Thanks

If its included its not a course or book I am interested in. To me its easier to draw a straight line from the swing era to the  "Jazz with a Beat" (borrowing member ListeningToPrestige book title) than anything worthwhile that leads into "Smooth" "Jazz".   And I certainly can't be troubled to figure out who isn't on the level of Boney James or Dave Koz and who is doing something "worthwhile" in the genre. It doesn't bother me at all that both genre's sought/seek "hits" - I will keep saying "Make mine Chunky" and argue that "Jazz With a Beat" all the way thru the Soul Jazz era have more in common with the origins of the music than Smooth ever will.

I forgot Windham Hill. That and the wider New Age movement was a part of this too.  Perhaps it is a chapter on the Commercial Jazzes of the Late 1970s to early 1990s. Prior to the environmental collapse caused by the twin rise of Gorlitz and the swinging retro pop revival. This is a fun and quite poignant list. So many hopes and dreams on there. Guys in rented evening dress for the cover shoot, recording under the covers so their kid sleeping in the next room doesn't get woken up, etc.

Absolutely. Like it or not, the Windham Hill catalogue is worth discussing. And since so many jazz histories would ignore free jazz or European jazz or soul-jazz or electronics-driven jazz, why add to the problem? If you were teaching a class on heavy metal—which I do—you cannot ignore nu-metal even if it is as commercially-driven as smooth jazz.

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