| Smooth jazz | |
|---|---|
 Chuck Mangione inBrampton in 2009 | |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1970s, United States |
| Fusion genres | |
| Crossover jazz | |
| Other topics | |
| List of musicians | |
Smooth jazz is a term used to describe commercially orientedcrossover 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 toeasy listening music on radio station programming from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s.
Smooth jazz may be thought of as commercially-oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 1980s, displacing the more venturesomejazz fusion from which it emerged. It avoids theimprovisational "risk-taking" of jazz fusion, emphasizing melodic form, and much of the music was initially "a combination of jazz with easy-listeningpop music and lightweightR&B."[1][2]
During the mid-1970s in the United States, it was known as "smooth radio"; the genre was not termed "smooth jazz" until the 1980s.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5]
“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.[6]
Smooth Jazz was arguably pioneered in the early 1970's, with notable songs and artists including: "Grazing in the grass" (1968), by trumpeterHugh Masekela, "Nautilus" (1974) by keyboardist Bob James, and "Mister Magic" (1975) by saxophistGrover Washington, Jr..
Other early popular releases include guitaristGeorge Benson's 1976 cover/version of "Breezin'" andflugelhorn playerChuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" in 1977. Others are "What You Won't Do for Love" byBobby Caldwell in 1978, jazz fusion groupSpyro Gyra's 1979 instrumental song "Morning Dance"[3] and the 1981 collaboration betweenGrover Washington Jr. andBill Withers on "Just the Two of Us".
Smooth jazz grew in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s asAnita Baker,Sade,Al Jarreau,Grover Washington Jr. andKenny G released multiple hit songs.[7]
See also,list of smooth jazz artists.
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 albumBreathless.[3]
Music reviewer George Graham argues that the "so-called 'smooth jazz' sound of people like Kenny G has none of the fire and creativity[8] that marked the best of the fusion scene during its heyday in the 1970s".[9]
Digby Fairweather, before the start of UK jazz stationtheJazz, denounced the change to a smooth jazz format on defunct radio station102.2 Jazz FM; he stated that the ownersGMG 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 theM25 will ever find it possible to forget or forgive."[10]
Quotations related toSmooth jazz at Wikiquote
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