The New Yorker - USA (2021-12-13)

THENEWYORKER,DECEMBER13, 2021 19

Kenny G

1

SMOOTHOPER ATOR DEPT.

SURPRISEGUEST

A

few hours before the local première
of the new documentary “Listen­
ing to Kenny G,” its subject, Kenny G,
the best­selling instrumentalist in Amer­
ican history, strolled around the shop­
ping mall at Hudson Yards, the biggest
mixed­use private real­estate develop­
ment in American history, poised to de­
light passersby. He carried an instru­
ment case and wore a snappy blue suit;
as ever, his lush profusion of springy
curls were neatly parted on the side. (“I
know for a fact that if I cut my hair my
career will go right down the toilet,” he
says, in the film.) Near a garland­strewn
escalator landing by a Uniqlo, he laid
his case down, popped it open, and ex­
tracted a soprano saxophone—the same
one, the documentary explains, that he’s
played since high school, in the seven­
ties. He did some confident improv, then
segued into a smooth­jazzy “Deck the
Halls.” Heads began to turn.
A young man from Brooklyn, whose
parents were visiting from Georgia,
waved. “Hey, Kenny!” he said cheerfully.
Kenny nodded at them. As he finished

The Knicks, who had fallen behind,
were starting to sober up. Kuo and Det­
rick shared concerns about the state of
Nerlens Noel’s right knee.
Detrick: “He looks hurt.”
Kuo: “When the lockdown hap­
pened last year, my gallery closed. I
made portraits of N.B.A. players to
keep the lights on. I made one of Noel.
He’s our whole season!”
Organ music blared as the Knicks
narrowed the deficit. “The spectre of
Billy Joel really encompasses this whole
place,” Kuo said. With five and a half
minutes left, Noel skied for a block; the
ball wound up in the hands of the Knicks
guard Alec Burks, who made a three to
tie the game. “Will you guys ever for­
get the night the Knicks came back
against the Houston Rockets?” Kuo
asked with a grin. Detrick replied, “We
get to live through history.”
—Jonathan Blitzer

“Deck the Halls,” he called after a woman

with a riot of brown curls, wheeling a

suitcase. “I like your hair!” he said. She

didn’t notice. Another passerby, Liz

Monte, was more impressed. “Oh, my

goodness,” she whispered, with a slight

Caribbean accent. “He was my first con­

cert!” (Chicago, the nineties.) Monte, a

massage therapist for the Milwaukee

Bucks, was having a big week:“We’re

here to play a game tonight; a couple

days ago we went to the White House

and met the President.” Now she was

off to Lululemon. “Thanks, Kenny!” she

said, from the escalator. A security guard

took a video selfie; Kenny G played some

licks into his camera. Next, he surveyed

the “ambience” of a glassy foyer by Tod’s,

snapping his fingers to sample the acous­

tics. “Not bad!” he said. “It’s really more

about the vibe.”

A rapid­fire soprano­sax “Over the

Rainbow” riff filled the air, and a crowd

circled the spectacle from a respectful

distance, looking alternately excited and

confused. A tourist in a green poncho,

visiting from North Carolina, took a

video for her superfan husband; a back­

pack­wearing schoolboy with his mother

got a fist bump; two business­casual

Londoners, “looking at a few things” in

New York for work pertaining to an en­

tertainment company in Saudi Arabia,

didn’t realize that they were also look­

ing at Kenny G. “That’s mental. Abso­

lutely mental!” one said. “I thought he

was awfully good.” A Hudson Yards

employee nervously asked what was

going on; she, too, was startled to be­

hold Kenny G in the foyer. The gath­

ering’s boldest attendee, a fluffy white

dog named Katsu (“It means, like, lit­

tle chicken­pork fried cutlets?” his owner

said), trotted into the circle, cocked his

head, and stared, mesmerized; then he

bounced up and embraced Kenny G’s

pant leg. The crowd laughed.

“Listening to Kenny G,” just released

on HBO Max, is directed by Penny Lane,

and styled as a romp through both his

popularity—he near single­handedly

instigated the genre of smooth jazz

(“When you hear that word ‘easy listen­

ing,’ it almost sounds bad,” he says)—

and his being popularly scoffed at, like

a Fabio of music. (The critic Ben Rat­

liff describes Kenny G’s sound as “a cor­

porate attempt to soothe my nerves”; in

an old “SNL” joke about Kenny G’s

Christmas album, Norm Macdonald

says, “Happy Birthday, Jesus! Hope you

like crap!”) A few biographical details

are surprising: early gigs as a sideman

for Barry White, Liberace (“We never

really hung out,” he said), and the cir­

cus; a breakthrough “Tonight Show”

spot; the ubiquity of his song “Going

Home” in China, where it is played on

P.A. systems to mark the end of the

workday. What does he love about music?

“I don’t know if I love music that much,”

he says in the film—what he loves is

practicing. And golf.

The impromptu Kenny G party con­

cluded outside, near the Vessel. Another

crowd formed; a courier wearing cat­ear

headphones got off his skateboard and

took a video. Kenny G played “Twinkle,

Twinkle, Little Star” to a baby in a stroller,

who dozed off. (He’s got music that

“makes the babies” and music that “puts

them to sleep!” he says.) A young blond

guy stopped in his tracks. “This is so

dope,” he said. “I went to his concert

way back in 2009, in Warsaw.” He was

with his parents, who were visiting from

Poland. Kenny G played “Songbird,” to

oohs and ahs, thanked everyone, and

smilingly made his way off, eager fans

trailing him. “I pitched a Pied Piper Dis­

ney movie to Jeffrey Katzenberg once,”

he mused, walking away. What did he

hope viewers would take from his cur­

rent movie? He thought for a second.

“To inspire somebody who wants to be

good at something,” he said.

—Sarah Larson