Kenny G

Amidst to breathing difficulty due to asthma, Kenneth Bruce Gorelick better known as Kenny G, blew  a way to the pinnacle of his success as Grammy award winning saxophone player.

Kenny G was born in Seattle, Washington and came into contact with a saxophone when he heard someone performing with one on The Ed Sullivan Show. Thereof, he studied under a local trumpet player and played along with records and eventually honed to perfection.

His childhood was undistinguished. He experienced rejections like when he tried out for the high school jazz band. Persistently, he tried again the next year and was accepted.

His musical career spurred when he was 18 years old as a sideman for Barry White Love Unlimited Orchestra. During his College years at University of Washington, he played with a funk band and began his solo musical career.

In 2003, the Recording Industry of America (RIIA) recognized Kenny G as the 25th highest selling artist in America with 48 million albums sold in the U.S. as of mid-2006. Consequently, he won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for Forever in Love.

Kenny G has been diagnosed with asthma. One would think this would be a difficult disability to have and play a musical instrument such as the saxophone. However, it has been studied that playing an instrument or singing may actually help those with asthma by improving muscle flexibility of the lungs, allowing them to take a deeper breath without fatigue.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker, nicknamed “Yardbird” (“Bird” for short), a saxophone player, had an undistinguished early carrier but ended up being one of the creators of bebop jazz in the 1940s.

He was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, the only child of Charles and Addie Parker. His father, Charles, a pianist, had influenced and inspired him to go into music.

At public schools, he discovered his own talent for music. He started playing baritone horn in the school band.

At the early age of 15, he began to practice playing saxophone diligently wherein he mastered improvisation and developed new ideas that led to bebop, a form of jazz with fast tempo.

In 1938, Parker together with his first band, toured nightclubs and other venues of the southwest, as well as Chicago and New York City. Parker had a morphine addiction while in hospital after automobile accident and was also addicted to heroin.

In the following year, he worked as a professional musician in New York who was then featured as a regular performer at a Chicago night club after a year. His New York experience was tough that he was at first forced to wash dishes in order to get by.

His humble beginnings were paid off when he was known and recognized for his musical invention, the bebop.

Parker died on March 12, 1955 from lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer but Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis and had suffered a heart attack.