Sing a song of six pence

Kenny Gorelick, better known as Kenny G has been quite a phenomenon with his curly locks and long notes on the saxophone. The butt of many a joke, the man has nontheless made his light music reach tremendous proportions in terms of sales. He holds the record for the highest-selling Christmas album, as well as a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for playing the longest note ever recorded on a saxophone.
Armed with his sax, the ‘G’ man is here for his first ever India visit with his latest album Rhythm and Romance released earlier this year. He has parted with his old label Arista and released the album with Concord/Starbucks Entertainment. “Arista was not interested in my Latin concept and I really wanted to do it so I had to leave,” Kenny explains.
While listeners have been accustomed to his ballads and his recent covers, the album comes equipped with completely original material. “I think that artistes go through phases of original and cover tunes. There aren’t any rules as to what to record. I wanted to do original music for this album,” he says.
“Just feeling the rhythm of Latin music was all I needed,” he says on inspiration for doing a Latin album. And of course he totally leaves it to his fans to receive his new work.
Composing a Latin album of original material was an amazing project, he says. Could his music have a little bit more rhythm and a little less ballad? “I write what I write. I’m not thinking about anything else. There’s a lot of really up-tempo songs and much more improvisation this time around. There’s more rhythm here than anything I’ve ever done but yet it’s still romantic. You’ve got to continually try to reinvent yourself,” he says.“I’m sure that I’m going to take home a great feeling from my first visit,” he adds. Well, we’ll be hearing Kenny G live for once rather than in an elevator. He performs in Mumbai on Sunday, May 11.