“The Rise and Fall of Smooth Jazz” (recent piece from the New Yorker)

[Rooster_Ties]

 

The Rise and Fall of Smooth Jazz

I walked a lonely road as a teen-aged smooth-jazz fanatic.

By Colin Marshall

July 6, 2023

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-rise-and-fall-of-smooth-jazz

Edited July 7, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[Brad]

Why waste good space on this form of pop?

[JSngry]

Paywall here. I had to drop my subscription. 

[T.D.]

13 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Paywall here. I had to drop my subscription. 

I was able to read it by opening a new incognito window, but then got paywalled when I clicked a link to another story.

[danasgoodstuff]

I have at least one friend who still listens to it, I took this as a sure sign of cognitive decline.  Don't really care what the New Yorker has to say about it.

[Rabshakeh]

Decent enough article that isn't paywalled for me for some reason. Basically about a guy who worked at a smooth jazz station in the 90s and how it was alright. There's not a great deal of enthusiasm or music referred to in the article. More of a "weird ex jobs" type thing.

I don't mind smooth jazz at all. At least not as a concept. I never understood the hate. At its best (Grover!), it's the more gospelised side of soul jazz and fusion with more contemporary rhythms, or even just instrumental R&B (in the modern sense). Both of those are types of music that I am happy to listen to. Obviously it is not always at its best.

Perhaps growing up at the height of Sade's dominance on London's musical architecture made me immune to the hate. I still like Sade. My late grandmother used to listen to London's 'jazz' radio station that played solely slick glittery R&B music, all sub-Sade, with occasional saxophone breaks. I still have happy nostalgic memories of those times, tootling around in her tiny Yaris, through the comparative grime of drizzly 90s London, listening to this shiny overproduced music.

Smooth jazz seems to contain different micro-genres. I'm less into the stuff that the author's stations seemed to play, like the Rippingtons and Acoustic Alchemy. That's music that always makes me imagine an opulent American shopping centre. "Mall Jazz?" Maybe those went out to a suburban West Coast US audience (that seems to be where the author was based) whereas the Kirk Whalums that I enjoy were more targeted an East Coast drive time market? I just don't know. 

Two interesting things in the article:

First, he compares the social usage of smooth jazz radio to modern Spotify 'jazz to chill to' playlists that are so popular with younger listeners now. That's not an original idea, but it's worth remembering that the world never really moves on, just moves around. It's not a secret by now that many of the tracks on those bland playlists are by fake bands of session musicians cooked up by studios for the purpose of securing a chunk of generalised streaming revenue: an even more obviously commercial approach than the smooth jazz of the 80s and 90s.

Secondly, he points out that a lot of modern electronic music has begun to sample smooth jazz heavily, particularly the 'vapour wave' pseudo trend of a few years back. I'm not deep enough into the music to identify a Kenny G sample, but apparently that music was built on them.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Rabshakeh

[AllenLowe]

I understand why people like it, but I don't quite agree on the "gospelized" aspect, especially as it represents a very middle class idea of that music - which, once again, is fine, but a little sedate for my tastes. Now if it was gospel of the sanctified church I would feel a bit differently; would love to see the smooth jazzers talking in tongues and rolling in the aisles, going crazy and having religious seizures. THAT would be something to see (or maybe Kenny G dovening and singing cantorial songs).

[JSngry]

9 minutes ago, AllenLowe said:

I understand why people like it, but I don't quite agree on the "gospelized" aspect, especially as it represents a very middle class idea of that music - which, once again, is fine, but a little sedate for my tastes. Now if it was gospel of the sanctified church I would feel a bit differently; would love to see the smooth jazzers talking in tongues and rolling in the aisles, going crazy and having religious seizures. THAT would be something to see (or maybe Kenny G dovening and singing cantorial songs).

Pivot away from Kenny G to Kirk Whalun. 

[Rabshakeh]

Yeah. Pentecostal smooth would be something. 

But I think that the mainstream of contemporary gospel in 2023 is probably closer to Kirk Whalum than Reverend Charlie Jackson.

[John L]

Smooth jazz is alive and well on quiet storm radio stations, at least that part of smooth jazz that has real soul.   I have warmed to it over time (not to the Kenny G-type, of course).  

My appreciation expanded during the years I spent living in Nigeria.  I got to know and enjoy a number of very serious artists who were playing in the realm of what would be filed under "smooth jazz" in the US and most of the world. 

Bottom line:  All "smooth" jazz is not alike.  

[Rabshakeh]

7 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

 maybe Kenny G dovening and singing cantorial songs).

Sadly, this has been strictly forbidden by the Sages:

"it is forbidden to sound musical tones on the Sabbath, whether using a musical instrument - e.g., a lyre or a soprano saxophone - or using another object. It is even forbidden to tap with one's fingers on the ground or on a board or to play mawkish pre-scored melodies over synthetic rhythms. All of these were instituted as a decree" (see Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Sefer Zemanim, Hilkhot Shabbat, 23:4, and similar passages in the Orach Chaim. The Maharal notes (on the basis of a midrash that is now lost) that the provision explicitly relates to musicians from the Gorelick family, and that it was enacted for the Sake of the World).

It is a real shame that we shall never get to hear what Kenny G would have sounded like playing this material.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Rabshakeh

[Rabshakeh]

7 hours ago, John L said:

Smooth jazz is alive and well on quiet storm radio stations, at least that part of smooth jazz that has real soul.   ...

Bottom line:  All "smooth" jazz is not alike.  

My own personal smooth jazz taxonomy is:

Fusion Lite (Bob James, Grusins, Joe Sample)

Quiet storm / babymakers (George Howard, Najee, early Kenneth Gorelick, Benson)

Slick jazz pop (Sade, Hiroshima)

New age / ECM / whispy post jazz (Very late Garbarek)

"Mall Jazz" well written instrumental pop (Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra)

Supermarket CD section instrumental pop (later Kenneth Gorelick, Dave Koz, Chris Botti)

It's that last category that's the killer, as far as I'm concerned. The rest of it is cool. I'd happily listen to Najee all day.

[clifford_thornton]

8 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Yeah. Pentecostal smooth would be something. 

Pentecostal smooth jazz = Byard Lancaster?

[Rabshakeh]

3 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

Pentecostal smooth jazz = Byard Lancaster?

Why not? Pharaoh had a couple too.

[Ken Dryden]

Smooth jazz always annoyed me with the repetitious, empty solos and the boring backdrops. Grover Washington was quite capable when he played straight ahead or classical, but most saxophonists tainted their sound where the smooth element never disappeared completely when they tried to play straight ahead.

[danasgoodstuff]

Why let someone else get rich playing a bad imitation of you when you can do it yourself?