Dream Girl Radio / EXT SRC presents:
My mom requested that I play Jeff Lorber for Mother’s Day, so I built a deep dive into my history with smooth jazz and jazz from the late 70’s to the late 90’s in general. As a teenager, developing my own taste in music, that era of jazz was a blind spot for me. I preferred the organic feel of jazz in the 60’s, or energy of fusion and free jazz in the 70’s. After that I wasn’t very interested in the incorporation of so many synths and electronic drums in the 80’s. Even Miles Davis lost me. But at some point I began digging through my parents record and CD collections and realized I had a nostalgia for this sound.
My dad was a jazz guitarist and my mom was a pianist, so this music was always around. George Benson and Earl Klugh are stuck in the depths of childhood memories, listening while riding through Mill Mountain in a Datsun 300ZX with the windows down, humming the melodies to myself. I also realized that the pipeline from fusion to smooth jazz was common. While I wouldn’t say they were smooth, 80’s offerings by some of my favorites like Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock reached a more radio-friendly state but still clicked with me. So while some smooth jazz is still a bit too clean for me, this set of tracks is me on a mission to find a middle ground between what I enjoy and what my mom enjoys. Maybe this will bring back memories for other people as well.
The Rippingtons, “Tropic of Capricorn (feat. Russ Freeman)”
from Welcome to the St. James' Club
GRP - 1990
George Duke, “Sugar Loaf Mountain”
from Brazilian Love Affair (Expanded Edition)
Legacy Recordings - 1979
Pat Martino & Joyous Lake, “Mac Tough (feat. Joyous Lake)”
from Stone Blue (feat. Joyous Lake)
Blue Note Records - 1998
Tedikuma Dream Girl Radio / EXT SRC May 22nd, 2024
Posted In: Music, Music Shows
Tags: fusion, jazz, jazz fusion, jazz-funk, smooth jazz