Young Man with a Horn

Pat Metheny on Kenny G:

But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis's tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician.

At the moment I'm working in Festival walk, and I'm *glad* that the cheesy big-band swing Christmas music is piped everywhere now, because it means that I don't have to listen to Kenny G all day. (Muzak is piped to the toilets and the retail areas, but not the offices, thank God.)

(UPDATE: OK, Metheny made those comments 6 years ago, but they're just as true today.)

(UPDATE2: Richard Thompson had a go too!.)