Kenny G at the holidays: Miracles, 1994; Faith, 1999; Wishes, 2002; The Greatest Holiday Classics, 2005

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the greatest-selling jazzer of all time

30 years ago, saxman extraordinaire Kenny G released his first holiday-themed album, which hit #1, sold millions of copies, and is still the biggest-selling such record since in the U.S. Earlier this month, I saw G on the Miracles Holiday & Hits Tour for the second time — the first was my first post-COVID vaccinated show in 2001 — and he was again splendid. His sense of humor is profound, for someone as often critically reviled as he. (Though if you’d sold 75+ million records, you probably wouldn’t be too distraught over unkind reviews, either.) And I was fortunate enough to get to meet him after the show; he’s absurdly nice. I highly recommend Penny Lane’s 2021 documentary Listening to Kenny G for more insight into the man and what makes him tick — and why some loathe his music so — and for an even deeper dive, his recent memoir, Life in the Key of G. To my delight, he spends a lot of the book going into his music-making process, and his thoughts on music more generally.

G’s holiday records aren’t necessarily my favorite of his oeuvre; most of his ‘80s work is head and shoulders above it, to my ears. But I’m still a fan, starting with the album which started it all, ‘94’s Miracles.

Entertainment Weekly’s David Browne, reviewing Miracles upon its release in 1994:

“Along with Neil Diamond, Kenny G joins the curious ranks of Jewish men performing Christmas songs. The juxtaposition doesn’t jar him a bit. On Miracles, he and his soprano sax worm their way through easy-listening renditions of ”Silent Night,” ”Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” — you know the repertoire by now. With the album, G’s transformation into the Mantovani of the digital age is complete. It’s perfect background music for shopping in a mall or wrapping presents. His own personal gift is thanking 143 people by name in the credits. It’s a good thing he sold all those records last year — he’ll need the cash for all those presents.” 

What a dick.

First of all, why can’t Jewish artists perform Christmas songs? In an interview with Craig Rosen for The Billboard Book of Number One Albums, G expressed that he was originally “concerned about” doing such an album (suggested by his then-boss, Arista Records president Clive Davis), but decided that using the term “holiday” instead of “Christmas” would help. Additionally, as G is an instrumentalist, there are no religious lyrics heard on the album, and he co-wrote an original, “The Chanukah Song,” as a tribute to his own faith. 

I’d ask who the fuck Browne is to suggest they can’t, or shouldn’t, but the answer to that is that he’s a critic, so: fine. As a critic myself, I get it. But I still think he’s a dick. Every era, digital and otherwise, needs its smooth holiday recordings — not everyone wants to hear the Vandals or Cocteau Twins (the latter one of my holiday favorites) in December. 

Speaking of “easy-listening” (Browne’s words) holiday recordings, when Miracles topped the Billboard 200 shortly after its 1994 release, it was the first such album to do so since Mitch Miller’s Holiday Sing Along with Mitch did so in January 1962. And this album is kind of an analogue to that one: classic Christmas melodies produced inoffensively, perfect for every age to hear at the holidays. It’s not the most artistically challenging record, but it’s lovely, especially if you’re not opposed to some artificial sweeteners at Christmas.

Miracles now sounds a little sleepy to me; I prefer 1999’s Wishes, though the “Millennium Mix” of “Auld Lang Syne,” G’s final top 10 pop hit as the calendar turned over into 2000, is a must to avoid as it drops soundbites of news and pop culture into the mix. 2002’s Faith, his third such album, features several medleys which work well, including “Deck the Halls/The Twelve Days of Christmas,” which he performs live and is about the only way I can stomach the latter title, one of the most irritating Christmas standards. But without its words, it’s largely fine! 2005 saw the release of The Greatest Holiday Classics, which collects songs from his first three holiday albums and augments them with a quintet of newly recorded selections. The big band take on “Jingle Bell Rock” is one of the most straight-ahead jazzy items in G’s catalog, and a great success.

Here’s the thing about Kenny G’s holiday music, which is mostly cover versions of classics: he likes melodies. A lot. And so most of these recordings are fairly unadorned, true to their original compositions. If that works for you, and you enjoy the sound of sax, you’ll likely be into these; if not, you won’t. It’s that simple.

[Pieces of this were originally written for Rock and Roll Globe in 2019.]