Boney James - Sweet Thing

Ok, ok, i see what's going on here. People hate the fact that Boney James is actually good. They desperately want him to be Kenny G 2.0, but he's not. He's a saxophonist. A good one. 

Tom Petty reminded us that when i say bad, i mean someone didn't do a good job of whatever they intended to do. Those Beatles albums are bad not because i hate the Beatles, they're bad because they slapped a bunch of crap together and weren't happy with the result.  Finger 11 was bad because you'd have to be a grade a douchebag to walk around thinking the world isn't good enough for you. Sonny Bono was bad because he was a dweeb who took himself serious. Ten Years After was pretentiousness personified. You get the idea. 

So, good is the opposite, sort of. Really, when i say good i mean that i believe you. You succeeded, you worked hard and made something you are proud of making. It doesn't matter if i actually like you or not, it doesn't matter if you can or can't technically play or sing well, it boils down to the fact that i can hear you aren't trying to sell me anything. This album sounds like he means it, this is Boney James, and he's got a room full of awards that say a lot of other people can hear that too. 

So, what is it the internet trolls actually hate? Well, for starters, he's clearly a happy dude. That's been known to bother me too, but usually in the context of "well, you wouldn't have those trivial problems if you were rich like me." That's not what i hear here. I just hear happy. 

The second thing going on here is some mental friction about the realities of making recorded music. A lot of people hear the drum machine and sequencer fire up and automatically jump to "look at the loser who can't put a full band together." You can certainly end up there, but even a basic search of Boney James will tell you he's been a sideman, a collaborator, his band opened for Flora Purim (she's not compliments of KTNT, but i do have one of her albums, so we'll do that next). That alone tells you this is exactly what he wanted to make on his own. Now, what does he play when he plays? 

Critics say "i guess it's technically jazz." Technically it is, but Boney comes from the R&B side of the Fusion equation. In all seriousness, Boney is the smooth side of R&B Sax more so than Jazz, and that's where i think the happy friction comes from. There's a little bit of Funk, but less than even Bob James. At the same time, though, he's as far away from the overtly sentimental sap of Kenny G. Skip's squirming like he's got sand in his bikini, but i like Kenny G just fine. I couldn't handle 4 hours of him, but i'm not gonna turn it off when i walk into the room.  He's not showboating, he's not jerking tears or off, he's not trying to look cool. Even his nickname is legit; his friends said he was lookin' pretty lean after struggling to make money on the road. 

Nope, Boney is one of those guys who looks like you should totally hate him, but every criticism falls short so you get mad as resort to calling him a doo-doo head because you refuse to admit defeat. Sounds like somebody else i know, huh Skip? Don't worry, only 5 or 6 more albums to achieve full payback for your crimes against minion-manity. There's even one i know i don't like at all hiding in there.

Part 4