It's OK to like Smooth Jazz

The title of this post actually came from an article by uDiscoverMusic. Obviously it's a reaction to many jazz snobs thinking it's NOT OK to like Smooth Jazz. I happened to be NOT one of them though. While I agree traditional jazz is certainly a "higher" form of art, it requires a great deal of musicianship to play smooth jazz well too. My saxophone (online) teacher Eric Marienthal is a good example of musician who excels in both genre. Anyway, that article was a good read for those who are not familiar with the origin, the pioneers/superstars and the history of the genre. I am already very familiar with it but I did learn from it a new player: guitarist Tyler Reese. I enjoyed his album a lot, which actually reminds me less of smooth jazz but more of the instrumental albums by the "shredders" (think Vinnie Moore or Stu Hamm) in the late 80s.

Shoutcast streaming

I am official back to using OS X for personal computing last week. Previously I had a (white dual USB) iBook that gradually became so obsoleted that its only usage was listening to streaming radio at night. Eventually I completely stopped using it. My new Mac reminded me that was actually a very good source for streaming music. And it took a while for the memory to come back to me: the website was ShoutCast.com! For example, this Sax4Ever streams pretty good smooth jazz. For traditional jazz, I would go for TheJazzGroove.com or JAZZ.FM91 (CJRT-FM).

The beauty of sax

Having been playing for a few months, of course I am very biased. I have just picked up soprano and fell in love immediately. George Coleman played it in this tune:
If you want a whole album of soprano sax, check out Jane Ira Bloom's work. I am listening to the sweet and surreal sound of the ballad "Tell Me Your Diamonds" from her album "The Red Quartets."

Another female saxophonist (alto) I recommend is Caroline Davis. Her "Live Work & Play" from 2012 was in a jazz quartet format but with guitar instead of piano. It's good to see some varieties.

Finally, check out "Breakaway" by smooth jazz saxophonist Elizabeth Mis. Yes, she's holding a soprano on the album cover.

Smooth sax

The hey days of smooth jazz are probably over. It might not actually be that bad for an instrumental music lover like myself. Why? One thing I recalled (and disliked) from that era was that every "instrumental" tune has a "mandatory" female background vocal singing a "tag line" (usually the tile of the song) Guys like Najee, Marion Meadows or Boney James all did that. I suppose that was mandated by the radio stations and record company exec. Here are quotes from a Billboard magazine article from 2000:

"Vocals are what has helped make smooth jazz a mass-appeal format and make it something that people can listen to and defend for work-place listening" - Frank Cody, Broadcast Architecture CEO.

"If you listen to some challenging instrumental that you've never heard before, you can only take so much of that. You want the comfort of a song you know" - Anne Gress, WJJZ operations manager

For almost twenty years I barely listen to smooth jazz for this reason. I guess there is no more pressure to make smooth jazz a mass-appeal so the annoying background vocal has gradually disappeared. (Well, the record companies don't bother to hire and pay for those singers!) On the other hand, one or two "vocal-centric" songs on an album is totally acceptable to me. While I wasn't paying much attention to the scene in the last twenty years, a whole new generation of smooth jazz saxophonists have emerged. And I went to two live performances at Yoshi's just this month! Here are a few good new albums from them:

• Vincent Ingala - Coast to Coast
• Jessy J - My one and only love. Check out her cover of (one of my all-time favorite band) The Cure's "Lovesong" Here is a post about it. I completely forgot this or I would have yelled out this when she asked what songs the audiences like on her new albums during her show last night! In addition to these new songs, she has also performed the hits from her previous albums, like the Tango Boy. She played mainly her tenor sax but also alto, flute and sang a few tunes! Very sweet voice, especially in Portuguese (her cover of the huge hit "Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendes. Everyone has heard this before)
• Michael Lington - Soul Appeal. Like a lot of smooth jazz musicians, he had a lot of success playing with singers outside of the genre, like Bobby Caldwell and Aaron Neville. It's no surprised that his band features a very good singer, whose main duty was actually playing guitar. Unlike Jessy J, Lington only played his alto (he is a Yamaha artist. So is my whole family :P Got a Yamaha piano, guitar, sax and clarinet at home) I enjoyed his story about playing on jazz cruise: the program was an all Beatles tribute. Like most people he's a fan and have no problem playing Beatles cover. However, he was last in line to pick a song to play. All songs he wanna played were picked and the one left was "Eleanor Rigby," which he considered really a string-centric rather than a sax type of song. Anyway, he came up with an arrangement that he actually satisfied with and performed that night. I loved it.

Christmas jazz

I went to two jazz shows last December and (surprise surprise!) both played quite a bit of X'mas music. The first one was the great organist Joey DeFrancesco and his trio playing at Cafe Stritch right in the heart of downtown San Jose. He also played the night before at the Yoshi's (Oakland) and I missed it so I was glad that he played another show in the Bay Area (and it's even closer!) Joey DeFrancesco carried the great tradition of funky and soulful organ jazz (think Jimmy Smith and Dr. Lonnie Smith) Even though the venue is kinda small (compared to the big SFJAZZ center where I saw him play with Bobby Hutcherson and David Sanborn last time) and still have a few empty spaces (I got a table on the balcony all by myself), he definitely brought his A-game. Nothing beats catching a performance by a player like Joey D in his prime. This show is actually part of a regular Hammond B3 organ series organized by local jazz radio DJ Pete Fallico at Cafe Stritch. I also saw a performance by the great Tammy Hall (I consider her the first lady in jazz organ in the area) earlier.

And I finally went to Yoshi's to see smooth jazz guitarist Peter White's show (featuring guest saxophonist Mindi Abair and trumpeter Rick Braun) All three are arguably the biggest name in the smooth jazz scene this year (check out the 2014 Smooth jazz charts and you will see their current albums respectively) Even though I normally prefer performances with more artistic than entertainment value, I gotta say I enjoyed the show and had lots of fun watching them playing familiar holiday tunes (Abair was a decent vocalist as well) and their own pieces. You could hear great techniques and creativity "under the cover" so to speak.

Before ending this post I just wanna mention one more piece of (sad) news regarding Yoshi's: I wouldn't need to qualify the venue with the city where it is located anymore because there's only one Yoshi's left, the one in Oakland. Yoshi's SF has officially changed hands in November and it's called the Addition now. I felt quite disappointed as a jazz fan since THE premiere SF jazz club is gone (the Addition is said to be focused on world music and more. Here is another detailed analysis by SFWeekly.) I had fond memories of great performances by Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, Pharoah Sanders, Mads Tolling... etc at Yoshi's SF. It seems that the "new" ownership group (which was formed by formerly minority owners) blamed the financial failure on low attendance (because of the music genre?) and the menu with high-priced Japanese food. In addition to different styles of music, the Addition will feature a different type of cuisine and a different seating model (assigned seat vs first-come-first-serve) The new system sounds like an improvement (to be honest I don't miss the old way of getting my seat.) And I hope the new menu works out for them. (even though I thought the pricey Japanese food on the old menu actually deserved it because of the quality and the location. Hey, it's SF after all) The writing was kinda on the wall about its demise though since it filed bankruptcy a few years ago and also SFJAZZ opening its door. RIP Yoshi's SF. You will be missed alongside other formerly awesome SF jazz clubs like Jazz At Pearl's.

Jazz fusion playlist: Dave Holland, Jeff Lorber

I enjoy bassist Dave Holland's performance a lot. I've been to concerts of his groups at Yoshi's a few times. I listened to his big band album even though I'm not a fan of this format at all, not to mention many albums in which he played as a side man. However, I was not familiar with the fusion side of his playing (which I should have 'coz Holland played with Miles Davis) until now: after listening to his 2013 release "Prism" (reviewed here), which features his long-time drummer Eric Harland (great to watch him play live), guitarist Kevin Eubank (even non-jazz fan would know him for his time at Jay Leno's 'Tonight show')

Regarding the term fusion, I first saw it being used in the 80s to describe music by the likes of John McLaughlin but also that of Kenny G and Spyro Gyra. The name "smooth jazz" took over in the 90's. However, the tide has turned: smooth jazz is going out of favor and musicians are distancing themselves from it. One evidence: Jeff Lorber started using the name of his old group, Jeff Lorber Fusion, since 2009. His group did play an important role in the history of smooth jazz: Kenny G got his start playing in this group (you could hear his playing on this album) Enough of the past. I highly recommend their new (2013) album, Hacienda. Smooth or not, this is great instrumental/improvisational music. And it featured two guests: guitarist Larry Koonse and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. That's a lot of star power!

爵士高手雲集聖荷西

第一次去要收費的聖荷西爵士音樂節，十幾年前去還是免費，不過廿元入場費可看足全日，也是超值，希望大會給音樂人的報酬好一點。這位音樂人分享他在夏日音樂節的報酬及經驗，甚為有趣。

下午三點到達downtown，最近在附近學結他所以對泊車情況也略知一二，找到隔幾條街的免費車位再踩車過去慳了五元。具體地址也沒有事先看地圖，總之向人群及音樂的方向踩就不會錯，原來是用圍欄包著市中心廣場（即博物館及Fairmont酒店對出那個）圍欄以外也有表演場地，都不見收費站！似乎可付可不付，我也沒有多探究，總是先去圍欄入口買票吧。再看看節目表，原來Fairmont酒店內就有一場Touch of Brass Big Band，老實說甚少聽Big band，這個演出還有女歌手，唱得甚為動聽。

四點鐘到上演「重頭戲」的Main stage看Javon Jackson with Les McCann and Dr. Lonnie Smith. 後兩位是玩Soul jazz keyboard的元老級人馬，McCann除了彈琴還唱歌，唱的藍調很有味道。我雖然不喜聽vocal，接連兩場聽了一點還可接受。Dr. Lonnie Smith則是我一向十分推崇的organist，彈起來總是霸氣十足又游刃有餘。

五點鐘節目表列了在Fairmont演出的是Joe DeRose and Amici.單看名字，直覺上是一男一女前者彈後者唱的組合（例如Tuck and Patti），在官網仔細看看卻是另一回事：DeRose是一位出自Berklee的fusion jazz鼓手，Amici是指和他合作的樂手好友，其中包括我以前也聽過並甚為欣賞的結他手 Hristo Vitchev，當日他用Tele彈出的聲同fusion十分夾，solo非常精彩。6弦Bass手Dan Robbins的技術同樣令我歎為觀止。他們的原創作品各有特色，例如其中一首由DeRose介紹乃係源自一條在座友人提供的bass line/riff.

六點鐘重回Main stage是為了看著名Smooth jazz色士風手兼電台節目主持人Dave Koz and friends，是那幾個friend？後來才知，總知意外驚喜。雖然論深度Smooth jazz無法和"Real"（傳統／主流／現代） jazz相比，但我其實一直都不太抗拒，說到底當天如果沒有聽Kenny G今天的我會不會聽及玩jazz也是疑問。和Kenny G相比，Dave Koz給我的感覺更懂得製造商機；近年Smooth jazz大衰退，他就和其他幾位和他知名度不相上下的色士風手合作同台演出，搞得聲勢浩大頗有突圍而出之感。雖然這個說法有點不尊重女性音樂才華，但有點姿色的女色士風手一向受人注目，以前就有Candy Dulfer，今次的Mindi Abair亦肯定增强這個lineup吸引力不少。這次演出更是明刀明槍搞大眾化：玩的都是70/80年代的pop/R&B/soul/funk作品，包括翻玩Sly and the family stone, Earth, Wind and Fire, James Brown, Herb Alpert，台下觀眾明顯相當受落，很多聞歌起舞。(雖然主流爵士網評一如所料對此不以為然)
(Left to right: Gerald Albright, Dave Koz, Mindi Abair, Richard Elliot)

總括來說我很高興去了這次音樂節，短短四小時也十分滿意。

Jazz playlist

I have been listening these few CDs:
- Todd Marcus: Inheriance
The current issue of JazzTime magazine has a special on bass clarinet: its history in jazz and its players, Todd Marcus being one of them. He led a group that included guests Don Bryon (another famous jazz clarinetist) and Warren Wolf on Inheriance. 

- Bob James and David Sanborn: Quartette Humaine
David Sanborn is probably more well-known for his "smooth jazz" efforts like his album "Close-Up" from 1988. Indeed, I picked it up because it's supposed to sound like Kenny G from around the same time. Of course, in the music circle, Sanborn is much higher regarded than Mr. G. In fact, Sanborn isn't a smooth jazzer. His more mainstream stuff sounded that way because of the R&B elements. He could play "real" jazz too. You could hear that from "Another Hand", the 1991 album he released after "Close-Up." It has my favorite version of Charlie Haden's composition, "First Song." Bob James was another musician(pianist) known for his smooth jazz work. He was an original member of the smooth jazz supergroup Fourplay. He collaborated with David Sanborn before and produced a smooth jazz classic, Double Vision, that included popular tunes like Maputo. Again, he played more than smooth jazz, as evident on this latest (2nd) collaboration with Sanborn, which is an acoustic tribute to Brubeck and Desmond. 

- Wayne Krantz: Two Drink Minimum
This was recommended by my teacher at Berklee for the interesting stuff he did with rhythms.

Last but not least, it's a sad sad day for jazz fans as pianist Mulgrew Miller passed away today because of a stroke. I still remember my first time visiting Yoshi's (in the old Oakland Claremont location) was to see him perform. The DJs at KCSM have been playing many of his works as a tribute. RIP.

Music of the day: Riders On The Storm

It became my pick not because I like this song particularly (a pretty good song though) but because I heard it on the local Smooth Jazz station KKSF (103.7)

Wait a minute! The Doors didn't play Smooth Jazz, did they? Well, it's because the station has been changed to classic rock.

I'm really surprised because:
1) I thought smooth jazz has a good-sized market. IMO, nothing is better than smooth jazz when all you want is some relaxing background music.
2) smooth jazz listeners are perceived as high income ones. So it's perfect for selling ads of luxury products.
3) there are already quite a few classic rock statons in the area but KKSF was the only one that plays smooth jazz.

As much as I hate the term "smooth jazz" (if it's smooth, it's not jazz), I do listen to KKSF from time to time in the past 15 years, just for some Kenny G, David Sanborn, Acoustic Alchemy, Kirk Whalum, Jesse Cook...... (and they have a weekend "real" jazz program that coincide with the hours that KCSM plays "weird" jazz) It's sad to see this change.

Their website mention they still have a smooth jazz streaming link. I couldn't get it to work on the office computer though.

[FYI: the classic jazz program on KKSF was called "The Jazz Cafe" and was hosted by jazz pianist Dick Conte every Sunday]