[JPL] A provocative comment on the demise of the smoove format

[Arturo]

>From the blog of http://www.candidjazzandconversation.blogspot.com/
mourning the demise of another smoove outlet, this time in Houston. The blog
also reflects on the fall of smoove on the radio as whole. This is IMO a
provocative statement.




Having run a smooth jazz station, I know that they function as little more
than white noise for the majority of listeners.
When I switched formats to ALL jazz – 10 formats including all the eclectic
varieties of jazz throughout the 20th century – I had people call to
complain. However, they couldn’t voice what it was they wanted or missed.

I had someone call in while playing Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” and ask why
we weren’t playing jazz anymore. I ask them “what do you call this?” They
said, “I don’t know, but it certainly isn’t jazz”. I asked what artist or
song they would like to hear – and they couldn’t name me one.
I had others call while playing more funky contemporary jazz – Grover
Washington, Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Marcus Miller -- and saying things
like “quit playing this black music and go back to jazz.” When I told them
that jazz was an African American art form – so what kind of jazz did they
want to hear that wasn’t black. . .they had no response.

I told listeners that I would play anything that they wanted to hear – and
no one that claimed to enjoy “smooth jazz” could name one artist or song.
Those that did gave me names like Jean Luc Ponty or Jeff Beck – who never
got air play on any smooth jazz radio. So no one was paying any attention –
even those that listened all day every day.

Basically the people that listen to smooth jazz radio don’t like jazz – and
very few have any idea what jazz actually is. They don’t know the history,
the artists, the styles, or the possibilities that exist in jazz. . .all
they know is that it’s nice white noise, and it isn’t too annoying. It’s not
about the music, it’s about background noise.

I think the marketing of jazz into a package called “smooth” has caused
damage to the art form, and to the careers and creativity of jazz artists
that were forced to fit that particular mold.

Jazz can be smooth – but it isn’t a genre, it is a style of playing.
However, it has been marketed as a genre – creating an audience that doesn’t
know what it is, who is playing it, or how to define it. They also don’t go
to the store to buy it, anymore than they would buy a CD featuring bird
sounds.
There are smooth versions of ragtime, blues, gospel, Dixieland, traditional,
hot, swing, big band, bop, cool jazz, fusion, funk, etc. However, smooth is
not a style, smooth is not a genre. If anything, smooth is a wet blanket
which has been thrown on the creativity of jazz artists. They had to play it
to get airplay – but no one really wants to buy it.

I just hope that jazz is allowed to reemerge in all it’s multifarious glory
without the shackles of “smooth” holding it back! Maybe the death of smooth
jazz radio will cause a renaissance of real jazz – all styles, all forms.
Sincerely,

J. Scott Fugate
General Manager, Program & Music Director
Eclectic 89.1 WBCX