What song was the beginning of smooth jazz?

[dacm]

6 hours ago, Bobadohshe said:

60s soul jazz certainly was the prequel. Even stuff like 'The In Crowd' showed that you could have big crossover success with the right kind of instrumental.

I very much agree with the "The In Crowd" by Ramsey Lewis. The original song written in 1964 by Billy Page and sung by Dobie Gray was given an instrumental version by Lewis in 1965 that was recorded live, which was unique for the time. Within a year, the next important soul jazz song was "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" written by Joe Zawinul and performed by Cannonball Adderley. Later in 1967, lyrics were added and It was a Top 40 hit for The Buckinghams.

 

As for Spyro Gyra, I have been following them for 45 years. In the last several weeks I was lucky enough to see them twice here in Connecticut. In and email, I commented to my musician friends the following: "They were not hot... nor red hot...but white hot!!

 

What a fantastic group of extraordinary musicians with truly outstanding musicianship. Do not miss an opportunity to see them live!

[Mills Dude]

30 minutes ago, Reezekeys said:

 

Just to clarify - John was under no pressure to commercialize then. He was recording for a small independent jazz label (Gramavision) and played and recorded what he wanted to. He was very much into having a funky band after his stint with Miles (which had ended not too long before this). I feel very privileged and grateful to have been a part of this band - there were musical moments I won't forget (and upon listening to my playing on some u-tubes from then, a few I would like to forget! 🙂 )

Dude, thanks for clarifying.  I have no information, just speculating about the time and era.  John's always seemed like a very independent artist and I don't mean to imply that any of  his work from that period was 'modified' in any way other than how he wanted it produced.  

 

Those early records on Gramavision were outstanding and that live band was really hot.  I had very little exposure, I only heard those records after seeing the band live.  Although I used to jam with these dudes and we did cover Techno off 'Still Warm' a few times before I'd ever heard it., well the guitar player walked me through the changes and we were off.  I thought the sound and vibe were very fresh from other stuff that was happening in that era.  I feel really lucky to have been able to live in the NYC area and had access to all the interesting things happening then. 

[Ed A.]

 

[Bobbo Fett]

6 hours ago, Mills Dude said:

Not sure of the exact timelines, as I was too young (born in '66) but my older sister was way into WRVR, a NYC station playing lots of 'smooth jazz' before that genre label existed.  That station was active in the mid 70s.  She had a pretty extensive collection of 70s R&B jazz -- George Benson, Spyrogyra, Hubert Laws, Kevin Eubanks, Hubert Laws ...   I'm pretty sure this was going on way before 'Feels So Good".

Ahhhhhh WRVR.....Growing up in Jersey I listened to that station constantly! I loved it because they would play a cut and give you info on it...the players, who produced it, etc. Then one Monday morning I turn on the radio and they had switched their format to country......

[jerrythek]

Boy, this is a hard question to answer. A single song? Styles often develop by degree… I can offer that Bob James’ work was a strong influence, with strong simple melodies, and good production values. Grover Washington, for sure. Chuck Mangione, George Benson and Spyro Gryra as well. The many commercial and popular songs that are being mentioned here I would never call smooth jazz… 

 

reezekeys is absolutely correct that the term came from a radio format, which mixed a lot of R&B music with the work of cross-over jazz artists, but that trend happened later than these artists/recordings happened. I think The Wave format in CA really solidified it.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_jazz_radio

 

I know that many artists that I know/knew had to make records defined by a pretty strict format to get any radio play given the dominance of the format. George Duke, Jeff Lorber and many others told me often how rigid the requirements were to get airplay. Think about a band like Fourplay: I believe they formed the band as a way to get airplay/record sales aimed directly at the format. A smooth jazz supergroup. They are all monster players, but I think they knew what they had to do to move product. Not dissing them… they did it with class and artistry, but it was made for the format. Think about all those sax players who set up a drum loop, copped some watered down Tom Scott and Sanborn licks and sold records. Many of them are monster players, but they knew what they needed to do…

 

On those radio stations, these artists would appear side by side with Simply Red, Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, The Stylistics and so many R&B artists that you would never call Jazz…

 

I’m wandering a bit… I’ll stop here.

 

Jerry

 

 

[jerrythek]

5 minutes ago, Bobbo Fett said:

Ahhhhhh WRVR.....Growing up in Jersey I listened to that station constantly! I loved it because they would play a cut and give you info on it...the players, who produced it, etc. Then one Monday morning I turn on the radio and they had switched their format to country......

Yup, same thing happened to me. I would go to sleep with the radio on, and woke up thinking I must have hit the dial,

 

I heard they brought the staff in at 6 am and told them of the format change. But the station had been moving more away from jazz to the smooth jazz format for years. Remember how they used to play a new record in its entirety every night at midnight? 
 

Jerry

[Reezekeys]

43 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

George Duke, Jeff Lorber and many others told me often how rigid the requirements were to get airplay.

 

A company named Broadcast Architecture, right? I remember hearing about them, and the rules the smooth jazzers had to follow in order to get on the radio.

 

45 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

On those radio stations, these artists would appear side by side with Simply Red, Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, The Stylistics and so many R&B artists that you would never call Jazz…

 

You jogged my memory - right, the smooth jazz stations would often mix in the older r&b/soul stuff, but iirc it was more ballads or "softer" tracks.

[CyberGene]

You should seek the roots among the early elevator manufacturers. 

[ProfD]

@Reezekeys, you're correct that Smooth Jazz as a radio format started in the 1980s.

 

However, the aforementioned songs that were recorded in the mid-1970's gave birth to Smooth Jazz.

 

Kenny G was the first superstar of Smooth Jazz. 😎

[elif]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

@Reezekeys, you're correct that Smooth Jazz as a radio format started in the 1980s.

 

However, the aforementioned songs that were recorded in the mid-1970's gave birth to Smooth Jazz.

 

Kenny G was the first superstar of Smooth Jazz. 😎

Agree with the mid-70s, to which I would add Ronnie Laws album "Fever".  Kenny Gorelick's first solo album didn't hit until 1982, Jeff Lorber producing.

[rickzjamm]

That's like saying which song started rock 'n roll & most will point to "Rock Around the Clock" but I believe there were many blues infused tunes that predated it, morphed & led up to it.

Interesting topic though.    

[Reezekeys]

Any student of jazz history knows that there are different styles that developed. We divide this into convenient periods like dixieland, swing, be-bop, cool, modal, free, etc. The fact is that for every period of jazz, there are always precursors found in previous periods that point at the changes to come - it's not like some hard dividing line. Jazz styles evolve. So of course one can point to 1970s records like "Breezin" and with the benefit of hindsight say that this was "the beginning of smooth jazz." The thing is that "smooth jazz" did not organically evolve like the aforementioned jazz styles. It's not a style. It was an invented radio format designed to make money for radio stations. The demographic was changing  and the audiences were getting older and market research showed that their tastes were more upscale. Advertisers liked this; it's all in the Wikipedia link Jerry posted.

 

So, as I've probably said too many times in this thread, asking what song is the beginning of "smooth jazz" is really an unanswerable question since everybody here seems to have a different idea of what "smooth" means. Obviously I interpret the term "smooth jazz" strictly. Asking any musician I know & work with familiar with this genre what they might consider "smooth jazz" - they will all understand it to mean the artists that populated the smooth jazz stations starting in the 1980s. Not Lawrence Welk! 🙂 

 

Now if you want to ask "what kid of jazz sounds smooth to you", that's different. Fletcher Henderson, that's pretty smooth! A lot of Lester Young sounds particularly smooth to me too. Of course, Stan Getz with Astrud Gilberto - what's smoother than that? Yes, that's it: "Girl From Ipanema" was the beginning of smooth jazz. We can close this thread now! 🙂 

[harmonizer]

I consider Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" to be one of the most special works of art of the 20th century.

And it is probably my favorite jazz album of all time.

 

Is it smooth?

Were there a lot of people who did not know much about jazz, but still found it highly enjoyable?

 

It seems others thought so, and this was commercialized by releasing albums that were collaborations between Miles Davis and the Gil Evans Orchestra - those could be considered smooth in a way.

[CyberGene]

Modal jazz is accessible to people who are not used to jazz because it is intuitive and a lot of the earliest music, along with ethnic/folk music is based on modes rather than harmonic progressions. There are pseudo-chords that you can make of the mode notes but that’s not functional harmony. But I wouldn’t call that “smooth” jazz even though it’s more accessible for the untrained ear. Smooth is IMO mostly defined by being melodic, upbeat and avoiding dissonance while still keeping functional jazz harmony with cadences and the ubiquitous ii-V-I resolutions. 

[jerrythek]

I completely agree with the first part of your explanation: I always found the lack of tension/release and even the lack of dynamic hills and valleys a particularly bothersome part of the Smooth Jazz format. Along with drum loops as a constant bed with little to no fills or change-ups. But there's plenty of music made in that format that didn't adhere closely to the functional harmonic concepts and ii-V-I vocabulary.

 

42 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

Modal jazz is accessible to people who are not used to jazz because it is intuitive and a lot of the earliest music, along with ethnic/folk music is based on modes rather than harmonic progressions. There are pseudo-chords that you can make of the mode notes but that’s not functional harmony. But I wouldn’t call that “smooth” jazz even though it’s more accessible for the untrained ear. Smooth is IMO mostly defined by being melodic, upbeat and avoiding dissonance while still keeping functional jazz harmony with cadences and the ubiquitous ii-V-I resolutions. 

 

[MathOfInsects]

1 hour ago, Reezekeys said:

it's all in the Wikipedia link Jerry posted.

I hadn't clicked that, but guess what? It says the precursors were the "beautiful music" stations of the 1950's through 1980's. Guess what they played? Yep..."Sweet jazz."

 

Anyway, the radio stations didn't invent "Smooth Jazz" as a genre, they invented a genre name to aggregate some sounds that were already out there, and that created a market that labels then catered to. Same as any other genre. Remember "New Age"? [barf]

Rock n roll was also named by a DJ and united as a genre by radio stations. "Blues" was a record-label designation. So was "old time" (aka country). They still all have "precursors" and lengthy conversations among nerds about what the "first" rock 'n roll song or blues song or country song might be. 

[jerrythek]

Completely correct IMHO - the musical style grew out of many earlier styles and elements, as is so often the case. But I think in this case, they (the radio stations/powers that be) codified it and "forced" musicians to adhere to their strict requirements if they wanted have their music played. Remember, by that time radio was driven by playlists: the DJ's didn't make the decision of what to play anymore. So more so than the other genres/situations you mentioned, the format/style of music was truly dictated by the all-powerful playlists and organizations who created them.

 

Jerry

 

[Threadslayer]

15 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

--I can't believe I'm about to type this--Lawrence Welk. Smooth instrumental jazz with accessible arrangements but improvised solos. Replace the accordion with electric guitar or EP and it's all bell-bottoms all the time.

Lawrence didn't shoulder that burden alone... Don't forget Guy Lombardo and Percy Faith Strings!

[ProfD]

Once the Smooth Jazz format was codified and took off, it definitely fed both musicians and listeners alike. 

 

Smooth Jazz was perfect pay day for musicians as alternative to straight ahead Jazz gigs and non-existent R&B gigs. 

 

The music also catered to listeners who graduated from Adult Contemporary music to Jazz-lite.😁😎

[MathOfInsects]

23 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

Completely correct IMHO - the musical style grew out of many earlier styles and elements, as is so often the case. But I think in this case, they (the radio stations/powers that be) codified it and "forced" musicians to adhere to their strict requirements if they wanted have their music played. Remember, by that time radio was driven by playlists: the DJ's didn't make the decision of what to play anymore. So more so than the other genres/situations you mentioned, the format/style of music was truly dictated by the all-powerful playlists and organizations who created them.

 

Jerry

 

I think the only real difference is that this was the sausage we were all alive to see being made. Radio stations have always worked this way. They target a specialized market and then the labels generate material to supply to that market. I think that because our circles perhaps intersect with folks who were put through this particularly meat grinder, it feels different or new. But this has always been how our genres are commodified.

[KuruPrionz]

1 hour ago, Reezekeys said:

We can close this thread now! 🙂 

Already?

Some of us (me) might be curious as to the blessed day that the last smooth jazz is recorded. Too late is better than not at all... 😳😇🤣

[Synthaholic]

I think 'Songbird' by Kenny G is the start of smooth jazz. I don't consider Breezin' or Feels So Good smooth jazz, just instrumental pop or jazz fusion.

[ProfD]

12 minutes ago, Synthaholic said:

I think 'Songbird' by Kenny G is the start of smooth jazz.

That song is certainly definitive of it.😎

[Mills Dude]

Unrelated, but I was just checking event listings for the Iridium in NYC.  June 17th & 18th they have Oz Noy with Dennis Chambers and Jimmy Haslip.  Definitely nothing ''smooth" about that trio.  I would expect an evening of rip roaring funk driven fusion.   I've caught Oz a number of times with Dave Weckl and Will Lee.  He's an extraordinary talent.

[jerrythek]

Not to keep driving down this tangent too far, but in the earlier eras only the Top 40-type/AM stations were fed in this fashion. And "payola" from the record labels played a big part in the process. Plenty of FM stations had freedom to pick and choose the music that they played, and they didn't stick to one genre. The stations that played jazz, and often blues as well were also DJ-driven and much freer in their music selection. But in our lifetime we saw the more narrowing of genre definition, and music type-casting, along with the loss of the DJ to  play a role in what they played. Rock got divided into Classic Rock, Alternative, Metal, and Oldies etc. For the first time jazz got that treatment, and we had Classic Jazz, Smooth Jazz, New Age and so on. So I think that we are discussing the first time that Jazz got significantly affected by the commercial and external pressures to adhere to more finite genre definitions to be able to be played on a given station (really a network of stations who all subscribed to these new playlists, which were determined by research, polling and other codified marketing activities).

 

Actually, thinking about it more, I'm not completely correct. After fusion became successful, and a lot of acts got big sales and were played on FM stations, there was a strong push to commercialize their music. Coming alongside the disco era, a lot of great players and acts made more commercial recordings that were fusion-lite... we all know them. Suddenly these players were using a disco 4-on-the-floor underneath their tunes and started playing a more watered-down version of their music. This was not smooth jazz. Yet. But it was one more step on the way towards it. Here's but one example... to me it's different than what we call smooth jazz. YMMV.

 

 

 

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

For sure there was a difference between the music that led to the genre being named, and the music that then started being made intended to be called "Smooth Jazz." No doubt about that. That's always true, though. No one was playing "the blues" when they were playing the music that was later named that, or "rock n roll" when they were playing the music that Allen Freed decided to call that. They were just playing what they were playing.

But then, once there was a genre named that, plenty of people made music intended to be called that, to cash in on the new market.

So if the question is, what was the first (hit) song made intending to be called that, that is probably answerable, within a song or two. Same way we can name "Rapper's Delight" as the first hip-hop single, when it was by no means the "first" rap song, or even a legit product of the scene or sound.

But if the question is what is the "first" song you find if you trace certain key elements or trends backward, and keep following the "chain of custody," where do you land? That's different. We do this with every genre, in retrospect: we ask which song(s) first displayed the various elements we would need to have present to (later, when the genre is named/created) think of a song as being in a particular genre.

I think it's relatively easy to do this with Smooth Jazz. Dive backward down the rabbit hole for "Jazz-adjacent instrumental music with improvised solo elements," and you land pretty hard in the over-commercialized big band and sweet music of the 30s--the exact stuff bebop arose in response to/protest of. If you start there, the chain of custody is pretty easy to trace forward to the "Beautiful music" stations of the next decade, into Muzak on one end and fusion on the other, straight to Smooth Jazz--with some added stops along the way, of course. 

I'm kind of curious about the disco connection. It gives me this crazy idea that in a way the "Hooked On" phenomenon might be vaguely in the mix as well.


 

[GovernorSilver]

The chord progression towards the end of "Chaser" reminded me of a smooth jazz tune.   Took a while to dig through my memory banks to figure out what it was.

 

No doubt  Russ Freeman and Co. listened to "Chaser" at some point in their lives

 

 

[Docbop]

I remember back in the 70's when I got to Tuesday guitar night at the Baked Potato Lee Ritenour was there all the time with alway the best studio cats in town.    He used to do this Casiopea tunes all the time, which I'd say is pretty Smooth Jazz by today's definition.    Except it being played by  Anthony Jackson, Harvey Mason, Patrice Rushen, and Ernie Watts didn't sound so Smooth.  I guess later on Lee worked on Casiopea stuff in the studio. 

 

 

 

[jerrythek]

The disco connection was one of the more insidious movements to afflict jazz in the late '70s. Some of biggest heroes fell prey to it. Here's one shocking example:

 

 

[jerrythek]

I'm having trouble formatting things, so I punted and am just posting multiple replies. Herbie certainly fell prey to it... Feets Don't Fail Me Now is especially egregious: