The sax symbol

FOR KENNY G, ‘smooth jazz’ is nothing more than words. I’ve been around a long time, the 52-year-old saxophonist says, so I remember when that title came into existence. It doesn’t bother me, because it’s just a way for people to know what they’re getting.

“Like going to a restaurant,” he says. “If they say, ‘We serve Italian food,’ you may not like every Italian dish, but it gives you a sense of what you’ll get. It just helps people to get an idea of what the music’s going to generally sound like.” When asked, the former Kenny Gorelick tells people: “I play the sax. I’m an instrumentalist.” Before the “smooth jazz” moniker existed, Kenny was out there with platinum albums, scoring a Top 5 hit with ‘Songbird’ (1987) and the top-selling instrumental album of all time with ‘Breathless’ (1992). He has sold 75 million albums worldwide, 48 million of them in the United States, and his ‘Miracles: The Holiday Album’ (1994) is the world’s top-selling Christmas album.

A former member of Jeff Lorber’s band and of Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra, Kenny also holds the Guinness Book of World PHOTO: NYT Records mark for the longest note ever recorded: 45 minutes and 12 seconds in 1997.

Some critics The love is not universal, however. Critics have derided his music as jazz lite, elevator Muzak and pop piffle. Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny once referred to a Kenny recording of ‘What a Wonderful World,’ with Louis Armstrong’s voice grafted on, as ‘musical necrophilia.’ The saxophonist merely shrugs off the slams, however.

“I make my music,” says Kenny, who is married and has two sons, as well as a scratch golf game that’s endeared him to the pro circuit. It comes from jazz, but it comes from other areas as well. It’s its own kind of thing, and a lot of people don’t quite know what to do with it.

“That’s something I can’t worry about,” he says. “I make the best music I can, and try to stretch and grow every time I play. A lot of people seem to like it, and they’re the ones I’m ultimately playing for.” The formidable success he’s achieved made it all the more frustrating when he was forced to part ways with his long-time record label.

“I was with Clive Davis and Arista Records,” Kenny recalls. “I was really part of the Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart thing, where we’re doing cover tunes. That was just part of what they wanted to do and release.” Kenny played the good soldier, recording standards for ‘I’m in the Mood for Love’ (2006). He chafed, however, when that album sold only 250,000 copies, a weak performance by his standards.

“I wanted to do original music,” he says. “And they said, ‘No, we want you to do another one of these records.’ Then I said ‘No,’ and we both decided, ‘Well... I guess we’re done’.” “I’ve always done best with my own music.” New home So Kenny found a new home, the jazz-oriented Concord Records, and set to work on ‘Rhythm & Romance,’ his first album in six years to be made up mostly of original songs.

Working with long-time collaborator Walter Afanasieff, Kenny tapped into a Latin influence that has been part of his music since he grew up hearing bossa-nova songs by the likes of Stan Getz and Cannonball Adderley.

“I’ve done a couple of Latin-style songs in my previous records, here and there,” says Kenny, who recruited a number of Latin musicians to join him for the sessions. “I just wanted to see if I could do a whole album of that kind of Latin rhythm, with my saxophone and sense of melody on top of that.

“I feel like it’s a really different album than I’ve done in the past, one that, if people like my music, they’re sure going to like it, because it’s got the best of a lot of styles: my style, Latin ...” That certainly seems to be the case. ‘Rhythm & Romance’ debuted at No.1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart after its release in February. That has emboldened Kenny to move forward with more original music, possibly including some classical material.

“I want to write music that sounds like a Beethoven song you’ve heard forever, but is an original song with me playing,” Kenny says playfully. “I think that would be fun.” Until that time, however, he’s happy enough to keep playing the kind of music that’s worked so well for him to this point. No matter what people choose to call it.

“I don’t walk around telling people I play anything in particular,” Kenny says. “I’m one of the only instrumentalists lucky enough to be played on popular radio. Some call it jazz, some call it pop. But not that many people get that kind of exposure, so I’m just grateful.”