Songbird

The single "Songbird" was first released by the saxophonist Kenny G, a.k.a. Kenny Gorelick, in 1986 on the album Duotones. It's a purely instrumental track not easy to classify in terms of genre. Hated by jazz purists on account of its lack of true jazz aesthetic, "Songbird" stylistically inhabits the borderlands between jazz and elevator music. The conventionally accepted definition of Kenny G's music is "smooth jazz" (it has also been called "Yuppie jazz"), although some people may be uncomfortable with the similarity between the terms "smooth jazz" and "cool jazz," the post-bebop style pioneered by Miles Davis starting with the Birth of the Cool album in 1957, an attempt to blend classical and jazz influences and make bebop more accessible to the general listening public. This seems to be the only aspect of Davis' legacy that Kenny G has followed: maximum accessibility. Most other stylistically important conventions that make jazz what it is (the fundamental emphasis on improvisation, for instance) have been abandoned in Kenny G's soporific brand of "jazz." In an interview widely discussed and publicized on YouTube, the foremost jazz guitarist Pat Metheny said that Kenny G is responsible for putting many people off jazz. "I can understand why people don't like jazz, because right now, sometimes you say the word 'jazz' and people think of some of the worst music on earth. Like, for instance, Kenny G. I mean, there's nothing more stupid than that – let's face it, it's the dumbest music there ever could possibly be in the history of human beings. There could never be music any worse than that. And now people think that that's what jazz is. That's not what jazz is, at all." In another interview, Metheny stated that Kenny G's 1999 single "What a Wonderful World (feat. Louis Armstrong)," in which Kenny G overdubbed himself over the jazz legend, was an act of "musical necrophilia." Folk-rocker Richard Thompson wrote a song in response to Pat Metheny's outspoken stance against Kenny G called "I agree with Pat Metheny." The lyrics go, "I agree with Pat Metheny, Kenny's talents are too teeny, he deserves the crap he's going to get. Overdubbed himself on Louis, what a musical chop-suey, raised his head above the parapet." Kenny G's tack is refusing to categorize his music, which gives him some impunity from jazz critics. "If somebody calls me a jazz musician, I'm very flattered," he said.

Kenny G played a soprano saxophone on this song, which is sometimes confused for a clarinet. The soprano sax is straight, unlike larger saxophones that are played vertically.

"Songbird" was merely an album cut from Kenny G's Duotones, but he loved the song and wanted to get it out there. His label, Arista Records, didn't think a jazzy instrumental would have much appeal, so they had vocalists sing on the Kenny G songs they released as singles. His first single from Duotones was "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)," a cover of a 1969 song by Junior Walker & the All-Stars with tenor sax from Kenny and a vocal by Ellis Hall. Arista landed Kenny a gig on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show October 9, 1986, a huge opportunity. He was supposed to play "What Does It Take" and, if there was time, "Songbird," but of course there wasn't time. Knowing he had just one song, Kenny came out with his soprano sax and played "Songbird," infuriating the show's producers. But the audience loved it and so did the wife of Don Ienner, a vice president at Arista. Ienner told his boss, Clive Davis, who suddenly realized "Songbird" had broad pop appeal and was not confined to the jazz niche. He released it as a single and got behind it in a big way, sending personal notes to program directors that essentially said, "I know you don't want to play a sax instrumental from an unknown artist, but trust me, this is a hit." Davis had a track record of hits, so his missive carried weight. One by one, radio stations added it to their playlists and got great reaction from listeners. Soon, "Songbird" was playing across the country, and on July 11, 1987, it rose to #4 on the Hot 100, making it a very improbable hit. Kenny G, vindicated, was given the green light to make as many saxy instrumentals as he could blow, and he did. His next album, Silhouette, was full of them, and the title track, an instrumental in the same phylum as "Songbird," was the first single and also a hit, this time going to #13.