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• Kenny G's official site
• "Saxophonist Kenny G talks about latest CD and playing in Nationwide event"
• Kenny G at VH1

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Tavis: Kenny G is a Grammy-winning musician and the biggest-selling instrumental artist of our time with more than seventy-five million in sales to date. His latest CD is called "Rhythm & Romance" which is a collection of Latin love songs available through Starbucks Entertainment and Concord Records. Kenny G, nice to have you on the program.

Kenny G: Thank you.

Tavis: How are you, man?

Kenny G: Nice to meet you. It's good to see you.

Tavis: Good to meet you as well. Especially for a guy like you, I guess, you got to have a concept for the records that you do. Why is that true for a guy like you and how do you keep coming up with these various concepts?

Kenny G: Well, I'm not sure whether it's that specific to a guy like me, but I think you've got to know what you want to do.

Tavis: Right.

Kenny G: You know, as an instrumentalist, it's different. You know, I'm not putting out a message, so it's all about -

Tavis: - that was my point about why the concept is so important. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but unpack it for me.

Kenny G: I don't know. For me, it's all about the integrity of how I play as a musician-songwriter. You know, this particular record was a labor of love because it's like almost all original. I've done so many cover tunes in the past few years, I was so ready to do original music.

So I guess the concept for me was, okay, what am I going to do? I'm going to do love words in music. Then what happens next? You know, I like Latin music. Do you think I can marry this romantic sax with some Latin rhythms? Let's see what happens, so we did.

Tavis: Because to your point, you have done so many covers. For you - and I've always wanted to ask you this - how do you decide what makes a good cover, a good nominee, for a Kenny G cover?

Kenny G: Tough.

Tavis: Yeah.

Kenny G: Well, you know what sounds good on paper doesn't necessarily work. I have to play it. I've got lots of ideas. I've tried lots of tunes. I remember, what was that song? It was a Sade song called "Smooth Operator." Perfect. Tried it. I couldn't even do it. Sounded terrible. So, you know, it's a lot of trial and error and that takes time.

Tavis: "Smooth Operator," for those watching right now, explain that. "Smooth Operator" is such a good song, which is why it got your attention. What was it in the studio, though, about your playing it that didn't work?

Kenny G: Well, the original song has her singing beautifully and it had a sax solo in it. So I started to play the melody and then what happens when you get to the sax solo? Well, I already played the melody and then I'm going to play a sax solo and it was just confusing. And the way I played that melody, it didn't do anything for me. There's a lot of songs that go right in the trash can when I make my records. When I end up with twelve, thirteen, fourteen songs -

Tavis: - you've gone through how many?

Kenny G: Could be twenty or twenty-five. It doesn't end up on the record until - I have to love it. I have to love every note. I have to love the tempo. I have to love the key changes. I have to love how many seconds between each. I have to love, you know, what's the level? Because I don't want anyone to have to turn up or down their volume when they're listening to my CD.

I'm old school. I still think of it as an album. I think people are going to listen from the first song to the last and not pick and choose. So for me, when you listen to my records, I hope you listen to them from one and it just play because there's a whole thing that happens.

Tavis: I'm no artist, but I would think, given my love for music, that Latin music would be such a wonderful nominee for this instrument.

Kenny G: I remember listening to a Cannonball Adderley album of Bossa Novas and Stan Goetz did a lot of Latin music, but I always the saxophone and Latin music would marry well, but how is it going to work for me because I have to my own thing to it? So, you know - and the challenge on this one was composing the music because it's not just I took a bunch of Latin songs and did it. I wrote these and co-wrote these with my friend, Walter. We're the two white guys.

Tavis: (Laugh).

Kenny G: We came up with this Latin stuff and we come in the studio and it's all Latin guys, which we wanted.

Tavis: So how did two white guys go about finding the nerve, much less the skills, to take on Latin music with a bunch of Latin artists?

Kenny G: Well, you know, I'll tell you what happens. Here's what I did. I walked into the studio and said, "Hey, Walter, listen to this melody. I hear it like this" and I went (playing) and I said, "Just that with a Bossa Nova rhythm." I said, "I like that. I want to do something like that."

We came up with this one song and, from there, we went song after song and that's how it happened. I don't know. I live in a closet. I don't listen a lot to other music, so that when I write my music, it just doesn't have anything to do with anything except me.

Tavis: Now that sounds strange to me. How does a guy who is famous for making covers not listen to other stuff?

Kenny G: Well, you know, to listen to those covers, I mean, I'm forced to listen to them just to learn the tune and then I don't listen anymore. I just play it my way. But I haven't that many covers, just recently. Most of my success has come with my song writings.

My "Songbird" was a big song and, I'll tell you, I remember when I played that song for the first time on the Johnny Carson Show. They didn't want me to play it. Back in those days, there was no smooth jazz. There was a format on R&B radio called "The Quiet Storm," midnights.

Tavis: It's still on some stations today.

Kenny G: You'd hear a little Stanley Turn tune, a little Grover Washington, Jr. and, when I came on to the scene here, I got to play there. So when I was with Clive Davis, the whole concept was we're going to do R&B songs with singers, you're going to play the solos and then you'll do some instrumentals.

They'll like the music because of the hit vocal, then they'll discover you're the white sax player and hopefully they'll like you. That was the concept. So when we were on Johnny Carson, we had a single out called "What Does It Take to Win Your Love," Junior Walkerton.

Tavis: I know it, sure.

Kenny G: And the curtain goes up, but before the curtain goes up, they say, "Oh, by the way. Johnny's running late. You're only down to one song" because they wouldn't let me play two. I said, "I want to play my little song, "Songbird." "I don't care what you play in the second half of the show." Curtain goes up, I looked at the guys, we're only playing one song, I said, "Hit "Songbird."

They were so mad at me, so mad. I played it and they came after and said, "You're never going to be on the show again. How dare you? We don't even let instrumentalists play on this show and you abuse this privilege? We wanted you to play this other song and you do that one?"

Well, Monday morning, Clive Davis in his office has a meeting and they all decide that that song, "Songbird," is the song to go with because of that performance and they made it a big hit. And I was on Johnny six months later and I got couch.

Tavis: (Laugh) And got couch. Wow.

Kenny G: I got couch, yeah.

Tavis: Instrumentalists don't couch (laugh).

Kenny G: You don't get couch. I remember sitting on the couch and Doc Severinsen's over there playing that song, you know, (playing) that song called "Killer Joe" and says, "Kenny, take a solo." I'm thinking I'm on the couch on Johnny Carson and Doc Severinsen's asking me to play a solo? That was it, man.

Tavis: What do you think, then, these many years later of the burgeoning growth of this genre called smooth jazz on radio?

Kenny G: Too many, too many artists.

Tavis: Too many artists, man?

Kenny G: Yeah. You know, quite frankly, I can't tell the difference between sax player A and sax player, you know, G. Not this G. This G, I can tell. I mean, I don't say that with any disrespect to the players, but there's just a lot of guys making this kind of music. It's not necessarily heartfelt. It's all about a record company thinking, okay, how do we sell records with instrumental music? I never thought about that. There wasn't this format -

Tavis: - well, a lot of people blame you for this, though. A lot of people blame you for smooth jazz.

Kenny G: A lot of them thank me that they have careers too, so I'm happy to help, you know. I'm all for everybody - listen, there's plenty of room out there. I'm never jealous. If somebody sells twenty million records, I think, "Great. That means people are buying records." I don't ever think, well, there's not that many left for me. But I just think that, you know, there's just too many. There's not that many - it should be special. If you got a special sound, okay, go for it.

Tavis: To your point now, special sound, that raises for me the question as to what you think others have described your sound. How do you describe what makes your sound uniquely different than the other over-abundance of stuff on smooth jazz?

Kenny G: I can't answer it. It's intangible. You know, why does Tavis Smiley look and sound like he does? You're a unique person. When I play the saxophone, I remember in high school - this is the same horn when I went to Franklin High.

Tavis: Same horn.

Kenny G: Same horn, and I played it for the first time because I wanted to sound like whoever I was listening to and my friend said, "That doesn't sound like a soprano sax." I went, "Oh, man." I've been for years trying - I can only sound like me. I just sound like me. I don't know what it is, but that's just me.

Tavis: Has this horn been named kind of like B.B. King names his guitar Lucille?

Kenny G: No, no. I'm not attached to it like that. I only play this horn, but when it goes back in the case, I don't care about it anymore. I'm off to other things. You know, I'll play golf or I'll go to the movies or I'll do whatever.

Tavis: How does a horn survive that many - how many years you been playing this thing now?

Kenny G: This one has been played for me for thirty-five years I've had it.

Tavis: Obviously, a horn can survive that many years and still sound good?

Kenny G: Yeah. The little pads in there need to be replaced. There are springs that need to be replaced, but, you know, you play it, you put it back in the case, take it easy, treat it nicely. It never says no to me, so I never say no to it (laugh). We got a good relationship.

Tavis: So are you gonna tour for this thing?

Kenny G: Yeah, yeah. I'm out this year. This record means a lot to me. I'll tell you why.

Tavis: Because you wrote the stuff.

Kenny G: Because it's original material, you know.

Tavis: Exactly.

Kenny G: And in a day when everybody's doing so many cover tunes, it's all about songs of the sexy 70s, 80s, you know, all that stuff, I wanted to do original material. And I think people that like my music deserve for me to just do the best that I can.

Tavis: Are you ever amazed that - and I say this with only the most respect - are you ever amazed that, given how you started, given the Johnny Carson story, given all the stories you could tell like that, that you're still here, that you're still thriving, that you've sold over seventy-five million records? Does that surprise you?

Kenny G: Well, I never think about the record sales because I don't want that to get in my brain. I just feel honored that, after all these years, people still like my music and I'm still able to do it. But, you know what? I work really hard at it. Every morning, I practice this thing for two and a half hours, two and a half hours.

Tavis: You still do that, still now, to this day?

Kenny G: (Playing) Over and over, scales, scales, scales, tone.

Tavis: You still practice that hard after all these years?

Kenny G: Yeah. So I feel like, if I put in the time, people maybe people - intangible. Maybe they can't tell exactly. Nobody knows what I do every day, but when they hear the records, maybe they go, "You know what? There's something in there" and maybe all that practicing and all the heart and the integrity and the compassion that I put into my stuff, maybe that's why I'm here for so long, I hope.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you. The new CD from Kenny G is called "Rhythm & Romance" on the Starbucks label, correct?

Kenny G: And Concord Records.

Tavis: And Concord Records. Did I plug that right (laugh)?

Kenny G: You did great and you can do it over and over. If you didn't get it right, do it again.

Tavis: The new Kenny G record is called - get out of here (laugh). Good to see you, Kenny. Nice to see you.

Kenny G: Okay.