Re: Kenny G

[Rachel Fischer <ruchelk...>]

i'm sorry for posting it. i shouldn't have. it was not me that came up with the
mnemonic device.  the class i was in was filled with many people who were very
vocal about the musicians they didn't like, including the teacher.
rachel

Robert Cohen wrote:

> I'm going to stay out of any discussion of whether Kenny G should or
> shouldn't have embarked on his record-over Louis Armstrong project; though
> I'm certainly, as it happens, dubious about all such projects, out of my own
> sense of the integrity of each created work.  (In the Jewish music world,
> someone whose name escapes me--sorry, I should remember--nearly inspired
> apoplexy among some traditionalists by sampling--I think that's what DJs
> call it--old cantorial records and superimposing his own, not very
> traditional stuff.  Maybe some of the same overreaction is going on here.)
> BUT:
>
> 1) I think the "joke"/mnemonic shared here was tasteless, highly
> inappropriate for this or any list, and *very* *un*-funny.  I hope no such
> post will *ever* be posted again.
>
> 2) Even more unfunny is threatening violence--however figuratively or
> otherwise--against Kenny G.  And though I realize that the poster meant no
> harm, he shouldn't have posted that part of the message at all; it
> compromises the entire list.  Threats made on e-mail--whether *really* meant
> or (hopefully) not--are *not* funny or to be indulged. They're certainly not
> taken lightly by various federal authorities--and might not be by Kenny G,
> if he was informed of it.
>
> 3) Whatever one thinks of Kenny G's music, I question whether *anything* he
> does appeals to the "basest" impulses in his listeners.
> "The basest" impulses?  Really?  Running through, rapidly, some of our
> basest impulses, I think not.  But that perhaps could be said, more or less,
> of the "joke"/mnemonic that was posted here.
>
> 4) Is money really the only possible reason that Kenny G embarked on this
> project--again, for better or for worse?  Frankly, that seems exceedingly
> dubious, as he's already made zillions; there may not be a musician on earth
> who *less* needs money than Kenny G.  In any case, speculating as to others'
> intentions is usually unwise and often foolish and mistaken.  Has Kenny G
> *said* or written anything about why he undertook this project?  However
> worthy or unworthy, presumptuous or otherwise, he may have intended it as
> the sincerest homage.  In any case, I'd rather *ask* him--or try to
> ascertain his intentions--rather than just impute ... base (I guess)
> intentions, especially when that sounds so unlikely.
>
> I can accept, I guess, "Pat's" (why anonymous?) passion on this issue, but
> not his threats of violence, not his over-the-top judgment of Kenny G's
> listeners' response, and not his ungrounded imputation of (dubious?)
> motives.  And I most strenuously object to this distasteful and ugly
> mnemonic, which I trust will NOT be re-posted, in replies or otherwise, to
> this list--which, last I knew, is not about fancifully wishing death to
> Jewish musicians, virtuouso or otherwise.
>
> --Robert Cohen (forcefully)
>
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