In the sleeve notes for the 2009 reissue on the Edsel record label, biographer Chris Bolton notes that this album "does its best to represent every musical personality of Kenny Rogers." Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that the album mixes music styles from Country to Disco.[2]
Kenny G is the biggest selling instrumental musician of the modern era, and one of the best-selling artists of all time. With global sales totaling more than 75-million records and 1.5 billion streams, the jazz icon has accumulated a staggering 24-award nominations throughout his 50-year career and has taken home a Grammy Award, American Music Award, two NAACP Awards, and two Soul Train Music Awards. With classic, top-selling studio albums including Duotones, Silhouette, Breathless, Miracles: The Holiday Album, Heart and Soul and Brazilian Nights, Kenny has maintained a prominent level of creative excellence through decades of unprecedented commercial success.
JB: The album includes seven originals by Kenny Wheeler and two compositions by Jason (one with two versions). Please give me some general concepts on how you selected the songs you recorded here.
JB: Basically, the ensemble is a guitar duet without a rhythm section of a bass and drums. There are the occasional trumpet, sax, and vocalize. Tell us about the musical textures you were striving for in this.
JS: Mike Zilber and I have been playing and recording together in duo and quartet settings for more than ten years, and I think that Jason knew that my history with Mike could help the overall sound of the ensemble.
Blair senior jazz performance major / guitarist Patrick Kenny has released his debut album, Water Damage, a six-song project that includes guest performances by Blair professors Jeff Coffin and Marc Widenhofer, as well as other Blair student musicians. Kenny composed all six of the jazz fusion-styled pieces for the project, which was recorded at a Nashville studio. He took time to answer our questions about his inspiration for the project and where the album and first single title, Water Damage, originates.
These are all songs that I have written during my time at Vanderbilt, and they all roughly fall under the category of jazz fusion. I really just wanted to record some songs that would make people want to dance and share the joy I have had making music with some of my closest friends.
Water Damage is the title track of the album and was actually the first song I wrote as a freshman at Vanderbilt. After putting this song together in my dorm, and seeing the water damage on the ceiling, my roommate and I both agreed this would be a fitting title for a funky upbeat song that would be sure to make people move. I thought this title was a fitting tribute to my freshman experience and really encapsulated the energy of the entire album.
I did write all of the songs on the project and they were all composed during my time at Vanderbilt. These were all songs that I had written and played with the top combo jazz group at Vanderbilt. Many of these songs were put together with the help of Ryan Middagh during my time studying jazz and commercial composition with him. Also, many of these songs were workshopped at some point in top combo with the help of Professors Jeff Coffin, Ryan Middagh, and the help of all my friends who also perform in top combo.
I have been fortunate to have studied with professor Jeff Coffin during my time at Vanderbilt and was very grateful to have him on this album. He is on two of the 6 tracks which make up the album, and observing his recording process on these songs, and the way he experiments with them, was one of my favorite moments while working on the album. I feel like these songs really encapsulated the best of both worlds with his studio precision and the layering of different saxophones that he put on the tracks, as well as his raw improvisational abilities which were showcased and greatly appreciated as well.
I would like to give a special thanks to professor Wid