'A Love Supreme'

I have an African-American friend.

He's a bit of a nut, actually. We have a ton of discussions and debates about white and black culture -- mostly where the line of demarcation sits, how these cultures clash even on the most minute scale. Mostly sports.

However, he contends something that I find is not only very misguided, but preposterous: That Kenny G is insanely popular with African Americans.

My friend is one of these African Americans. So much so that he and his wife have seen him in concert.

I think this is ridiculous. Kenny G is everything that African Americans hate about white people. Well, not hate. African Americans probably hate whites more for slavery, Jim Crow, police dogs, George Wallace, burning crosses and the KKK.

Kenny G is why African Americans don't take whites seriously. African Americans love the Los Angeles Lakers. Kurt Rambis is the Kenny G of Lakers basketball.

It's stilted and played note for note as it's written on the sheet music. There's no bop. No spontaneity. Nothing cool about it. Kenny G took a traditionally black musical tradition and made it palatable for the white consumer. My friend and all black people should hate Kenny G. Like police dogs.

My argument to my friend is that he should be listening to John Coltrane and his accepting of Kenny G is like slapping the face of Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.

He doesn't get it. He thinks he's rooting for James Worthy, when really he's wearing a Rambis road jersey replica. Sadness.