From Contemporary to Smooth: When Did It Change?

I remember going to a Kenny G concert and enjoying the circular breathing of the soprano sax player.  He opened for a popular R&B singer at the time. It was my first encounter with smooth jazz. I really liked what he was doing and subsequently bought many of his albums.  For those of you who know me, you know that I do traditional jazz, mostly classic, vocal jazz, instrumental, and a lot of straight-ahead.  In fact, I love Brubeck, Coltrane, Chick Corea, and others like them. However, I never really put smooth jazz into the category of traditional jazz. And at the time, it certainly didn’t fit the description of contemporary jazz either. Nevertheless the smooth jazz genre continued to evolve into what is, which is now referred to as contemporary jazz.

What used to be contemporary jazz?  According to Allmusic.com, the definition is as follows:

“Contemporary Jazz is essentially a catch-all term for the various permutations of popular, mainstream jazz of the 1980s and ’90s. While those years were certainly not devoid of complex, cerebral jazz recordings, music referred to as contemporary jazz does not usually share those sensibilities, nor is the term generally used to describe music centered around hard bop or the avant-garde. Instead, instrumental contemporary jazz is usually informed by some combination of a) fusion — often slickly produced, with an emphasis on rock and funk rhythms; b) pop-jazz, with its almost exclusive concentration on memorable melodies; c) smooth jazz, with its primary goal of creating pleasant, mellow textures; and d) crossover jazz and contemporary funk, with their blend of polished production and R&B influences. Not all contemporary jazz artists completely discard improvisation and challenging experimentation, but by and large, most instrumentalists emphasize shiny production, melody, and accessibility. In the realm of vocal jazz, artists may or may not possess an improvisational flair, but in most cases, their recordings attempt to evoke an aura of stylish sophistication, sometimes drawing upon pop and R&B in addition to jazz.” – Allmusic.com

Now what I find interesting about Allmusic.com‘s description is the term contemporary.  Through the duration of the jazz medium, contemporary jazz applied to instrumental, improvisational jazz, mostly consisting of straight-ahead, experimental, with amplification—rather fusion jazz in its many forms. Miles Davis, Stanley Clarke, Bunny Brunel, Chick Corea, the Brecker Brothers, Herbie Hancock, and others like them, these artists used a skill set of traditional modal improvisation, combined with amplified instruments.  So when did the shift in definitions occur?

Billboard created a chart called SMOOTH JAZZ SONG.  The shift appeared to have occurred in the mid-80s.  The rush to become the artist to put out a smooth jazz single that charted opened a brave new world to smooth jazz artists, dominating the charts and morphing into the term we use today.  All portals online and off have picked up the name and almost 40 years now the term contemporary jazz has now become an additional definition of smooth jazz.

I can think of a few traditional jazz-fusion artists who have embraced the smooth jazz/contemporary jazz metamorphosis.  Bobby Lyle had an album called The Genie. This was quite the sensation and deeply improvisational with amplification.  It bordered on free jazz, heavy grooves, and was intricately written. The entire track list was a spectacular maze of arranging and virtuoso playing with its focus on Lyle’s keyboard chops. It was cutting edge for its time.  He has crossed platforms and additionally put out several smooth jazz inspired albums since The Genie (with exception of his latest release The Way I Feel). There are others who’ve done quite well on the banner of smooth jazz.

Now what’s great about smooth jazz?  It has opened a door for popular instrumental music.  Back in the 30s and 40s Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, etc… were the pioneers of popular jazzy instrumental music.  (Side note:  Jazz used to be considered the Pop music of that time.)  I’ve heard smooth jazz is dying.  That’s not true at all.  Most jazz festivals are smooth jazz top-heavy, sprinkling in a bit of R&B, Funk with Old School, Blues, and occasionally Latin groups. Interestingly enough, smooth jazz does seem to be the only style of jazz that is making it into these jazz festivals.

Words change their meaning over time. Did you know “Girl” once meant a child or young person of either sex? In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer says of the summoner, “In daunger hadde he at his owene gise/ The yonge girles of the diocise.” In modern English, that’s, “In his own power had he, and at ease/ Young people of the entire diocese.” –Mental Floss

So it’s no wonder when you google “contemporary jazz” almost every reference online comes up as smooth jazz. So when did this transformation happen? I’m not really sure, but it didn’t happen overnight . . . Branford Marsalis Contemporary Jazz follows the traditional jazz template, not conforming to the new definition. Marsalis’s album won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2000.  Somebody needs to inform the Grammy’s that they made a mistake.

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