Why I Don’t Care For “Smooth Jazz”:
Gag Me With A Spoon!!!

Please let me start off by clearly stating that I am a die-hard 1950s straightahead/bebop Jazz fan!  For the record (no pun intended), I’m not a musician nor a critic.  I’ve been a huge fan (anointed “Super Jazz Fan”) of this original American “high” art form since ~1980s.  I live, breathe, and move to the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms of straightahead/bebop Jazz.  There’s not a second that goes by when I’m in my car that I’m NOT playing music, and it’s us usually straightahead/bebop Jazz via my iPhone.

Being a 1950s/60s Detroit native, my foray into music was, not surprisingly, 1960s Motown, followed by early-1970s Soul, then mid-70s R&B/Funk.  As a freshman in college in 1974, I was introduced to this new type of instrumental music, labelled “Jazz Fusion”, which was quite different from instrumental R&B/Funk (soundtrack minus vocals).

“Jazz Fusion”, as in turns out, was quite different from the contemporary pre-1970s classical Jazz, which I’d not yet discovered, but was quite creative and imaginative, electronic sounding (e.g., electric bass, electric piano, and synthesized strings), and played mostly by established Jazz musicians who had come up through the ranks (e.g., big bands, Juilliard, Berkee, Miles Davis Quartet, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver Quintet, Blue Note Records, Prestige Records, etc.).

Some 1970’s Jazz Fusion artists/groups included: Bob James, Grover Washington, Crusaders, Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Ramsey Lewis, Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, Milt Jackson, George Benson, Ramsey Lewis, Gene Harris, Earl Klugh, Hubert Laws, Earl David “Fathead” Newman, Quincy Jones, Cedar Walton, Charles Earland, Chuck Mangione, David Sanborn, Brecker Brothers, Weather Report, and Return To Forever.  And I have 1970s albums by each of the artists/ groups.  No “Giant Steps”-type rhythm changes or chord progressions found among them… :v(

In hindsight, I believe that “Jazz Fusion” introduced many young people, myself included, to “Jazz” music as possibly a springboard to investigate higher forms of music.  For me, after purchasing (new or used) and listening to practically every “Jazz Fusion” album available, and familiarizing myself with all of the artists and their respective musical backgrounds and pedigree, I became even more curious about where this music came from.  I just knew that this music didn’t begin in the mid-1970s.

Triggered, perhaps, by a very strong math background and understanding of advanced concepts (e.g., integral calculus, complex variables, multi variate analysis, etc.), my interest and search for higher levels of music was piqued.  That was when, in the late-1970s/early-1980s, I heard recordings of certain tunes by artists I’d never heard of and said to myself, “Who is that???”  These tunes were: “Sweet Clifford” (Clifford Brown), “You Go To My Head” (Lee Morgan), “You’ve Changed” (Dexter Gordon), “Song For My Father” (Horace Silver), “Eternal Triangle” (Dizzy Gillespie), “Hank’s Prank” (Hank Mobley), “Canadian Sunset” (Wes Montgomery), “Giant Steps” (John Coltrane), and “Moment’s Notice” (John Coltrane)!  Wow!!!  After that, it was on!  These few tunes literally blew me away and sent me on my life’s journey . . . the pursuit of beautiful straightahead/bebop Jazz!

While frequenting new and used record stores after classes was a favorite pastime during college years, I took it to a whole new level after graduating and relocating to the “DMV”, checking out record stores in WDC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, South Jersey, and sometimes NYC, this time after work and on the weekends.  My goals & objectives were to build up my record collection and to significantly increase my ‘Jazz IQ’ by acknowledging the personnel and reading album liner notes, which I did by building up a substantial record and CD Jazz collection from 1981 thru 2000.

However, after relocating to the Bay Area in August 2001, and with record companies continuing to re-issue classic 1950s/60s recordings on CD (Blue Note, Capitol/Pacific Jazz/Emarcy/ Verve/Mercury, Savoy, Impulse, Columbia, Prestige/Riverside), I hit the local record stores like a swarm of bees (Amoeba, Rasputin, Tower, Streetlight) and purchased many new/used CDs on-line via the Internet, consulting my All Music Guide to Jazz: The Experts’ Guide to the Best Jazz Recordings, 3rd Edition, when necessary.  I also discovered the music of more and more great 1950s Jazz artists by going through CD bins, as well as word of mouth (“Man, you oughta check out ???”).  I’ll never forget visiting my late uncle during a visit to Detroit and hearing some mellow Jazz saxophone tunes (on cassette) in the background.  When I asked him who it was, he responded, “Oh, that’s Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Ben Webster…”.  Whatt!!!  You gotta know what I did when I got back to the west coast.  As a result, I now have over 1,300 CDs of 1950s/60s straightahead Jazz only!

To me, the 1950s was the most fertile decade for straightahead/ bebop Jazz artists, records, labels, compositions, and venues (nightclubs).  I’ve always imagined, in a previous life, being a wide-eyed and bushy-tailed 18 year-old in NYC in the 1950s, checking out the vibrant Jazz scene 24/7…

These 45+ years later, straightahead/bebop Jazz still greatly interests me, intellectually challenges me, and musically ‘rocks my world!’  The thing is, which I picked up early on, was that straightahead/bebop Jazz is not simple.  It doesn’t take a technically-trained ear to recognize that this stuff is different from other music genres: Soul, R&B, Funk, Blues, Classical, and Jazz Fusion.  For one, its harmonic structures are complex. Two, the improvisation during solos displays unique talents of the musicians. And three, there’s a great legacy of artists, composers, songbooks, and repertoire unique to Jazz.  Personally, I have my own ‘Big Seven’: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillispie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk.  It doesn’t get much better (or any more serious) than this!

This brings me to “Smooth Jazz”, a MUCH simpler music style and art form borne out of the R&B genre.  Here, I make a strong distinction between “Smooth Jazz” and “Jazz Fusion”.  From where I sit, “Smooth Jazz” originated in the mid-1980s on the coattails of “Jazz Fusion”.  Basically, “Smooth Jazz” is where you take a very popular R&B ballad or slow tune, remove the vocals, and add an alto or soprano saxophone playing the same notes, not much improvisation needed.  There you have it – “Smooth Jazz”.  Not much ingenuity or origination required or necessary.  Artistically, it’s like comparing a porterhouse steak (straightahead/bebop Jazz) to a Big Mac (“Smooth Jazz”).  And, let’s face it, it doesn’t require very much musicality during a sax solo or piano solo to impress a “Smooth Jazz” audience or to garner applause.  Despite the many outstanding R&B/Soul composing teams over the years, with the exception of Stevie Wonder, few, if any’s tunes, would be confused with a Monk, Ellington, or Coltrane composition…

Amazingly, “Smooth Jazz”, as a proxy for real “Jazz” to the masses of uninformed, unsophisticated music lovers of instrumental R&B music, does a great disservice to America’s original art form, in that it bastardizes the “Jazz” name.  So much so that quite often, a much celebrated and highly promoted “Jazz” festival or “Jazz” cruise will include NO straightahead Jazz artists, but rather “Smooth Jazz”, R&B, Funk, Gospel, and Hip Hop performers.  Please don’t misunderstand me; I enjoy these other music genres.  Just not at a “Jazz” festival!!!

Duly noted also is the appropriation of the “Smooth Jazz” music genre, specifically the demographics of the more successful “Smooth Jazz” artists, as well as headliners and rosters at “Smooth Jazz” festivals and cruises.  More poignantly, given that the art form is a derivative of R&B and Soul music, who’s creators were/are Black, one has to wonder why the headliners and other benefactors shouldn’t also be predominately Black artists or more fairly represented.  After all, we’re not talking about Country Music.

On well, just a few of the many reasons why “Smooth Jazz” is not quite ‘my cup of tea’.  I prefer ‘the real thing!’

Kenneth