View source for Smooth jazz

{{Short description|Commercially oriented crossover jazz}}
{{for-multi|the radio network|Smooth Jazz (radio network)|the radio format|Smooth jazz radio}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Smooth jazz
| image             = Chuck Mangione DSC0042 2.jpg
| caption           = Chuck Mangione in [[Brampton]] in 2009
| stylistic_origins = {{hlist|[[Jazz fusion]]|[[pop music|pop]]|[[rhythm and blues]]|[[soul music|soul]]}}
| cultural_origins  = 1970s, United States
| derivatives       = 
| subgenrelist      = 
| subgenres         = 
| fusiongenres      = [[Crossover jazz]]
| regional_scenes   = 
| local_scenes      = 
| other_topics      = [[List of smooth jazz musicians|List of musicians]]
}}
'''Smooth jazz''' is commercially oriented [[crossover jazz]] music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, [[smooth jazz radio]] became the successor to [[easy listening]] music on radio station programming from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s.

== History ==
Smooth jazz may be thought of as commercially-oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 1980s, displacing the more venturesome [[jazz fusion]] from which it emerged. It avoids the [[jazz improvisation|improvisational]] "risk-taking" of jazz fusion, emphasizing melodic form, and much of the music was initially "a combination of jazz with easy-listening [[pop music]] and lightweight [[rhythm and blues|R&B]]."<ref name="fushion">{{cite web |url=http://allmusic.com/explore/metastyle/fusion-d4479 |access-date=October 7, 2019 |title=Fusion |publisher=AllMusic }}</ref><ref name="explore_amg">{{cite web|title=Jazz » Fusion » Smooth Jazz|url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/smooth-jazz-ma0000002860|work=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=October 7, 2019}}</ref>

During the mid-1970s in the United States, it was known as "smooth radio"; the genre was not termed "smooth jazz" until the 1980s.<ref name=Gioia2011>{{cite book |last=Gioia |first=Ted |author-link=Ted Gioia |title=The History of Jazz |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofjazz00gioia/page/337 337] |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=May 9, 2011 |isbn=9780195399707 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofjazz00gioia/page/337 }}</ref>

The term itself seems to have been birthed directly out of radio marketing efforts. In an industry focus group in the late 1980s, one participant coined the phrase "smooth jazz" {{Ndash}} and it stuck.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-rise-and-fall-of-smooth-jazz|title=The Rise and Fall of Smooth Jazz|first=Colin|last=Marshall|date=July 6, 2023|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref>

The popularity of smooth jazz as a radio format grew in the 80s and 90s, but gradually declined in the early 2000s. By 2009, many stations including in NYC, Washington, DC, and Boston had switched away from the format.<ref>[https://www.popmatters.com/184400-jazz-of-the-00s-jumping-past-the-great-divide-2495632353.html Jazz of the 00s - Jumping The Great Divide - Popmatters] "the market for jazz was starting to get less rigid too. “Smooth jazz” was by far the dominant market force in jazz at the end of the century, and it sidetracked the artistic lives of some musicians who might have made more interesting music but for the draw of big paydays. But the radio stations playing sax-and-synth dominated lite funk faded in the first decade of the 21st century. 2008 marked the death of the smooth jazz stations in both New York and Washington, DC"</ref>

“Smooth jazz” was by far the dominant market force in jazz at the end of the century, and it sidetracked the artistic lives of some musicians who might have made more interesting music but for the draw of big paydays. But the radio stations playing sax-and-synth dominated lite funk faded in the first decade of the 21st century.<ref>[https://www.popmatters.com/184400-jazz-of-the-00s-jumping-past-the-great-divide-2495632353.html Jazz of the 00s - Jumping The Great Divide - Popmatters]</ref>

==Pioneers and notable songs==
{{See also|List of smooth jazz musicians}}
Smooth Jazz was arguably pioneered in the early 1970's, with notable songs and artists including:  "[[Grazing in the Grass|Grazing in the grass]]" (1968), by trumpeter [[Hugh Masekela]], "[[Nautilus (song)|Nautilus]]" (1974) by keyboardist [[Bob James (musician)|Bob James]], and "[[Mister Magic]]" (1975) by saxophist [[Grover Washington, Jr.]]

Other early popular releases include guitarist [[George Benson]]'s 1976 cover/version of "[[Breezin' (song)|Breezin']]" and [[flugelhorn]] player [[Chuck Mangione]]'s "[[Feels So Good (composition)|Feels So Good]]" in 1977. Others are "[[What You Won't Do for Love (song)|What You Won't Do for Love]]" by [[Bobby Caldwell]] in 1978, jazz fusion group [[Spyro Gyra]]'s 1979 instrumental song "[[Morning Dance]]" <ref name=Gioia2011/> and the 1981 collaboration between [[Grover Washington Jr.]] and [[Bill Withers]] on "[[Just the Two of Us (Grover Washington, Jr. song)|Just the Two of Us]]".

Smooth jazz grew in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as [[Anita Baker]], [[Sade (singer)|Sade]], [[Al Jarreau]], [[Grover Washington Jr.]] and [[Kenny G]] released multiple hit songs.<ref>{{cite book |last=Larson |first=Thomas |title=History and Tradition of Jazz |page=188 |publisher=Kendall Hunt |date=2002 |isbn=9780787275747}}</ref>

==Critical and public reception==
The smooth jazz genre experienced a backlash exemplified by critical complaints about the "bland" sound of top-selling saxophonist Kenny G, whose popularity peaked with his 1992 album ''[[Breathless (Kenny G album)|Breathless]]''.<ref name=Gioia2011/>

Music reviewer George Graham argues that the "so-called 'smooth jazz' sound of people like Kenny G has none of the fire and creativity<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBDWomgRgWU How smooth jazz took over the '90s - Vox on YouTube]</ref> that marked the best of the fusion scene during its heyday in the 1970s".<ref>Graham, George, [https://archive.today/20121209204621/http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5Z0ukGXTz54J:georgegraham.com/reviews/methgrp.html review].</ref>

[[Digby Fairweather]], before the start of UK jazz station [[theJazz]], denounced the change to a smooth jazz format on defunct radio station [[102.2 Jazz FM]]; he stated that the owners [[GMG Radio]] were responsible for the "attempted rape and (fortunately abortive) re-definition of the music — is one that no true jazz lover within the boundaries of the [[M25 motorway|M25]] will ever find it possible to forget or forgive."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flyglobalmusic.com/fly/archives/europe_features/new_jazz_station_goodbye_to_th.html |title=New Jazz Station - Goodbye to the Smooth, Hello to the Classics |access-date=2008-02-16 |last=Fairweather |first=Digby |date=2006-11-18 |publisher=Fly Global Music Culture |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304122322/http://www.flyglobalmusic.com/fly/archives/europe_features/new_jazz_station_goodbye_to_th.html |archive-date=2008-03-04 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Lofi hip hop]]
*[[Mallsoft]]
*[[Quiet storm]]
*[[Sophisti-pop]]
*[[Yacht rock]]
*[[Smooth jazz radio]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

* {{Wikiquote-inline}}
* {{Commons-inline|Jazz}}

{{Jazz}}
{{Rhythm and blues}}
{{Portal bar|Jazz}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smooth Jazz}}
[[Category:Smooth jazz| ]]
[[Category:Jazz fusion]]
[[Category:Jazz genres]]
[[Category:1970s in music]]
[[Category:1980s in music]]
[[Category:1990s in music]]
[[Category:Fusion music genres]]