Legendary Singer Explains Why He Broke Record For The Longest Single Note Held On A Saxophone

Femi Kuti is now the official world record holder for the longest single note held on a saxophone at an impressive and slightly alarming 51 min 35 seconds.Playing a single musical note for a long time is no mean feat. Only three people have recorded major milestones in this regard in the past 20 years.Last week Sunday, the musician held a single musical note for 51 minutes, 35 seconds, making it the longest time ever spent blowing on a wind or bass instrument.That was a week after he had held a single musical note for 46 minutes, 38 seconds – also at the New Afrikan Shrine, Lagos.Kenny G back in 1997 held the record  for the longest note ever held on a saxophone when he held an E-flat for 45 minutes, using a technique termed Circular breathing.For Femi Kuti, he employed the circular breathing technique, but it is unclear, what member of the sax family he used to achieve the massive feat.This is what he had to say:I did not break the Guinness World Record; I broke Kenny G’s world record. There is still another record. I don’t know Kenny G, he is not my friend and we have never performed together. I have heard about him and listened to about two of his songs even though I don’t know their titles but I have never met him in person.“Initially, when I did something similar to that and it was uploaded on Facebook, some people were making some comments like, ‘so what? Kenny G has done it before. He is a world record holder.’ Someone then checked and noted that Kenny G actually had a record of 45 minutes and 37 seconds."I said I was going to break it and the feedback I got was that it was not possible so, I tried and after the third attempt, I broke his record. On that night if they had told me there was another record of 47 minutes 05 seconds, I would have broken it as well but no one knew of that record. It was because it was Kenny G’s record that came up when we made an internet search. "I was only 38 seconds away from the current world record; I stopped playing when everyone assured me that I was in 46 minutes and I went another extra 32 seconds to be sure that everyone’s time synchronised. So nobody was in doubt that I broke Kenny G’s record."I was just doing it to prove a point because anytime I hold a key for a long while playing the saxophone, people always mentioned Kenny G’s name. It made me wonder why they always had to compare us because it was not a competition for me. Since they were making it a deterrent to my performance, I decided to go after his record."Now the matter is resolved; no one can compare us anymore. When you have a performance, it is to enhance the creativity of the music and not to show off.”Not satisfied with the feat he recently achieved, he told the press that on Sunday, he would attempt to break the current record in the Guinness Book of World Records.“Now the case of Kenny G has been rested but since people are bringing up the case of the Guinness Book of World Record holder out, I will attempt it. I am going to attempt the world record on Sunday and if I don’t succeed this Sunday,“I will try again the next Sunday. It took me three Sundays to break Kenny G’s record and do not forget age is not on my side. You have to be focused and I am sure that after I break it, I will not attempt it again. I will just set my mind. I believe it might take me three weeks to break the world record for the longest single note held on a saxophone. Once I accomplish that, the case would rest and I can go back to doing it for one minute and nobody will tell me rubbish again. It seems as if there are some people that are just bent on always comparing me with people. I am using this to shut them up because whenever I play, they say that someone has done it better.“My music was never about that but I need to do this just to put it all behind even for my own personal satisfaction. While I am doing it, I want to make sure that I have fun. I don’t want to lose focus of putting good melody to my music which is the essence of my music at the end of the day,” the saxophonist said.