Among the most popular artists with the most airtime - and also the most commercial - during the '90s have to be Robert Miles and Kenny G. I've had the strange opportunity to interview both of the artists whose sounds dominated my adoloscent ears, looking at their output more critically now, considering that my musical education took place much later.
Miles came across as a far more humble, cooler human being while Kenny G seems full of himself. Unfortunately, I did not attend the Miles concert. I was loathe to attend G's gig but but when one of my best friends coerced me into "listening to him for her", I gave in.
Cue me sitting bored at the back of the outdoor set-up at the Taj Lands End and minutes before the concert begins, I see a man resembling Sideshow Bob, that dastardly character from the Simpsons, whose had some legendary spats with Bart. The bulb lights and it hits me that it was Kenny G himself, preparing his grand entry from the back, serenading the crowd, as he went along.
If you've seen how TV crews go mad, the Mumbai middle class is no different. Uncles dropped their cigars, yuppies left aside their drinks and aunties yelled in polished English for people to "get aside" so they could snap some of the curly-haired wonder. It isn't enough just to enjoy Kenny G live, we must prove it for posterity.
G is a good showman, no doubt. The crowd went bonkers like Bipasha Basu had taken off her bra-panty and thrown it towards them. While he was amongst the audience, he pulled off another neat gimmick. Not everyone who paid Rs 3,- and 2,000 would have known that G holds the Guiness Book Record for holding a note for the longest time. G did just that, holding a note till he walked the entire pathway to the stage. Bipasha Basu reaction all over again.
Twenty minutes into his set and I was dozing already. I must admit that I enjoyed his performance of Havana though he did nothing new or different. Well, nostaliga works like that sometimes. He also did a cool jugalbandi with his percussionist, who I thought was way cooler than G himself. He hit the percussions with his elbows, did some Middle Eastern-ish belly dancing beats with his dafli and also awoke the crowd (oh, well, I'm referring primarily to me) from its slumber with a clap-to-my beat routine.
By the time I left, G had performed three of his most popular tunes, changed into a black outfit and everyone was clapping just as noisily. Did I forget to write that G was right on the money with three long-ish Hindi sentences. If his commercial tunes didn't win over the crowd already, that effort surely did. If only he was as good with his song writing as he was with by-hearting Hindi.
.........OZNEK
