Lane alternates between her time spent with Kenny G and the talking heads wielding their scalpels. Columbia University’s Chris Washburne, NYU’s Jason King, and Will Layman of “PopMatters” join Ratliff and a few others to explain so much visceral critical revulsion in the face of widespread popularity. Ben Ratliff of “The New York Times” puts his finger on that most quintessential of Kenny G associations when he notes that G’s music brings to mind the act of waiting - in a dentist’s office, a bank, a lobby, an elevator, etc. The director enlists a murderer’s row of jazz scholars, academics, and journalists to deconstruct the complexities and problematics of Kenny G. And yes, there are moments in “Listening to Kenny G” when Lane lets her subject fumble like a poseur unworthy of his association with the word jazz. Lane combines bottomless curiosity with an impish sense of playfulness that reads to some observers as a mean streak.
Her films may not yet approach the dazzling, next-level craft displayed by masters like Errol Morris and Kirsten Johnson, but if she keeps producing movies like her latest, it won’t be long before she ends up on the short list of greats. With “Listening to Kenny G,” Lane affirms her status as one of the most talented nonfiction storytellers working today. Lane gets to have her cake and eat it - G is comfortable with the endless supply of jokes made at his expense, a condition that gives Lane the space to examine the highs and lows of a peculiar cultural figure. Far from a straightforward biographical profile, Lane embraces G’s decades-long divisiveness to elaborate on questions of taste, appropriation, and genre.Īnd the musician’s participation in the documentary only adds to the film’s status as a must-see. Maybe some of the things that I said in the past, like from past interviews, I think, “Wow, I guess I'm a lot smarter than I was then.Penny Lane Explains Why We Should Be Listening to Kenny Gīy Greg Penny Lane follows her thought-provoking examination of the Satanic Temple with a subject many would anoint as the Devil of Smooth Jazz: Kenneth Gorelick, known to millions of record-buyers as Kenny G. And so when I saw it, I went, “Oh my gosh, did I look like that?! I wore that shirt?” Some of that stuff brought back memories, but some of it was like, “I don't even remember being there and doing that.” And that's cool, seeing myself that young. Kenny G: Some of the past footage I had forgotten that I did. Q: After watching the completed film, do you feel you've learned anything new about yourself? It doesn't get much longer and hopefully it won’t get much shorter. There's one guy I go see, and he says, “OK, are we ready to do the pretend haircut?” He might cut a little bit here and there, but yeah, curly hair just kind of stays the way it is. I can tell you this, if I cut my hair (a half inch), it looks like I cut (a foot). Kenny G: I haven't had a haircut in two years. During the lockdown, how did you keep them trimmed and not growing out of control?
Q: You also mention that you don't think you could ever cut your signature curls. And I thought, “OK, I might've just blown my whole career. Screw everybody else.” So I did my thing and then I got really chewed out over it. (But) before that my manager was sitting in the (green) room and I said to him, “When the curtain goes up, I'm going to play a different song.” He goes, “This is your life. Kenny G: I was screamed at and yelled at and chastised and chewed out like I've never been before. Q: It blew my mind a little bit that your career hinged on you going rogue on “The Tonight Show” in 1986 and playing “Songbird” – which soon after became a huge radio hit – instead of the song you were supposed to perform. I'm just going to leave it the way it is, or I'm going to minorly tweak it.” I can do that with Clive Davis, so if there's a stranger telling me his or her opinion about what I should be doing with my music, that is going to be meaningless to me. I turn my music in and I've heard Clive Davis tell me things that he wants different: "Kenny, it needs more snare drum." And I take it back and I'm thinking, “This is not correct.
(Laughs) It doesn't really matter what they say. Kenny G: Nope, not one of them, to be honest with you. Q: Did any of the critics featured in “Listening” make any points about your music or hit upon something you hadn’t thought about before? This is not that interesting." But all of a sudden it's done and now we're in the Toronto Film Festival. But as soon as you delve into me, you're going to go, eh, we don't need to do this. I thought, "OK, they talked about doing this documentary. I still can't really believe that this thing actually saw the light of day. Kenny G: It's really at the top, like some of those things you mentioned, because it's not something that I ever thought was going to happen.