The Selmer Mark VI is the model of saxophone that Kenny G plays on his soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones. They’re based in Paris, France and have a reputation for producing some of the best saxophones in the world.
Selmer Paris is a company which manufactures instruments like the saxophone, flute and clarinet. The Selmer Mark VI – Kenny G’s preferred model The saxophone is a flexible instrument which can produce a wide variety of sounds, and it is not uncommon for one saxophone to sound like a different type of saxophone. If you are just listening to a song, you might actually find it difficult to tell which saxophone is being used. The tenor saxophone has an extra curve in its neck, while the alto saxophone has no such additional curve. The alto and tenor saxophones at first glance appear similar, but there is an easy way to distinguish between them. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Kenny G – Midnight Motion (from Kenny G Live) () You can find a playlist of his greatest hits below. Songbird, Forever in Love, and The Moment are all classic Kenny G songs that feature the soprano saxophone. Most of Kenny G’s well known songs were played on the soprano saxophone. This makes it easier to circular breathe on, which is part of the reason why Kenny G decided to use this instrument for the purposes of setting a world record for the longest saxophone note held. The smaller size of the instrument, however, also means that one is able to play it even while using less air support. The reason for this is that the smaller mouthpiece makes the instrument more difficult to control. Out of the four most commonly played types of saxophones, the soprano sax is sometimes considered the most difficult to play well.
Is the soprano saxophone difficult to play? Several companies like Rampone & Cazzani also make great sounding saxellos. The vintage King Saxello is one of the most famous and sought after. This makes the saxello play somewhat in between the straight and curved sopranos. The saxello has a bent neck and slightly bent upwards at the bell. Players can hear the true sound of the soprano more easily when playing a curved soprano. Some people like them as they are easier to mic when performing live or in the studio. Curved sopranos have the characteristic bent shape. Whether you're into pop or jazz, Breathless is unlistenable.Soprano’s also come in the curved and saxello variants. Even the presence of the great R&B crooner Aaron Neville on "Even If My Heart Would Break" can't save this one-dimensional release. Always sounding like he's on automatic pilot, Kenny takes no risks whatsoever and sees to it that one song is as shamelessly contrived as the next. There's nothing even remotely tasteful about interchangeable tunes like "Sentimental," "Forever In Love" and "End of the Night," all of which are about as bloodless and schlocky as it gets.
And Breathless isn't bad because it's a pop album or because it's commercial it's bad because of its complete lack of soul, substance or creativity. True, it was silly for jazz artists to judge Kenny by hard bop standards when hard bop (or even soul-jazz or fusion) was a long way from what he was going for. Kenny G's huge following responded that the attacks were silly and misguided because the saxman was the first to admit that he was primarily a pop instrumentalist and wasn't pretending to be anything else. Throughout the 1990s, Kenny G was the whipping boy of the jazz world - the instrumentalist who hardcore jazz improvisers loved to bash when the subject of smooth jazz came up.