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

[MERRILLFLA at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/13/2008 4:51:52 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
arturo893 at qwest.net writes:

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


   
Once a vibrant and healthy format someone  wrote ????? No.... it was  always 
boring.
If there is one thing  I hate is someone who says that they love Jazz to 
please me and then tell  me about smooth Jazz..It happens all the  time.
Mr.J Scott Fugate of WBCX got it right
 
Thanks 
Melodious Mel Lipton _www.melodiousmel.com_ (http://www.melodiousmel.com) 
88.9 FM Serious Jazz
Miami Florida
 
 

 
 



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