Smooth Jass, ANY1?

[AfricaBrass]

I wonder if they get newbies on the Kenny G board who make their first post about how much they love Ornette Coleman...

I bet they run those newbies out of town.

[Guest che]

I wonder if they get newbies on the Kenny G board who make their first post about how much they love Ornette Coleman...

I bet they run those newbies out of town.

Che.

[Guest che]

Why do I get the feeling that Che is researching an article for a school paper?

Your question, which you appear to be in desperate need of an answer is :

Why do people like smooth jazz?

Here at this board, we have NO IDEA. OK, leave us alone, if you want that question answered go to Kenny G.com and ask HIS board members.

Other questions you might also consider:

Why do people eat seafood at RED LOBSTER?

Why do people buy BUICKs?

Why do people drink coffee made with FOLGERS crystals?

Why do people smoke SWISHER SWEETS?

Why do people wear POLYESTER?

Why do people watch reality TV?

Why do people watch movies with KEANU REEVES as the lead?

Why did William Huang sell more albums than Wayne Shorter last year?

Why do people live in Gary , IN?

Well having just completed some research for my Phd I am a little too old for school

Che.

[scottb]

Well having just completed some research for my Phd I am a little too old for school

And if you're not in school, how are you getting a Phd, mail in courses?

[Guest che]

Well having just completed some research for my Phd I am a little too old for school

And if you're not in school, how are you getting a Phd, mail in courses?

Well these days you can get most things from the internet

Che.

[JSngry]

The difference between Grover Washington & Kenny G is the difference between a backyard burger and a 69 cent McDonalds job left over from the lunch rush.

[Jazzmoose]

The difference between Grover Washington & Kenny G is the difference between a backyard burger and a 69 cent McDonalds job left over from the lunch rush.

So it's that damned heat lamp that makes Kenny sound so boring, eh?

[chris olivarez]

Smooth Jazz=zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[chris olivarez]

The difference between Grover Washington & Kenny G is the difference between a backyard burger and a 69 cent McDonalds job left over from the lunch rush.

Well put!!!!

[Jazz Kat]

Smooth jazz is, IMO, "fusion gone too far."

[Guest che]

Smooth jazz is, IMO, "fusion gone too far."

Do you think 'jazz fusion' helped create 'smooth jazz'?

Che.

[Jazz Kat]

I do, because fusion, though very different from smooth jazz, was the first jazz to have a "backbeat" and where they used electronic instruments. Though many people played and still played acoustic traditional jazz, (I like to call it,) contemporary jazz kept getting more and more into the popular field, which I think resulted in smooth jazz. I'd like to hear other views on this. This is just how I think of it.

[Guest che]

I do, because fusion, though very different from smooth jazz, was the first jazz to have a "backbeat" and where they used electronic instruments. Though many people played and still played acoustic traditional jazz, (I like to call it,) contemporary jazz kept getting more and more into the popular field, which I think resulted in smooth jazz. I'd like to hear other views on this. This is just how I think of it.

So one conclusion may be that Miles Davis helped create smooth jazz?

I can see another Phd in this

Che.

[Guest che]

I do, because fusion, though very different from smooth jazz, was the first jazz to have a "backbeat" and where they used electronic instruments. Though many people played and still played acoustic traditional jazz, (I like to call it,) contemporary jazz kept getting more and more into the popular field, which I think resulted in smooth jazz. I'd like to hear other views on this. This is just how I think of it.

I never liked Miles's music with Marcus Miller, this was too much like 'smooth jazz' for me.

Che.

[Jazz Kat]

I do, because fusion, though very different from smooth jazz, was the first jazz to have a "backbeat" and where they used electronic instruments. Though many people played and still played acoustic traditional jazz, (I like to call it,) contemporary jazz kept getting more and more into the popular field, which I think resulted in smooth jazz. I'd like to hear other views on this. This is just how I think of it.

So one conclusion may be that Miles Davis helped create smooth jazz?

I can see another Phd in this

Che.

Not really, exactly. I'm not saying Miles Davis and those early fusion artists created smooth jazz, I'm saying they are the reason for it.

Edited March 4, 2005 by Jazz Kat

[JSngry]

I do, because fusion, though very different from smooth jazz, was the first jazz to have a "backbeat" and where they used electronic instruments.

The electronic thing is accurate enough for the sake of general argument, but the backbeat thing, well, dude, c'mon - "Moanin'" had a heavier backbeat than anything fusion ever produced.

Now, if you want progenitors of today's smooth jazz, you can go back to the Mizell Brothers productions for Blue Note in the early 70s, The Kudu label (CTI'S "commercial" wing, although as the decade progressed, CTI itself turned more "pop"-ish), and the work certain Atlantic artists (Les McCann in particular) in the early 70s. The stuff all started out innocently enough, but as it became institionalized, it became formulaic (or the other way around...), and soon enough became a product to be regulated, measured, and mass-produced, just like canned soup and paper clips. Reliable, but lifeless, offered to the market place instead of for the people.

From "populist" to "popular" is too often a small but fatal leap from lively gregariousness to terminal whoredom, I think.

[7/4]

One day they're blaming it on the Bossa Nova, the next it's Fusion.

[JSngry]

You can blame Organ Jazz for that matter. That genre embraced funk (of the R&B variety) at face value long before any other.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

"a small but fatal leap from lively gregariousness to terminal whoredom"

I'd like to think I'd heard that somewhere before, but no, it's an instant classic.

[kenny weir]

Now, if you want progenitors of today's smooth jazz, you can go back to the Mizell Brothers productions for Blue Note in the early 70s, The Kudu label (CTI'S "commercial" wing, although as the decade progressed, CTI itself turned more "pop"-ish), and the work certain Atlantic artists (Les McCann in particular) in the early 70s. The stuff all started out innocently enough, but as it became institionalized, it became formulaic (or the other way around...), and soon enough became a product to be regulated, measured, and mass-produced, just like canned soup and paper clips. Reliable, but lifeless, offered to the market place instead of for the people.

From "populist" to "popular" is too often a small but fatal leap from lively gregariousness to terminal whoredom, I think.

I can follow all that from a strictly musical perspective, but am still a bit puzzled how smooth jazz became such rigidly defined marketing thing.

Living at such a distance is undoubtedly a hindrance in this regard, but the whole thing seems to have solidified - in terms of radio, press, marketing, imagery, lingo etc - remarkably quickly.

[Jim Alfredson]

That's how the industry works... something strikes a chord with the populace and suddenly you have 100's of copycats doing it as everyone tries to get a piece of pie. The original was most likey made for artistic reasons whereas the copies are made for monetary reasons and that's the difference.

[JSngry]

It's the increased technological/sophisticcation of marketing. What used to take years for the industry pimps to figure out now just takes a few weeks, a few months at most. Then, as a sci-fi buff friend of mine likes to say, "it's just a question of engineering".

The music industry is more of a true industry than it's ever been. You got your raw materials (artists/producers), manufacturing plants (record labels), and dissemenation outlets (radio) all on the same page with a product that has a ready, willing, and not too terribly discriminating audience (thus the literal formulization of the product, which did not exist in the earlier days of the genre, at least not overwhelmingly so). It's a business model of incredible efficiency, I should think, no matter what the quality of the results are.

Edited March 4, 2005 by JSngry

[scottb]

FOLGERS, SWISHER SWEETS, BUICK, KEANU REEVES...