. I love Sweet September and all those those
great records from the what was it, late fifties, early
sixties maybe mid sixties, and I so melodic and such
songs and such great piano player.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Are you have a player or a guitar player? What
do you? What do you well?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I played piano a little bit growing up, but it's
more guitar. Yeah, yeah, I composed on guitar.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Composed.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Listen to me, I composed yeah, No, I don't compose.
I write. I try to write songs.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Have you recorded songs? Have you made recordings?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I did an EP in two thousand
and seventeen. I took a serious shot at doing something
and I released a single and it actually and I
was on with Jimmy Fallon for Gilmore Girls reboot and
then he was nice enough to hold up the cover
(16:38):
of the single and I said, yeah, here's the single,
and on the iTunes Indie Rock Top one hundred, I
was number one for a couple about four weeks.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, I was very excited about I mean, nothing ever
came of it, but you know, I thought, wow, that's
the power of you know, being on a top talk show,
right and having.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
A I've never been on Foulon. They've never had me on.
You got one on me there, But I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I've wanted to be on the show. They're just going
it's okay, really yeah, no, no, they're no interest in me.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
But he's a music guy. He loves music. Mans man,
you should be on there. That he's he's That was
a good time. That was a good time. But yeah,
so but you know, I I write, and I have
these dreams and all that, but it's like, you know,
and I did a little tour in a coffeehouse tour
in twenty seventeen summer, but I just you know, I
(17:41):
had a young son, and I just I just didn't
want to be on the road, you know, I just
I it's like, this isn't this is something I should
have done a long long time ago. This is not
the time to be doing this. So I just I
just pulled the plug on it. But I love writing.
And I actually went down to Nashville. I got invited, Yeah,
Warner Chappel invite me down and they put me in
(18:02):
a room with some very very heavy hitters, you know,
some big time songwriters. And man was I out of
my depth. But I played them some songs and yeah,
oh no, no, no, these are these are very technically proficient,
very trained, you know writers, right, and and they were
(18:26):
just they were lovely to be with. And they took
a couple of my songs and did some wonderful things
with them.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, it was a it was a great experience. It
was a great experience.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
You know. Timing is as you mentioned, timing It's really
a big factor in it all because when when I
started going on the road, I mean I was twenty
two and I had no ties to anything, and you know,
driving around the country in a van and playing clubs
and that was great. But if you if today, I
couldn't I couldn't do that today. Fortunately, I've you know,
(18:55):
built up so that it's a you know, my touring
is at a level that you know, it's just great.
So but it takes so many years.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
To do that.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
But you gotta do you gotta. It's gotta be organic.
You have to start at the at the bottom. You
have to play the little clubs and over and over
and hone your stagecraft and all that, and it takes
decades to do it, for years and years, right, you.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Know what's bad? Note today when you say that, it's
like because out of our phones, and we were talking
about modern technology, you can't really like try out stuff
because somebody's gonna record you and then it's gonna be
everywhere if you screw up. Like I was talking to
one of my comedian friends, not to name drop, but
Ray Romano is a friend because we were both golfers.
(19:40):
We became very good friends. And I asked him, I said,
how you know you used to think of here about
these comics that would try out a new act at
a club before they take it out like in public.
You can't do that anymore. He goes, Yeah, you can't
do that anymore. It's not the way it goes. So
it's hard to really try out stuff that you I'm
not sure is going to work because everybody's i mean,
(20:02):
they're they're just recording the whole show. They're not even
your phones.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
They are right in front of me.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
They're just Yeah, so that's a little bit. I wish
we could do no phones. Of course I'm gonna sneak
it in anyway, but if we could do that, that
would be pretty great.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. The phones really take
away from the experience because they're they're not you know,
they're not applauding, they're not interacting with each other. They're
they're sort of turned into sort of cameraman they are. Yeah,
it's yeah, it's a different experience. But anyway. Yeah, So
if you're ever in La playing golf, man, I'm a
(20:39):
big golfer too, I'd love to play with you.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You're probably well. I used to be really good. I
used to be a plus handicap. Oh really, I was
actually a zero. I was a plus one at one point.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Oh my goodness, I used to be.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
But I haven't played for a couple of years. I
haven't even played, so I really probably a nine or
ten handicap at the moment.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I mean, I'm hanging right there too with you, there, bro,
I mean I'm about that. Yeah. Great, you know I
can be Tiger Woods on some holes and Natalie Wood
on the other holes.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
You know, have you played with any of the pros.
I have not. No.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Well, I played with you know, club club pros, but
not any of the people that you would know. No,
And I used to do. I used to do the
celebrity tournaments. I played a bunch of those.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I never did those celebrity tournaments. But what I was
I was invited to the eighteen t tournament up at
pebble Beat.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So, oh my god, you have to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I did it. No, I already did it, like.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Some team, and I like, I played that course once,
and uh wow, what of course, it's an amazing golf course.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
It's amazing to play with those guys like you know, Yeah,
I was up there with Tiger. I was up there
with Phil Nicholson, played with you know, all the young players, Rory,
I've played with, Adam Scott, I played with these guys.
They are just I don't know, to play with it.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I know they're so good. It's just like scary and you.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Think, you think they care about the way you play,
and they really don't. So I was I put a
lot of pressure on myself for no reason. But I'm
thinking they're really interested in what I play. They're not
interested at all, couldn't care.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I mean, it's it's like, especially Pelbye's program, it's got
to be nerve wracking. Get on a T box with
all those people and Tiger staring at Yeah, and you
got to hit a drive. You got to hit your drive.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, it's but you know, after sixteen years you get
used to it. But at the first kind of nervous,
but after a while it's actually super grey. And then
the fun part is on the range because you're on
the range and like I'm walking by and there's Phil
Nicholson hitting golf balls, and there's Jason Day hitting golf balls,
and there's and then and you see what's one of
the friendly ones. And some of them are really friendly,
like hey, come over. Some of them just don't want
(22:52):
to talk. And it's fun when you get the pro
that's that's interesting, Like, Okay, how do you do this?
Chip shots? I Philip, come on, how do you do
that flop shot? Well, he'd show me do that? How
you do come on? Explain it? And you're a terrible
teacher he's got it. Was so fun, got to say.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
They can just do it, they can just feel it
and do it.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
And they can't tell you how to do it. They
can't teach it.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
That's amazing. All right. So you're on tour, you're in,
you're in, you're in Paris. Tell tell me what we
can we can expect and where we can see you
coming up?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Well, go to you know, everything's on my website. But December,
we're more on the East coast, Midwest. You were all
over the place. And then two years I play in
Seattle at I do. I do one jazz club, actually
do two jazz clubs. I do Seattle Jazz Alley. We
played ten shows over five nights and New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Super great, wow, fantastic, everybody. Go check out Kenny's website.
What's the website dot com Kenny G dot com, Go,
get go, get tickets, Go to this guy. He's a master,
he's a genius, and he's a pretty darn good golfer
from what I hear. Absolute pleasure. Please please please come back,
(24:08):
and it was a pleasure speaking to you, and keep
on keeping on. Good luck with the tour. Thank you,
thank you, and please come back and see us. All
the best to you, Kenny, You best fans on the planet.
Go to Kenny's website Kenny G dot com. Get some tickets,
Go see this guy, and I'm gonna check him out too,
because I've never seen a Kenny G show and that's
(24:30):
what's wrong with my life. And I gotta fix it.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
You're gonna love it. It's gonna be I guarantee it.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I can't wait. I'm so excited. Anyway, keep those cards
and let letters coming. We need them. We love them.
Best fans on the planet, Remember everybody, where you lead,
we will follow.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
And stay safe.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Everybody, and don't forget. Follow us on Instagram at I
Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at
iHeartRadio dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
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