BREATHLESS – KENNY G – ARISTA 07822-18646-2

Almost two decades ago, my girlfriend at the time came to me and said (I remember this literally) “I bought you a CD by this renowned clarinetist that I know you’ll love”. She gave me Breathless by Kenny G, and I immediately knew that it wouldn’t last much longer.

Breathless was the saxman’s sixth CD production, which became a music bestseller. The record travels the fine aesthetic line between pop music and smooth jazz, being neither of them. In Breathless, all the tunes combine the lightness of smooth jazz, with the predictability of pop. As a listener you always seem to know what is going to happen, and that is what eventually happens. The songs The joy of life, Forever in love, In the rain and Sentimental are shallow and unsurprising. Despite that, G does a technically acceptable job with the drums’ sequences, but while listening to the CD I started questioning the automatic playing of the sax. Was G just cruising through the melodies with his honey making single reed wand? This over abundance of well-known licks is unenchanting, and that is how it sounds: obvious and safe. Speaking of taking chances through a record, did you know that that same year (1992) Wynton Marsalis released Citi Movement, Joe Lovano Universal Language and Nirvana their Hormoaning?

However, I have to admit that the song G bop created some expectations (mainly for its title) which only lasted until I listened to it, nothing about bop, nor in the key of G, all about Kenneth Gorelick’s manufactured emotions. By the time this night is over could have been the least anticlimactic cut of the album. We heard Peabo Bryson’s lead voice in timeless versions of Disney movies’ songs. He is the one who sings along with Celine Dion in The beauty and the beast and in A whole new world, from Aladdin to name a few. Bryson’s participation couldn’t emerge from an ocean of commonalities. The song follows the recipe of every cloying love song, with extra cheesy saxophone fill-ins.

Needless to say, my relationship was over that night…

Uniform, interchangeable melodies in 4/4, almost at the same tempo, make a fair summary of this record. In the 20’s Eric Satie purposely wrote “furniture music” or ‘music not to be listened’, in the 90’s G wrote almost seventy minutes of it without even realizing. I can recommend this album; it is a must if you are fond of fungible music.

Disclaimer: this article was an “audition” review for a publication for which I work at the moment. Visit the Fanfare magazine archive to read my most recent work.