Rabshakeh

A bit off topic but I reckon that a person could make a cracking double CD of post-CTI Bob James. He really does have some excellent tunes, albeit on some pretty crappy records, some times.

"Bedroom" / underground smooth jazz... There was a list that got published somewhere a while back. Maybe you posted it? Someone who knows his or her stuff did.

What I mean is that the likes of the Rippingtons maybe played on a different radio station, or something.

Funny to use Jokerman font on a jazz album cover. Not one you'll see in the coffee table books any time soon...

Oh yeah. I forgot Braxton. What are these records? I can't find this one on Discogs. Is it part of a series? And if so do you recommend them?

It's a funny umbrella genre. I'm not sure that the above artists are strictly smooth jazz in the way that Winelight or Kenny G are. More pop fusion, perhaps? Save for Botti who is more easy listening, maybe. I wasn't really meaning to ask though about whether members like smooth jazz or commercial fusion (I assume generally not that much) but really whether members regard this as a legitimate genre of jazz that is worth bringing to the attention of students. Even if the course is just a circle around the album cover for Winelight and another circle saying "Everything Else".

I think that I have mentioned before, but I wouldn't be at all surprised is Smooth Jazz becomes an area of interest at some point in the near future. It is a genre that is uncool at least partly due to association with the Gorlitz machine. We've all watched as soul jazz and 70s spiritual jazz emerged from the ashes to become extremely hip. What form such a revival would take is unknown to me, partly because I think Smooth Jazz is a bit of an umbrella genre and also because I'm definitely of the Gorlitz-scarred generation. I suspect that the music is much better handled as singles than albums (despite being an album led genre) and some enterprising Brooklyn record label will put together a good comp at some point.

But if that's the case, are we not including soul jazz, however you define it? I think most of us in this forum would want the various subaltern forms of 1960s jazz included. I certainly would.

This is a fairly generous course/book. It has a chapter or lecture on soul jazz, cool and west coast jazz, fusion, etc. It's not a Ken Burns thing that is very narrowly defined.

Really I am just interested in your views. The likes of Dave Koz, Chris Botti, latter day Bob James or David Benoit are central to what a large part of the listening public has liked about jazz for decades. Commercial and popular easy jazz; some good tunes, emotional when needed, yearly Christmas releases, good for driving to, etc. This stuff is and remains very popular. It is not really the kind of thing that the forum members enjoy, though. I'm interested to know whether the members of this forum think these artists and their ilk should be held out as important jazz artists that kids and uninformed first time listeners should be encouraged to go and track down? Should they get a chapter in a notional new version of Ted Gioia's book, or an episode in the even more notional enlarged Ken Burns documentary? Sorry. Idle Monday morning thought.

I don't know these two. What records do you recommend? Really...? I think it is fair to say that I don't hear this at all.

Thanks! It may be that the early Lighthouse record was just unrehearsed or that Latin rhythms were new to him at the time. He doesn't seem to struggle on these.

I can't be the only one who was introduced to latin music by Colon's Fania records with Lavoe. A huge world of music that he opened up.

Hot hot hot

Did Shelly Manne ever record a Latin album? Or any latin tracks? I'm struggling to remember any. I am listening to the original Jazz a la Lighthouse record and there is an at best semi successful (from the pov of the drums) track with congas.

I love the artwork on the records he produced, often photographs he had taken himself. The jarring contrasts of photographs and font really appeal to me.

I didn't know he was American. Brubeck I can understand. Who in 2026 really loves his style?

That's interesting. The dutch player? Did he say this somewhere? I sort of missed Clusone at the time, and I have never really got to grips with his music as a result, although I always enjoyed their records.

Are there any reed players who claim primary inspiration or some other form of artistic descent from Paul Desmond? I'm always struck by how much I love his playing every time I listen to his records.

Spiritual jazz in 2026 seems to me to be more like a registered trademark than anything meaningful. Lots of kids wearing sunglasses making instrumental music with the trappings of Pharaoh Sanders with Lonnie Liston Smith or Alice Coltrane, but no real jazz or spirituality content. Like a "race car" that is just a Nissan Micra with a spoiler on the back. That's what I mean by "fake" spiritual jazz. Anyone, for all that, some of these records are good. I like this one. It has excellent production that reminds me a bit of Fourtet, and that gives it a suppleness. I'd like it more if they were doing something new rather than using new technology to do something old, but in its own way that's new. Worth a go if you want some warm background music with harps and flutes. 2025 really seems like it was a bumper crop of good record. This is by no means the best but I certainly enjoyed it.

Phi-Psonics – Expanding To One One of the better recent fake spiritual jazz records.

Thank you!

A lot happening at any one time.

Don Costa And His Orchestra – The Sound Of The Million Sellers

This is a very specific thread.