There are technical things we could discuss but it's tricky without going all music nerd on you so I'll argue by analogy from the visual arts. John Coltrane is

There are technical things we could discuss but it's tricky without going all music nerd on you so I'll argue by analogy from the visual arts. John Coltrane is the mac daddy saxophonist. He is the capo da tutti capi. The recordings of his golden period (eg Crescent, A love Supreme etc) are the Mona Lisa. Coltrane: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#/media/File:Mona_Lisa,_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci,_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#/media/File:Mona_Lis... By contrast Kenny Gs recordings are Trechikof's "Chinese Girl" - Extremely popular but kind of terrible. http://i.huffpost.com/gen/958528/images/o-CHINESEGIRL-facebook.jpg http://i.huffpost.com/gen/958528/images/o-CHINESEGIRL-facebo... Just like it's fine to prefer Phil Collins' version of "You Can't Hurry Love" to the original[1], it's fine to like Kenny G's music - you should like whatever you like. But it's not being a "purist" to dislike it. When people get to a certain level of education in their music taste they start to realise some of its shortcomings. For anyone intimidated by Coltrane, I recommend just getting "Ballads" or "Coltrane and Johnny Hartman". They are incredibly beautiful music that I have successfully played to all manner of non jazz enthusiasts. [1]Actually that one really isn't fine. He messes up the iconic James Jamerson bassline by removing the beautiful anticipated quavers that give the original so much drive. Once you hear it the Phil Collins version seems so incredibly pedestrian.