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Released in 1986 (review written January 8, 2024)
Rating: 9/10 I never knew much about Kenny G, or really listened to him, until around 9th or 10th grade. Kids in my band classes would sometimes joke about him. It wasn't until I discovered the local record store, where I bought a CD of Kenny's 1986 album 'Duotones', that I realized those kids were WRONG! Kenny is the G, and that's final, word? Is he classical jazz? No! Is he experimental? No! Is he a great time, alone or with your sweetheart? Yes! And he's damn fine pop music, regardless of his status as a jazz musician. 1. Songbird - The first song of the album is really seductive. Kenny's sax plays like a songbird in the treeline. The chime effect you hear at the transition is magical. Everything here sets my brain's alarms off, telling me it's time to sit down, relax, and enjoy playing some World of Warcraft. School is over, I'm home and I'm alone, and I don't have to think about how my friends are into drugs, or how girls don't like me, or how some kids bully me, or how I'm failing all my classes and ditching school a lot, or how I'm getting fat and sickly from all the soda and junk food, or how my dad is drinking himself to death. Instead, I'm instantly transported into a world of fantasy elves and gnomes and orcs, all to the soothing songster known as Kenny G. Good times... I suppose. From a different perspective, you can surely imagine some middle-aged secretary in the Midwest coming home, kicking her tights heels to the floor and sipping a glass of chilled box wine while she mutters "Oh Kenny..." in a husky tone, with a slight tremble that gradually goes away as the album takes the edge off of her constant neuroticism over the divorce and bills and how her cats keep pooping outside their litterbox. 2. Midnight Motion - This peppy tune is really funky. It's not Kenny's funkiest (that's reserved for his first album -- listen to 'The Shuffle'), but it's still a really driving force. The chord modulation (I think that's what it is) around 2 minutes in is sweet, and so is the part where the chorus changes a bit afterwards. When he sustains that note, it feels so good. I like to whistle to his songs and have gotten pretty good at hitting most of the notes. 3. Don't Make Me Wait For Love - I was very surprised when I first heard this because there were vocals! I had no idea. What a shock. The dude's voice is very smooth 80s R&B. Some would call this song cheesy and they'd be right I guess? I don't really know what "cheesy" and "corny" or "tacky" mean, to be honest. It's like a word everyone uses that I just silently go along with without any conceptual understanding. 4. Sade - This and the next song might be some of Kenny's finest. They are a practically scientific blend of smooth and funky. Imagine peanut butter being simultaneously smooth and chunky -- doesn't make much sense, does it? But Kenny accomplishes it here. The synths are working over-time to give the song the correct ambience. 5. Champagne - My favorite Kenny G song I think. I'd vaguely heard it before the CD, perhaps at a dentist or doctor's waiting room. Yeah, I know, people joke about that all the time. I'd kill for Kenny G to be played more in grocery stores and offices. What do you usually hear instead? Some modern 2020 Top 40 radio station where everybody mumbles under their breath, or the girls sound like Mariah Carey after a couple cartons of cigarettes (and too many Twinkies), or the mindnumbing oompah-loompah rap with "artists" who have rainbow french fries for hair? Even if you dislike Kenny G, how could you want that over smooth jazz? Seriously? Absolutely inhuman... 6. What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) - Another vocal song. This one is much better. It's very motivating. I'd be jamming along in WoW, whatever I was doing. I might think about girls at school (probably Jacqui or Stephanie at the time) but instead of being sad like most music makes me, I'd feel good. What does it take? Kenny's sax is very lyrical on its own and feels like a natural extension of the singer, which is so cool. 7. Slip of the Tongue - Here we have a song that is a return to form for Kenny. It's a style akin to his 1985 album 'Gravity', which was a, for lack of a better term, very "horny" album. It was just a ton of songs about lovin' all day, and lovin' all night, and how he's gotta get your number. Slip of the tongue could just be about a social faux pas, true. Or it could be, uh,... you know. It really is a song straight out of an old porno movie. 8. Three of a Kind - We return to the ballad for a little respite from the party songs. This one really makes me think of a young boy living in the big city, on a bright summer's day, opening his bedroom window, and looking out at the blue sky while he daydreams about his crush at school. And then when the sax switches in the song, the perspective changes to the girl, doing the same thing and thinking longingly about the boy. Neither of them have talked, but both are inexplicably in love with each other, hoping that when the summer ends and they return to school that they can drum up the courage to ask the other out to the movies or a walk in the park. I know the song is called 'Three of a Kind', so to spice it up, maybe they both write a love letter to each other without sending it. But then: a mutual friend comes by each of their apartments and sees the letter. She's the boy's cousin and the girl's childhood friend, and playing the match maker, delivers the letters with a sly grin. 9. Esther - When I first heard this song, I was transported mentally back to Final Fantasy I for the PSX. This really reminds me of the Chaos Temple where you fight Garland. As for the title, it also makes me think of this girl from high school a grade older than me named Esther. I basically didn't know her but for some reason during my first week or 2 as a freshman, she wanted to be really helpful to me about school. Did she like me? Who knows. I never will. What makes it feel even more mysterious and tragic is that Valentine's Day that year, the school had a wall of paper hearts people could take and write the name of their crush and put it on the wall. Someone told me my name was up there. And sure enough, it was! Someone did like me, and to this day I am sure they weren't just messing around with me. I ran around the school madly asking everyone nearby if they saw who put the heart up. The only information I could gather was it might have been a girl named "Esther". And so this song makes me think of her, of what could've been. Here's to you, mysterious girl of my dreams. 10. You Make Me Believe - And the last song is another vocal. Some people might not like these. I get it. You just want to relax to some instrumental smooth jazz. Earl Klugh is pretty good for that. Grover Washington Jr. is also decent until his later albums, when he incorporates a lot of singing (and it's way worse than Kenny G). But I can't help myself liking this song. It just feels nice. I used to be guilty, but it's time I'm loud and proud about my enjoyment of Kenny G. His music is excellent. If you like 80s pop music in any capacity, then you're bound to like something here. If you're a stodgy old jazzman, well, don't think of it as jazz. Don't even think of it as jazz adjacent. Just because Kenny says it's jazz, don't believe it. It's marketing. And if you're a sax player like me, how could you dislike his tone? It's stunning. There's obviously a lot of production going on behind the scenes but you can't fake that sound. He's an excellent player and absolutely has the chops, as they say. Hate the songwriting, sure, but you have to at least acknowledge Kenny G as the sax man, the legend that he is. You are fooling yourself otherwise. Associations:
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