2009: Number 48 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of Jazz music
However hairy it gets, jazz has always had a smoother, more moisturised cheek to turn to the public, on soundtracks, adverts and as supper club background fodder. Jazz vocalists such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling and Jamie Cullum can almost lead double lives ? both serious musicians and all-round entertainers ? if they choose their material carefully.
Some instrumentalists have made more determined efforts to "cross over" to what US radio formats variously call "smooth jazz" or "the wave": Kenny G and Peter White make bland instrumentals with a "jazzy flavour".
For a brief period in the early noughties, UK radio station Jazz FM became fixated by its worst excesses before morphing into Smooth FM in 2005, an easy-listening station with a side order of Ofcom-regulated jazz (first track played: Sade's Smooth Operator).
After a management buyout in 2009, Jazz FM returned with a coherent and financially viable balance of jazz's multiple facets. This mirrors the success of Cullum, who combines strong commercial appeal with deep enthusiasm for the music's complexities (witness his co-programming of this year's Cheltenham Jazz festival, whose line-up included Pharoah Sanders).
Now, with credible, influential broadcasters such as Helen Mayhew and Sarah Ward (Dinner Jazz) and Mike Chadwick (Cutting Edge), the revitalised Jazz FM broadcasts nationally on virtually every platform ? except FM.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/17/jazz-fm-returns
Joey Barton Manufacturing data Christmas markets Extradition Francesca Panetta England rugby union team
No comments:
Post a Comment