The Albums the world forgot - 10

by Stuart Dangerfield | 1:47 pm 11/07/2010

Graham Turner, Melodies For Millions: A Tribute to Kenny G (2003, Luxury Multimedia Ltd.)

Sometimes a musician affects you so strongly, so intensely – indeed, penetrates your soul so deeply – that you feel you must pay tribute to them. This is clearly the way Graham Turner felt about Kenneth Gorelick (known to most of us as Kenny G) when he decided to make the tribute album Melodies For Millions: A Tribute to Kenny G. If there was ever a musician to provoke strong reactions from the very depths of one’s soul, it would be Gorelick. The curly-haired saxophonist has gained international recognition for being the world’s most famous – and highest-selling – jazz artist of all time, literally selling melodies for millions of dollars, to millions of people. 

Though Gorelick has had many hits over the years, he is perhaps most well-known within the jazz community for his groundbreaking version of Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’, in which he took the original recording and replaced Armstrong’s trumpet solo with his own. One of the many jazz musicians moved by this version was guitarist Pat Metheney, who commended Gorelick on his “musical necrophilia,” saying: “[W]hen Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to … [play] all over one of the great Louis' tracks … [he] created a new … point in modern culture[.]”

While not as vocal as Metheney, Turner has clearly been affected by Gorelick’s music in his own way. Not much is known about Turner, and the scant liner notes give nothing away: even his name is hidden away on the inside cover, as if he were afraid of drawing attention away from his hero. Over the course of the album, Turner reproduces several of Gorelick’s classic reproductions of popular songs, such as ‘My Heart Will Go On’ and ‘Kiss From a Rose’, as well as many favourite Gorelick originals. Turner even emulates Gorelick’s sax sound, capturing the shrill tone and smooth, emotionless playing that makes Gorelick’s recordings so distinctive.

So, does this recording offer anything new to your average Gorelick fan who already owns the entire collection of Gorelick classics? Not really, but then I don’t believe that was Turner’s intention in the first place. All he wanted to do was pay tribute to a musical legend, and with the help of Luxury Multimedia Ltd., he was able to turn his dream into a reality. If that’s not worth a million dollars, I don’t know what is. 

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