Re: Real or Smooth? You be the Judge

Date: 16 Jul 2003 14:30:50 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote
Size: 2,702 bytes

"Marc Sabatella" <email-address-deleted> wrote in message news:<fdCQa.14$email-address-deleted>...
> "Sum1" <email-address-deleted> wrote:
>
> I think it is because of the perception that the popularity of smooth
> jazz, and its misidentification as a form of jazz, has negative effects
> on jazz. For example, a good number of the "jazz festivals" in my area
> no longer feature much in the way of jazz - it's mostly smooth jazz.
> It's hard to put on a jazz festival and make any money, and most
> festivals these days rely corporate sponsorships. The corporations
> don't care at all about the music, just getting the most rturn for their
> investment, and that means butts in seats, so the temptation to book
> more pop acts is great. It seems that the presence of "smooth jazz"
> gives promoters an easy out - they can still call it a "jazz festival"
> and hence maintain some tie to the tradition of the festival, but they
> don't have to book any actual jazz.
>
I feel your pain. I was at the Playboy Jazz Festival about ten years
ago, and it was a little discouraging to see the crowd essentially
yawning through sets by Roy Hargrove, the McCoy Tyner Big Band, and
Charles Lloyd, then getting into party mode for Al Jarreau and Patti
Austin.
Maybe you're right; the "jazz" in "smooth jazz" makes it easier to
skew towards marginal acts and still maintain credibility. But this
isn't strictly a smooth jazz issue; the problem is old as dirt. Here's
an excerpt from a review of a book about the Monterey Jazz Festival:
"Beginning in the 1960s there was less agreement, even between Lyons
and Gleason, about what constituted jazz and who was a jazz artist.
And through the years, the number of undisputed giants declining, the
Monterey Festivals bookings reflected ambiguity as the producers fused
rock and other offshoots into the mixture. The identity dilemma
continues as Lyons successor Tim Jackson leads the festival toward a
new century, balancing artistic imperatives with commercial demands."
And from a web page about George Wein:
"In 1954, Wein organized the first Newport Jazz Festival with what now
seems an impossibly rich line-up of jazz greats: Ella Fitzgerald,
Billie Holiday, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Errol
Garner, Lennie Tristano with Lee Konitz, and a tribute to Count Basie
with a small ensemble of Basie-ites: Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Vic
Dickenson, Jo Jones, Milt Hinton, and Teddy Wilson. Those were the
"pure" days of the festival. By 1958, Chuck Berry was in the festival
line-up, and the mix with pop has continued ever since ..."
If Chuck Berry can be considered "jazzy enough," I guess that bodes
well for Kenny G ...