The jazz stations have been changing their formats to attract listeners for the last several years, so it's been going on for quite some time now. It is not only dying, but has been phased out completely in a lot of markets across the country. No longer can you hear this genre of jazz in several of the major markets. I live in Miami, where as of December 30th of last year, Love 94 fell victim, and also WJJZ in Atlanta. So now, only LA, Chicago, Detroit & San Diego are the only remaining major markets with smooth jazz radio formats. Many of the smaller markets still have their stations, but they are too small to attract the amount of listeners that would save this dying format.
When this form of jazz first took the country by storm years ago in the 70's, a lot of pure jazz traditionalists, critics, and listeners were negative toward it and the artists that chose to either jump ship and change their style, or included maybe a tune or two on their albums.
The genre is dying because advertisers are looking for those stations that have listeners that are active in the station's format. So you ask the question, "how does any radio station pay it's bills"? From the ad revenue it gains from their advertising partners.
Working at a music distributor I can give you this insight. The labels all have shifted toward more economically productive projects as far as artists are concerned. They are only pouring money into and promoting those pop-u-lar music artists that have mass appeal, can possibly move a ton of units, and have the promise of longevity. Smooth Jazz artists just don't move the units like the pop-u-lar artists do. You can point out Kenny G in the 90's, even Najee in the 80's, or many artists like them both, but even those artists had to change their style of music(jazz) to (smooth jazz) in order to reach a mass appeal. If you even look at the "Smooth Jazz" tribute to Beyonce, and so many other projects like it, the labels are more interested in putting out a cd with a "smooth jazz" concept from an artist that already has an established audience of consumers.
In today's volatile market place with piracy (bootlegging, downloading, copying/burning cd's), an economy on it's last legs, and Live Nation (360 deal) about to change the way we all do business, the business has shifted from labels taking risks on new artists with a new sound, to signing a few new artists and modeling them after what is already out in the marketplace (Omarion, Neyo, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, etc.). You already would have had to establish a wide mass appeal, and have moved some serious units independently, to even be considered. Yes there new artists popping out all over the place, but look behind those artists, and I guarantee you that it is usually someone who has already established themselves in the industry.
With this new business model the labels are trying to create with Live Nation, I can guarantee you that the independent market is going to explode as it did in the early 80's. Artists and companies that have gained knowledge of this (360deal) are not going to be willing to give up multiple rights. Artists in this genre have to start networking, helping each other, sharing resources and information, putting compilations together, creating forums, and make a path for themselves, same as the hip hop and gospel industries have.
I would suggest looking at foreign markets, where jazz is very huge, such as Japan, China, the UK, and South America. There are but a few labels in the states that even put out smooth jazz artists, or jazz artists period of any jazz format. You can still find quite a few stations that stream smooth jazz on the internet(domestic & foreign), and tradional stations that play the genre as well. In Scandanavia and parts of France there is a new movement of jazz called “the European.” It is influenced by electronic artists. Although it has been around for a few years, St Germain is one of the acts that is a face for this new jazz. I put out a mix cd in 2001 on Rykodisc/WEA with this type of jazz on it, "World Chillage, A Step Beyond".
There is a new form of jazz laced with the elements of funk, r&b, and jazz. In some areas of the globe this "new" form of jazz is called Liquid Funk, but it was/is/has been called jazz-funk, soul jazz, nujazz, jazz fuzion ( electro-jazz), jazztronica, and lounge, due to all of the similarities in the stylings of the music, in various areas of the globe depending on where you are.
I thought I would at least share these resources with you, and maybe it will help you in getting your music out there.... I can help with the marketing and promotions if needed.
Streaming Web Stations(Domestic & Foreign)
www.sky.fm/smoothjazz
www.smoothjazz.com
www.shoutcast.com
www.radiotower.com/cat-smooth-jazz.html
www.gotradio.com
www.allaboutjazz.com/music_directory/smooth_jazz_radio.php
www.live365.com/stations/softjazz
www.wnjl.comwww.977music.com
www.1.fm
www.jazzworldquest.com/europe.shtml
www.jazzlinks.net/jazz-radio-in-the-world.html
Guides To Smooth Jazz Stations(Traditional Radio & Web Radio)www.music.aol.com/radioguide/jazz-radio
www.iheard.com/genres/jazz
counterpoint-music.com/links/radio.html
www.radiorow.com/stations/jazz.htm
www.musicgoal.com/stations/search/?search=swissgroove+-+groovy&...
www.jazzlinks.net/jazz-radio-in-the-world.html
Electronic Uptempo Smooth Jazz(Liquid Funk, Jazz-Funk, European, Uptempo Smooth Jazz, NuJazz, Jazz Fuzion (Electro Jazz), Lounge)Liquid Funk
www.di.fm
www.dnbradio.comwww.last.fm/listen/globaltags/liquid%20funk
www.vombatradio.com
radio-windows.com/techno-radio.htmJazz-Funk
www.internet-radio.org.uk/stations/funk
www.radiorow.com/stations/jazz.htm
www.onlineradiostations.com/music-genre/jazz-funk/jazz-funk-was-an-...
www.smoothvibes.com/radio.html
iacmusic.com/station.aspx?stationid=1095
www.internet-radio.org.uk/stations/funk
(European and Jazz-Funk)
www.musicgoal.com/stations/search/?search=swissgroove+-+groovy&...
(NuJazz, Acid Jazz, Lounge)
www.shoutcast.com/genre/NuJazz
www.jazzylounge.comhttp://groovera.com
www.allaboutjazz.com/php/entity.php?id=6406
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Now WNUA in Chicago has changed their format. I live in Kansas city and traveled with family to Chicago every summer. I would listen to WNUA at the ripe age of 10. Remember Al Jarreau Morning? What about Doc Powell We'll make it last? Now it is gone. The only way to get smooth jazz these days is to own a XM radio. WNUA ticked me off. They have been a Chicago icon for over 20 years. Smooth jazz is dying before our eyes and there is nothing we can do.
ReplyDeleteThis is all very learned stuff from someone in the business but the simple bottom line is that smooth jazz has stagnated over the past ten years. Hardly anybody's coming up with anything new or interesting. Every year or so there's another Boney James album, another Rick Braun album, another Fattburger album, another Fourplay album and so on and so on, ad infinitum. But mostly they're just a yawn and it's getting harder and harder to find anything fresh or interesting. One notable exception (IMHO) is Chris Standring and the latest Govi album sounds quite reasonable (though nothing like as good as 1997's Guitar Odyssey).
ReplyDeleteI got into smooth jazz in the late seventies, when it was fresh, new and exciting, with artists such as Bob James, Gap Mangione, Neil Larsen, Michel Colombier, Auracle and a few old jazz stalwarts such as Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard and Cedar Walton producing albums with a funkier edge. The eighties were patchy, albeit with a number of notably great albums from the likes of Mo Foster, Dave (& Don) Grusin, Wayne Johnson Trio and Free Flight. But the nineties marked the full flowering of the smooth (and sometimes not so smooth) jazz genre with loads of absolutely terrific albums from the likes of Rick Braun, Andy Summers, Pharez Whitted, Vital Information, Keiko Matsui, Chuck Loeb, Chieli Minucci and Special EFX, Fourplay, Herb Alpert, Jeff Lorber and so on.
But where's it all gone since 2000? Since that year it's been getting it harder and harder to find fresh and interesting smooth jazz albums that I actually want to buy. Perhaps, as a genre, it's just run its course and there's nothing much more to be wrung from it. The most exciting jazz album I've bought in the past couple of years is The Dave Brubeck Quartet Live At Carnegie Hall from February 1963 (brilliantly remastered, by the way), which pretty much says it all.