Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (born June 5, 1956), known professionally as Kenny G, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, composer, and producer.

[2] Kenny G was born in Seattle, Washington and started playing the saxophone aged 10, inspired by a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Kenny G's fourth solo album, Duotones (1986), marked the start of his most commercially successful period, featuring the hit single "Songbird".

Despite facing criticism from some jazz musicians, Kenny G remains a highly successful and influential figure in contemporary instrumental music.

[6][7] In addition to his studies while in high school, he took private lessons on the saxophone and clarinet from Johnny Jessen, once a week for a year.

[citation needed] Kenny G's career started with a job as a sideman for Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1973, when he was 17 and still in high school.

[8][9] He continued to play professionally while studying for a major in accounting at the University of Washington in Seattle, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa[10] and magna cum laude.

[12] Using the name Kenny Gorelick, he played flute and saxophones with the Seattle funk band Cold, Bold & Together during 1975–1976[11][13] before becoming a credited member of the Jeff Lorber Fusion in 1980.

[14] Kenny G signed with Arista Records as a solo artist in 1982, after label president Clive Davis heard his rendition of "Dancing Queen" by ABBA.

During this time, he collaborated with musician, singer, songwriter, and producer Kashif on many tracks, including the 1985 single "Love on the Rise".

His fourth solo album, Duotones, was released in September 1986 and features an original instrumental track, "Songbird", inspired by his decision to move from Seattle to Los Angeles, which marked the start of a new life for him.

The 1987 hit single "Love Power", a Dionne Warwick duet with Jeffrey Osborne that featured G as a guest saxophonist, peaked at No.

Kenny G has collaborated with a wide variety of artists, such as Andrea Bocelli,[15] Aaron Neville, Toni Braxton, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince,[16] Natalie Cole,[17] Steve Miller,[18] Weezer, Dudley Moore, Lee Ritenour, The Rippingtons, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Frank Sinatra, Bebel Gilberto, and Smokey Robinson.

Kenny G appears on the soundtrack of The Bodyguard, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, performing "Waiting for You" and "Even If My Heart Would Break".

The album included many hits such as "Forever in Love", the recipient of the Grammy Award for the Best Instrumental Composition and which charted in the Billboard Year-End Hot 100.

[11] He also performed the "National Anthem of the United States" at the 1994 FIFA World Cup closing ceremony at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on July 17, 1994.

[20] The same year, his song "Havana", from the album The Moment, was remixed by Todd Terry and Tony Moran and released to dance clubs in the U.S.

In 2006, Kenny G released his eleventh studio album, entitled I'm in the Mood for Love...The Most Romantic Melodies of All Time featuring renditions of The Beatles's songs, the love theme from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the Secret Garden's hit song "You Raise Me Up", and James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", as well as the Chinese ballad "The Moon Represents My Heart".

On the October 8, 2011 episode of Saturday Night Live, he performed with alternative rock band Foster the People on the song "Houdini".

Kenny G posted Twitter images of his visit to the site of the 2014 Hong Kong protests, which the PRC government has declared illegal, saying, "I wish everyone a peaceful and positive conclusion to this situation".

[33][34][35][36] In February 2017, Kenny G was satirized by Andy Samberg in the Netflix program "Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special".

[39] Reaching 37 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song was his first entry on the chart since 2000 and resulted in his becoming one of just five artists—alongside Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2 and "Weird Al" Yankovic—to have appeared in the top 40 every decade from the 1980s to the 2010s.

"[43] The Nickelodeon series parodies the artist with the character Kelpy G.[44] In 2022, he appeared on avant-garde metal band Imperial Triumphant's song "Merkurius Gilded" alongside his son Max Gorelick on guitar.

Metheny stated that the "controversy" that has surrounded Kenny G "among musicians and serious listeners" is due to the fact that "he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years".

[53] The New York Times' Ben Ratliff opined that a recording by Armstrong, known especially for improvisation, should not be altered by a musician "whose range and depth of understanding was already in question.

"[54] Alto saxophonist Charles McPherson expressed "mixed feelings", stating that Kenny G's "audience probably does not know Armstrong or Getz or Charlie Parker.

"[55] Critic Josef Woodard found Kenny G serving "a noble purpose by offering musicians a paradigm of what not to do" in a JazzTimes poll in which, though, players such as Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman were characterized as "overrated".

Lane stated she chose Kenny G as her subject because he is "a musician who is objectively popular, by way of record sales, but is also hated by the 'critical class'.

[69] He is a personal friend of former Starbucks chairman and chief executive officer Howard Schultz and was an early investor in the coffeehouse chain.