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I think it's frowned on in some circles but I've been listening to a good bit of it lately, especially since I got my GB10 which seems to be favored for that style. I'm just not sure exactly what "smooth jazz" as a style is. Is it certain progressions, or tunes, or from a certain era? It seems that it could be useful for solo guitar with backing tracks for background music in restaurants, coffee shops, galleries, etc. Would like an explanation of just what it is.
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10-25-2024 10:29 PM
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I have no idea man. What are you listening to that you think is smooth jazz? I just know it as a putdown on Kenny G.
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Everything is frowned upon in some circles. One needs to be judicious about the circles one is willing to be in. I personally don't like smooth jazz much, but that's just my taste, and it's no business of mine what anyone else listens to. If you like it, listen to it, and if you don't, don't. And there is no need to apologize for what you like and listen to.
Smooth jazz, as far as I can tell, is mostly defined by the tone and rhythm. To me, it doesn't swing much, but I'm not the swing police. As for playing it on a gig, to me it seems to be whatever the gig calls for. I'm also not the jazz purity police.
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Not sure, but I usually think of it as basically fusion but with some aesthetic differences.
So fusion would be maybe some jazz harmonies and vocabulary and stuff but usually shorter forms, or more pop-rock style forms, and more vamps. Rock grooves and electric instruments.
Smooth stuff, I usually think of more timbral differences and a narrower, easy listening tempo range, polished production.
Interesting question.
Honestly it shouldn't be ... but in a lot of circles, it's just a pejorative. If I like it, it's "ECM" or "third stream" or "fusion" and if I don't like it, then it's "smooth jazz" and I make a face when I say it.
There's obviously garbage elevator music, but there's also a rich tradition out there with overlap in the jazz and R&B charts. We might not always like the music, but George Benson is coming correct.
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To me it's like the jazz version of yacht rock. Something you listen to while wearing loose fitting white clothing while out on your sailboat on a breezy day with a light chop. I would bet a good smooth jazz act, whether solo, duo, or combo could make some real money in your area of FL. Ft. Myers is pretty much a yacht capital. To me, George Benson's "Breezin" and "Affirmation exemplifies smooth jazz. Or something like this:
Not too complex of a melody, easy for the listener to catch onto without excess concentration. Never jarring. Crisp and clean. Soothing even. Just something you can cruise and relax to. It's just "smooth". Just my two cents, probably way off base but that's my perception of it.
Evening Skip. Hope you are doing well. Missing FL tonight. I got to visit my family in St. Pete Beach last week. Had a great time sleeping in my sister's hurricane ravaged home with my TX friends and seeing my folks and my old FL buddies. Didn't last long enough.
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My take is that it's more like 'smooth funk'. It's a mellow cross between funk and jazz. It's most commonly a funk groove with a lot of static harmony. But there is some jazz crossover like vocab and instrumentation.
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Ya'll better watch out.
Still an all time favorite guitar solo. The vocalization on the double-stops around 4:03 is one of my favorite things in recorded music.
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That's a great explanation Mr. Timmons.
Originally Posted by Bobby Timmons
They have the Clearwater Jazz Fest in FL every year. It featured a lot of smooth jazz acts. Was a great festival, and was free, at least, back in the mid 2000s. Even saw Branford Marsalis with Jeff Tain Watts there. And the Wooten bros. Neither of which are smooth jazz but they were the headliners. Branford was outstanding. Wooten had a theremin, LOL....
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Benson is a monster player, but he did lean into easy listening jazz.
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I used to hate his stuff. Elevator trash music. Then one day through one channel or another I got one of his CD's. I was living in FL at the time. It all started to make sense then because they can't shuffle in FL but they can funk and Benson is pretty dang funky if you listen. Gotta respect a dude with his own signature model Twin Reverb!!! Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Love Benson.
I don't know. He's obviously got his whole history as a straight ahead jazz and blues player on his own and with the organ groups and stuff, so it's easy to give him a pass.
But there's real craft in the smooth guys too. Chris Botti is a phenomenal player too. Guys and gals like that. It's not jazz the way we conceive of it, but there's real musicianship and stagecraft going on there.
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Oh yeah, while we’re trashing the best… Wes Montgomery did some easy listening stuff too. Anyone can want to make some money, that doesn’t mean he couldn’t play.
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Right. It also doesn’t mean it was bad music. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Dang, who was trashing the best? Maybe I was but I admitted just not really getting it at the time and came around later. I didn't like jazz until I got a "Blue Guitar" cassette at age 14 with Tal Farlow doing Cherokee at mach speeds and Meade Lux Lewis doing "Jammin' In Four" and Sal Salvador doing "boo boop be doop". Heck I even named my kid after that guy. Then I found Parker and Gillespie doing "A Night In Tunisia". Yeah, I love Benson these days. Here's the cassette: Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Blue Guitar Blue Note (Cassette) 134747 Record Club Version | eBay
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I'm sure there is a wide range and I haven't heard much of it, but when I was in a seven man funk band we played some fantastic songs (that I had never heard but were well known and important to them). I don't know if this will help, but here are two they considered as smooth jazz, both difficult to figure out but fun to play.
I Can't Help It was written by Stevie Wonder and it is kind of the breezy, well crafted type of smooth jazz. Unusual progressions, specially voiced chords, really nice. Electronic keyboards can sound chords where every pitch is the same timbre/tone and level - this makes them sound a little different from a piano, more mysterious... the sound is clear but there is some "hiding" as to what is going on with the more complex chord types, inversions, and voice leading.
My Love Is All I Have employs a bunch of musical motions from church gospel (check the one time the awesome BM13sus4/Bb [6 x 6 4 5 4] chord appears at 2:27) with a thoughtful range of lyrics (funny and serious).
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Easy listening jazz-for example: Henry Johnson-
An Evening At Sea (2002) | Henry Johnson | High Quality Music Downloads | 7digital Canada
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We put on "Watercolors" (the SiriusXM smooth jazz station) in house frequently, more as background noise. While I can't say the SONGS are much of anything (and many are covers of famous pop hits), but there's some serious guitar playing on some of that stuff.
It's not what I listen to when I want to LISTEN, but it's cool, for certain purposes.
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Back in the '80s we had a station in San Diego that called itself smooth jazz. Among other things, they played Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Weather Report, Al Jarreau, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Stevie Wonder.
98.1 in San Diego. First place I heard the term Smooth Jazz. To me, they defined what smooth jazz was. It's broadened and evolved over time.
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When it's a real band playing smooth, it can be great. Fantastic even. Earl Klugh with Bob James type fantastic.
When it's a triple tracked sax playing dinky melodies over a backing that was completely crafted on some keyboard, it's fucking LAME.
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Tracks are for hacks, baby. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
— Mr Beaumont, 2024
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A lot of instrumental R&B seems to get lumped into Smooth Jazz. Either way, I like some of it and pass on some of it - just like I do with "un-smooth" Jazz.
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Dudes, just refer to Paul Brown's Smooth Jazz Handbook video. He'll set you straight.
In the intro he gives a definition of smooth jazzt:
I actually got into his video for a night or two. He says some cool things about phrasing, space, being melodic.
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I occasionally sub in a group that considers itself to be playing smooth jazz. I don't really know how to define it. There's generally a groove, played non-aggressively. Harmonies are less jagged, for want of a better term, than some more typical jazz.
The material is by artists like Larry Carleton, Lee Ritenaur, Ray Obiedo, Steely Dan, etc. Sounds like smooth jazz to me, but, like I say, I can't define it. Maybe it's fusion?
The charts are challenging and the music is fun to play.
My joke is that I like smooth jazz more than I'm supposed to.
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I'm not much good at smooth anything.
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I met Kim Waters at a jam session at a roadhouse up near Aberdeen, MD. Super nice guy and he can play the hell out of jazz.
But his main gig is smooth jazz, and he makes a healthy living at it. Sample album titles Sweet and Saxy and Sax Appeal. Later I saw him at an outdoor festival in Baltimore City, and there were a lot of people groovin' to him. Most were couples.
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