Kenny G

Kenny G is an American smooth-jazz saxophonist whose four-decade career has produced one of the American smooth-jazz commercial-and-recording bodies of work in late-20th-century American music — making him the bestselling instrumental musician in modern history with over 75 million records sold worldwide. He was born Kenneth Bruce Gorelick on June 5, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, into an Jewish-American family. He started playing saxophone at age ten and pursued jazz performance through his teens.

His 1973 high-school career performance with Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra at age 17 launched his professional jazz-musician career. He attended the University of Washington (B.A. in accounting, 1978) before pivoting full-time to professional music. His 1980 Arista Records signing produced his 1982 self-titled debut album Kenny G.

His commercial breakthrough came with the 1986 fourth album Duotones — which sold over 6 million copies in the United States and produced the single "Songbird," reaching Billboard Hot 100 #4 (an instrumental-music chart achievement). The 1992 album Breathless sold over 15 million copies worldwide — making it the bestselling instrumental album in music history.

The 1994 single "By the Time This Night Is Over" (with Peabo Bryson) and the 1996 album The Moment continued his 1990s commercial peak. His continuous Christmas-album success — particularly the 1994 Miracles: The Holiday Album (sold 8 million copies in the United States) — has shaped American Christmas-music canon. He has continued to record and tour into his sixties — including his 2024 collaboration with Chinese pop star Zhou Shen on the single "Big Fish." The 2021 HBO documentary Listening to Kenny G complicated public perception of his 1990s commercial dominance.

His stage name Kenny is the English short form of Kenneth (from the Old Gaelic Coinneach meaning "comely" or "handsome"). Kenny has been continuously among the most-popular American boys' names for over half a century.