Smooth Jazz

Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to easy listening music on radio station programming from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s.

History

Smooth jazz may be thought of as commercially-oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 1980s, displacing the more venturesome jazz fusion from which it emerged. It avoids the improvisational "risk-taking" of jazz fusion, emphasizing melodic form, and much of the music was initially "a combination of jazz with easy-listening pop music and lightweight R&B."

During the mid-1970s in the United States, it was known as "smooth radio"; the genre was not termed "smooth jazz" until the 1980s.

The term itself seems to have been birthed directly out of radio marketing efforts. In an industry focus group in the late 1980s, one participant coined the phrase "smooth jazz" and it stuck.

The popularity of smooth jazz as a radio format grew in the 80s and 90s, but gradually declined in the early 2000s. By 2009, many stations including in NYC, Washington, DC, and Boston had switched away from the format.

“Smooth jazz” was by far the dominant market force in jazz at the end of the century, and it sidetracked the artistic lives of some musicians who might have made more interesting music but for the draw of big paydays. But the radio stations playing sax-and-synth dominated lite funk faded in the first decade of the 21st century.

Pioneers and notable songs

Smooth Jazz was arguably pioneered in the early 1970's, with notable songs and artists including: " Grazing in the grass" (1968), by trumpeter Hugh Masekela, " Nautilus" (1974) by keyboardist Bob James, and " Mister Magic" (1975) by saxophist Grover Washington, Jr.

Other early popular releases include guitarist George Benson's 1976 cover/version of " Breezin'" and flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione's " Feels So Good" in 1977. Others are " What You Won't Do for Love" by Bobby Caldwell in 1978, jazz fusion group Spyro Gyra's 1979 instrumental song " Morning Dance" and the 1981 collaboration between Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers on " Just the Two of Us".

Smooth jazz grew in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as Anita Baker, Sade, Al Jarreau, Grover Washington Jr. and Kenny G released multiple hit songs.

Critical and public reception

The smooth jazz genre experienced a backlash exemplified by critical complaints about the "bland" sound of top-selling saxophonist Kenny G, whose popularity peaked with his 1992 album '' Breathless''.

Music reviewer George Graham argues that the "so-called 'smooth jazz' sound of people like Kenny G has none of the fire and creativity that marked the best of the fusion scene during its heyday in the 1970s".

Digby Fairweather, before the start of UK jazz station theJazz, denounced the change to a smooth jazz format on defunct radio station 102.2 Jazz FM; he stated that the owners GMG Radio were responsible for the "attempted rape and (fortunately abortive) re-definition of the music — is one that no true jazz lover within the boundaries of the M25 will ever find it possible to forget or forgive."

See also

* Lofi hip hop
* Mallsoft
* Quiet storm
* Sophisti-pop
* Yacht rock
* Smooth jazz radio

References

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Jazz fusion
Jazz genres
1970s in music
1980s in music
1990s in music
Fusion music genres