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新浪首页 > 新浪教育 > 《英语学习》2003年3期 > Kenny G的音乐之心

Heart of Music
http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/04/04 11:45  《英语学习》

  Z: Zhao Bin, presenter of the CCTV English program Dialogue

  G: Kenny G, American saxophonist<注1>

  Z: You were invited to come to China eight years ago. Why did it take so long for you to come ?

  G: I don't know why it took so long. I've been wanting to come for ten years. My manager kept saying "We're going to China" and then their concert dates wouldn't come through for some reason. Whatever details needed to be corrected and were corrected,<注2> here we are and I'm very happy to be here.

  Z: You've been to Shanghai and Guangzhou already. Tell us about your trip there and your impression.

  G: In Shanghai when I was out in the Bund<注3>area, I enjoyed that very much. We went to some restaurants and I had a couple of days off. I like to see the old, and the new. You have the old on one side of the river and the new on the other side. I think that's amazing to me. I went walking along some streets with millions of shops. I bought a digital camera, which was good. You know the negotiating process<注4> was very interesting, because that usually does not happen in my country.

  Z: How did you feel about working with Chinese musicians? I'm sure you had a lot of assistance from local Chinese people.

  G: Actually, the only Chinese musician I've worked with was Andy Lau<注5>. We did a good job on that song. I wrote it, but of course I couldn't write lyrics<注6>, because I assume it would be in Cantonese when he was singing it. Andy wrote the lyrics, I wrote the music and we filmed the video together. That was four years ago in Hong Kong. I had a good time during that weekend. He's great.

  Z: They compare you with Richard Clayderman<注7> from France.

  G: Again I'm very flattered. I'm proud to be one of the few people that are kind of allowed in.<注8> In that sense, my commitment is to continue to do the music that I do. I'd like to do an album of Chinese music, classic songs that everybody knows, and do my interpretations of them, like what I did with the song "Jasmine Flower"<注9>. That's a beautiful song, beautiful melody. The first time I heard it I thought that it would be a song I could have written myself. I didn't even knowswheresit came from.

  Z: You are known as Kenny G. What does that "G" stand for?

  G: My surname, Gorelick.

  Z: Then when and how did it become "G"?

  G: I don't know if there's an exact moment. In my childhood, at a certain point, my friends got tired of trying to figure out how to pronounce my last name. They thought "G" would be a simple way of referring to me.

  Z: We thought that it was a deliberate strategy.

  G: Oh, no, no! In my life and in my music, I have no strategies about anything. I don't plan to create music that's popular. I create music that I feel. And I feel if I do that, the other things will take care of themselves. I don't think about myself in that way. I don't try to present myself in a way that I figure would be popular. This is just the way I am. This is the way I look. This is the way I dress. This is the way I play my saxophone. And I'm glad that people like that, because that's genuine for me. I don't have to look back and think that I planned this whole strategy and it worked, because then you'll have to keep doing that. I don't think that's a good thing. I don't think people deserve it, nor should they be connected with it. They are connected with honesty and integrity. And that's what people deserve.

  Z: People say that you are President Clinton's favorite saxophonist. Is that true?

  G: Well, he has said that many times. I was very very flattered to have been invited to the White House to perform. It was a very exciting evening. It was picturesque. The dinner at the White House, there were the President, the cabinet and all the governors<注10>. These are the top officials in the country and they invited me to play for all these people. I said that I would do it but I just wanted one little tiny thing. That was to be able to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House<注11>. They agreed and I went there. So sitting at this dinner, the Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, the President, the governor of this state, the governor of that state, lots of little tables.<注12>I was nervous about the fact that in an hour I was going to entertain these people. I did well. Then we switched to another room. The President introduced me. I played. It was very intimate.

  Z: And Mr. Clinton himself plays saxophone as well. Do you think he plays well?

  G: He's OK. I mean, you can only be so good if you don't practice every day. He's busy doing other things and don't have time to practice. I practice every day so I can get to a different level. I didn't invite him to perform with me that night. He preferred to listen. On a different occasion we did play together, which was very nice for me and hopefully, for him as well. We enjoyed each other's company. I find him to be brilliant and charismatic<注13>.

  Z: Does music make a politician different?

  G: The musician has a different kind of heart than someone who's not a musician. That's because to create music, your heart has to be open, to be warm. And he has that heart. Maybe that's why people can be connected with him at a more personal level.

  Z: What is this heart of a musician? Is it intuitive? Is it more sensitive? Is it less rational?<注14>

  G: I think all those things are very good words of describing it. Well, I can tell you what my musician heart is. It is very spontaneous. I improvise. It is very creative, sensitive, strong and happy. That's what my heart is.

  Z: You are very lucky. You make a living by doing what you really enjoy. A lot of people would do one thing to make a living and do what they really like in spare time.

  G: I do feel lucky about that. You know, when I was in college, my friends had jobs and money. I had no job and I didn't have very much money. But I had my music. And I would play in a concert... not really a concert. Back in those days, we just called it a gig<注15>. A "gig" means anything. It actually means just your job. I had lots of gigs and I just made enough to pay my bill. But I didn't have to go to work every day. I just practice my saxophone. I really feel that if you do something with integrity and you do what you feel, the other things take care of themselves.

  Z: You have a lot of fans and you must have a lot of critics as well.

  G: I don't know the critics personally. Thank goodness!

  Z: What do they say about your music and how would you respond to that?

  G: For me, again it's the music that speaks for itself. I'll let the critics use their words, because that's what they do, that's their note. My notes are these notes.<注16> (Gesticulating<注17> as if playing saxophone) Critics' notes are their words. They can be very descriptive with their words, putting thingssintoslittle categories. That's their job. My idea of melody, I mean, how do you describe a melody?swheresdoes it come from? There's no rule that says you take this note, combine it with this note and throw in this note, with this chord, and then you are going to get a peaceful song. I'm lucky in that I'm sensitive and I feel all these things. I put the pieces together and a melody happens and a song happens and you have a song like "Going Home". I'm so flattered that in my concert here, when I started the melody of "Going Home", people applauded. It's very satisfying to me. I just sat there and created the song with a feeling of my home in Seattle. I moved to Los Angeles. I felt missing my parents and the environment in which I grew up. So that song has a little sadness to it, a sense of hopefulness to it. Those words are very pale, in comparison to the feelings in the music. But that's the best I can say about that song.

  Z: What would you attribute your huge success to? Luck?

  G: Luck is a big deal. To be very successful, things have to comesintosplace. For example, the reason that I think people first got to know my music was this one night in the United States when I was on a national TV show. If you get to perform on that show, the whole nation sees you. I got a chance to perform on that show. Up to then, nobody really knew much about my music. We were going to perform two songs. One was this little song called "Songbird" that I wrote, an instrumental<注18>. Nobody cared about that. They cared about the other song, which had a singer. And it was the single<注19> the radio was playing. There we were on the show, backstage. They said to me, "OK, we are really sorry but the show is running a little late. We will only have you for one song. Play the vocal song. Four minutes and you are on." So the guy walked out of the room. Looking at the guys of my band, I said: "Guys, we are not going to play the vocal song. We're playing 'Songbird'. This is my one chance. Let's play the instrumental." They said, "But... but that's not what they want." "I know, but that's what we're going to do." So the curtain went up—It was live! They couldn't stop it. (Humming the melody of "Songbird") The guys went like, "Wrong song! Wrong song! Stop!" Not only did the audience in the studio like it, but the TV audience liked it as well. In New York city, while we were playing, the president of the record company, his wife was in the bedroom. She hit him on the side and said: "Now, those are the kind of songs that you guys should be putting out there!" So the next morning, he called the company and said: "Forget the other song. 'Songbird' is our new single. Let's push that." And it became a big hit.

  Z: With all your success and experiences in the music industry, what will you tell young inspiring musicians?

  G: Play your music for the love of music. If you don't have the love of music, don't do it because you want to become famous or want to earn a lot of money. Do it for the life of the music and the instrument, and the other things will take care of themselves.




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Annotation


1. Kenny G: 1959年生于西雅图,是美国著名萨克斯手。在80年代,Kenny G成为前所未有的最卖座的萨克斯手,他的高音萨克斯风格纯净而流畅,这种优雅的声音使得Kenny G取得了商业上的巨大成功。自从1982年推出首张个人同名演奏专辑以来,Kenny G一共已经推出过十张个人专辑,拥有全球千万乐迷的喜爱。

saxophonist:萨克斯管演奏者。

2.不管哪些细节需要改正或者已经改正。

3. the Bund:(上海)外滩。

4.讨价还价。

5. Andy Lau:刘德华。1998年,Kenny G曾为刘德华创作《你是我的女人》,由刘德华填词。6. lyrics:歌词。

7. Richard Clayderman:理查德-克莱德曼。法国著名钢琴家,被誉为“钢琴王子”。

8.我很自豪能算是观众认可的一个演员。

9.“Jasmine Flower”:《茉莉花》。

jasmine:茉莉。

10. governor: (美国的)州长。

11.林肯卧室。白宫最有名的房间之一,是林肯办公和召开内阁会议的地方,著名的《解放黑人奴隶宣言》即在此签字。

12. the Secretary of State:国务卿;Secretary of Treasury:财政部长。

13. charismatic:有魅力的。

14. intuitive:凭直觉获知的;sensitive:敏感的;rational:基于理性的。

15. gig:(爵士乐队、摇滚乐队、独奏或独唱演员等的)特约演奏(或演唱);任务,工作。

16. note:前一个是“声音”的意思,后一个是“音,音符”之意。

17. gesticulate:做手势。

18. instrumental:器乐曲。

19. single:单曲唱片乐曲。


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