My New Hero

I know I read this on another blog, but this is a new article that I found yesterday so I wanted to post some snippets to highlight the fact that Kenny G is my new hero--standing up to Clive and recording an album of his original work.

The G-man saw no point in following other older artists like Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow down the well-worn path of playing cover tunes. So he arranged an amicable divorce from Arista Records in order to return to making original music.

"All my success in the past ... have always been my original compositions played the way that I play and people seem to connect with that," said Kenny G, in a telephone interview from his Malibu, California, home. "I lost sight of that a little bit and I'm glad to be going back to my roots and re-establishing the integrity that I've had in my music.

His new CD "Rhythm & Romance" -- his debut for Concord/Starbucks Entertainment -- is not only the 51-year-old saxophonist's first album of original music since 2002, but also finds him exploring new territory in Latin music.

The new record marks the end of his 25-year relationship with music mogul Clive Davis, who first spotted the saxophonist when he was a sideman in Jeff Lorber's jazz-fusion band and released his self-titled debut album in 1982.

Their partnership resulted in 26 albums -- with global sales totaling more than 75 million records….But more recently the saxophonist says he felt "handcuffed" by having to play cover tunes on which he couldn't stray far from the melody. According to Kenny G, Arista insisted on him doing standards albums such as the 2006 "I'm in the Mood For Love: The Most Romantic Melodies of All Time."

"Unfortunately, I fell into a category with Arista of, 'Well, you can't really do original material any more,' " he said.

"I knew that doing a Latin album of original material was going to be an amazing project ... but Clive and the guys at Arista were not interested at all," he added. "I said, well I have to do this album so we're going to have to get a friendly divorce."

"Personally, I think that this is one of the best albums that Kenny has done in years," said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment. "It's kind of a return for Kenny back to doing original music that is really what he built his reputation and credibility about."

"People can tell when somebody's doing something from their heart or whether they're doing it from their brain," he said. "Fortunately for me, I sleep well at night because I know that I've always played the best that I can ... and a lot of people seem to like what I do."

Way to go Kenny G! Here's hoping Barry is not too far behind...
Texas Fan

Kelly Clarkson...my new hero!

Here's an article that expresses my sentiments EXACTLY....

Clarkson Vs Old Fart Davis
07/13/07 .(antiMusic)
What to do when a dinosaur with an overblown opinion of himself tells you that you need more cheese for your album? If you're Kelly Clarkson you tell him where to put his cheese.

We are talking about the great war between Kelly Clarkson and RCA label head, Clive Davis. Davis, whose biggest claims to fame are inheriting Barry Manilow when he took over a label after being fired from CBS under a cloud of embezzlement allegations and later taking credit for an employee's discovery of Whitney Houston, didn't care for Clarkson wanting to be a legitimate artist and recording her own material. Instead, he wanted the standard cheese factory to manufacture some hits for her. Clarkson did the unthinkable, she stood her ground against the geriatric label head.

Clarkson breaks her silence about the showdown with Davis in the August edition of Blender. When Davis approached her to drop her songs in favor of cheese factory "hits," Clarkson tells the magazine that she responded, "I don't know you very well, and I am not a bull-sh*ter. I get you don't like the album. You're 80. You're not supposed to like my album."

Davis, who prides himself as a record man that knows what manufactured musical "product" the public wants to buy, then told Clarkson that her songs "wouldn't sell more than 600,000 copies." So far her new album has sold a little over 400,000 copies within two weeks of release, so unless sales really tank or stop all together from now on, Davis will be proven wrong.

According to an AOL report , Clarkson further said that 'she doesn't like "working with people at the label" because they lie, and that she's not going to be a "pushover"'. So our hero of the year award goes to Clarkson for standing her ground!

Rushing out to buy Kelly Clarkson's new CD,
(Hoping to PROVE Davis WRONG at last!!!!)
Texas Fanilow