Billboard Top Selling Jazz Albums

[Rabshakeh]

21 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

What I strongly object to is all those out there who (particularly during the period that "Smooth Jazz" was all over the place) insisted and went out of their way to mediatize that "Smooth Jazz" now was what "Jazz" (i.e. ALL of jazz) was all about and that "Smooth Jazz" was the savior and future of jazz and whatever ...

That's interesting. I actually had no idea. I assumed everyone just always mocked the stuff.

Do you recall who the main spokespersons in favour of smooth jazz were?

[Big Beat Steve]

Sorry, I can't, except to say that they included certain strata of "the media" (music or other). But I did not pay sufficient attention to the persons. And the situation may well have been different from country to country. Certainly these writeups were a flash in the pan but they did happen.
Much like with Jazz Rock and, then, Fusion in the 70s. Except that a case can be made IMO that the jazz-cum-rock combination did bring about some interesting "crossover" results. Even if the rock part involved was not all that "advanced" or "progressive" at all but sometimes just meant "rock with horns" sailing under the jazz flag, for example.
But what was and is odd is that the same type of jazz persons had shuddered (even in retrospect) at basically similar crossbreeding that happened decades before with R&B , and again scoffed loudly when Punk or R'n'R musicians turned towards Swing and Jump Blues in the 90s (yes, that "Retro Swing" subculture again ).  As always, some acts were caricaturesque (but there certainly were hardly any among them that were as insipid and sloshy as certain Fusion "elevator music" sounds ) but others carved a niche of their own that took things in a new and different direction. Even if only for a while and/or only regionally ...

Edited September 14, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

Jazziz magazine loved them some of the smooth players.

Some of those guys could play. Very few were just hack trendsters, even though their records were. Even Kenny G had gas skills. He just has no taste. Or more accurately, very narrow taste 

Oh, 60s charts, add Herbie Mann. Atlantic had a reliable chat stable in those days. 

[Rabshakeh]

The 60s charts are all fire, no dire.

There's very little easy listening stuff on them. The most easy listening it gets is Wes Montgomery's proto-CTI stuff, which I know was viewed as pap at the time but I think has aged very well.

Lots of soul-adjacent stuff. 

Not much purist bop, but it is a generalised chart showing mass consumption trends.

It's a bit like looking at rock charts in the 1970s. There are years when there isn't a single album that is not still regarded as a classic.

32 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Sorry, I can't, except to say that they included certain strata of "the media" (music or other). But I did not pay sufficient attention to the persons. And the situation may well have been different from country to country. Certainly these writeups were a flash in the pan but they did happen.
Much like with Jazz Rock and, then, Fusion in the 70s. Except that a case can be made IMO that the jazz-cum-rock combination did bring about some interesting "crossover" results. Even if the rock part involved was not all that "advanced" or "progressive" at all but sometimes just meant "rock with horns" sailing under the jazz flag, for example.
But what was and is odd is that the same type of jazz persons had shuddered (even in retrospect) at basically similar crossbreeding that happened decades before with R&B , and again scoffed loudly when Punk or R'n'R musicians turned towards Swing and Jump Blues in the 90s (yes, that "Retro Swing" subculture again ).  As always, some acts were caricaturesque (but there certainly were hardly any among them that were as insipid and sloshy as certain Fusion "elevator music" sounds ) but others carved a niche of their own that took things in a new and different direction. Even if only for a while and/or only regionally ...

 

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Jazziz magazine loved them some of the smooth players.

Thanks, both.

[Big Beat Steve]

21 minutes ago, JSngry said:

 

Oh, 60s charts, add Herbie Mann. Atlantic had a reliable chat stable in those days. 

Yes, judging by the quantity of Herbie Mann records in the secondhand crates (though not so much in recent times anymore) he must have sold very well over here too.

[Rabshakeh]

On 9/14/2023 at 6:04 PM, Big Beat Steve said:

Yes, judging by the quantity of Herbie Mann records in the secondhand crates (though not so much in recent times anymore) he must have sold very well over here too.

There’s always more Herbie Mann.

[Ken Dryden]

On 9/14/2023 at 11:59 AM, Rabshakeh said:

That's interesting. I actually had no idea. I assumed everyone just always mocked the stuff.

Do you recall who the main spokespersons in favour of smooth jazz were?

When I wrote for All Music Guide, I was assigned to review Kenny G’s Classics in the Key of G and gave it both barrels of buckshot that it deserved, especially for dubbing Louis Armstrong’s vocal from “What a Wonderful World.” Although I was paid for my work, an editor’s glowing 4 or 4.5 star review was published in its place, probably to appease the label. I would have never reviewed his earlier work but when the Milquetoast Maesro chose to dumb down classic material, he was fair game.

For a time smooth jazz was promoted as New Adult Contemporary or NAC. I joked that NAC stood for “not actually chazz.”

The thing I have found is most saxophonists who spent much time playing that lame style had trouble getting rid of the sound completely when playing in mainstream ensembles, with Grover Washington being a notable exception.

 

[Rabshakeh]

2 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

 

The thing I have found is most saxophonists who spent much time playing that lame style had trouble getting rid of the sound completely when playing in mainstream ensembles, with Grover Washington being a notable exception.

 

What are some examples of post-smooth Washington on record?

[Ken Dryden]

As I recall, All My Tomorrows was pretty good, I am downstairs from my collection at the moment. He also recorded a classical album. Not that anyone would expect similar results from the rest of the smooth sax banalities.

[JSngry]