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Once in a while I will listen to London's Jazz FM. There's also an app for that. I find that they play a more interesting mix of tunes for a smooth jazz station, and I like their British accents.
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01-13-2014 11:26 PM
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Oops, I think I'm getting old and senile.
Originally Posted by pkirk
I agree about musical talent in pop music. I think American radio, maybe the music business as a whole here, limits what we hear. I found E.S.T., Esbjörn Svensson Trio, about a year ago. I created a station on Pandora and the European Jazz groups that were added are never played here. It is "contemporary" jazz. Seems like Jazz in America is anything recorded before about 1980. But here again I'm basing that observation on WRTI's playlists.
EdLast edited by edspyhill01; 01-14-2014 at 12:19 AM.
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One of my all time fav Benson smooth Jazz tunes. Try playing them fast lines.
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LOVE Benson's unprocessed (sounding) tone. It just sounds like a nice guitar plugged straight into a nice amp. Am I wrong about that?
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Sounds un processed to me. Originally Posted by Gertrude Moser
But note 4 things
1 Floating pup
2 Extremely dead flat wound strings.
3 Fender medium plectrum (ie not a 3mm lump of plastic)
4 touch of distortion when he hits the chords.
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It's that touch of distortion that adds to the excitement of his sound. It draws the listener in.
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You think so? I always wince when my amp has a "touch of distortion". I usually attribute it to having a small 1970's solid state amp (Acoustic). Now I feel more professional!
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Saw Metheny's name mentioned a couple times. I don't think I've ever heard him referred to as a smooth jazz player -- his chops, his compositions, all his stuff is just monstrous. He plays fusion in his own voice, which happens to be beautiful and frequently smooth. But does sounding smooth alone qualify it as smooth jazz? I thought the answer was "no", but I may be wrong.
Besides, this:
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Something like "we live here" is pretty smooth....but the good kind...sounds like a band, not somebody playing a non improvised solo over a backing track.
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I used to hear tunes like Last Train Home on smooth jazz radio quite frequently. And then all of a sudden he wasn't being played anymore. Wonder if it had to do with his Kenny G rant?
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The smooth jazz station in San Diego use to often play Metheny (the smooth jazz format has now vanished in San Diego). Originally Posted by brightsize
I think being played by stations that play the smooth jazz format makes it smooth jazz, after all who defines what smooth jazz is if it's not the smooth jazz stations. There are monsters being played by the smooth jazz stations.
Even if some of someone's work is defined as smooth jazz by these stations, it doesn't mean that they can't also be classified in other categories also. Metheny has recorded plenty of material that would never be heard on these stations. He get's played on smooth jazz stations; he's that and so much more.Last edited by fep; 01-19-2014 at 09:42 PM.
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Smooth jazz is kind of a fusion genre.
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I think the issue is that "real jazz" is often considered the only type of jazz by some (by most up here) . By "real jazz" I mean jazz that you would hear on the Real Jazz station on Sirius. It consists of mostly of RealBook jazz (is that where they get the name Real from?) but there are plenty of tunes which don't appear in any realbook (ie tunes you can find on jazzleadsheets.com). Smooth Jazz is everything else jazz and includes bossa, souljazz, blues jazz, fusion, and yes, even Kenny G, although I don't ever hear him on Watercolors (Sirius' Smooth Jazz station). I don't think it is a "fusion genre", it is much bigger than that.
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If fusion is the combination of jazz and another style than I'd say smooth jazz is a fusion genre. To quote Wikipedia
"Jazz fusion, fusion, or jazz-rock are variants of a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock music,"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_jazz
http://www.allmusic.com/style/smooth-jazz-ma0000002860
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I take that back. You don't mean Fusion ala Return to Forever, you mean fusion between two things as we use the verb "to fuse" or to combine in English.
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We didn't call it smooth jazz 40 years ago, the jocks were drunk and listening to Skynyrd and the band nerds were rolling joints on this album cover and wondering, who's Larry Carlton?
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Chaka Khan ... disco? Certainly not here. Originally Posted by Vladan
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Re: LA Express, nice and smooth, but not too soft. Fourplay is soft. LA Express is not.
Re;Chaka Khan, isco, or not, she's one of the more underrated artists in ..., whatever.
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I like Rufus too. Nathan East from Fourplay is a monster player, in fact that whole band is a group of all stars IMHO.
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while on Chaka Khan ..., not really Jazz, but solo guitar version, ...
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Post it to "Showcase". I think you need some proper controller for melody instrument and larger sample library, to make it sound even less MIDI. It starts super really nice, but over the course of the tune MIDI rears it's ugly head. IM most HO.
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Just... Originally Posted by Vladan
Awesome
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Thanks, will do. I don't want to get carried away with realism. I lowered the piano and bass a hair and brought up the snare. That's going to have to do. I'm all midi so no realtracks or anything like that. I'll post in showcase in the future. Originally Posted by Vladan
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The only reason I would start using a midi controller is to do comping on the piano parts for jazz tunes. I can't play the piano very well but it's something to keep in mind for the future. As far as the sax melody that's getting tossed later. It's simply a guide. There's a little tamborine roll that's very annoying somewhere. Originally Posted by Vladan
I'm going to start listening to Dizzy and how he comps on the keys.
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