smooth jazz Archives - 97.3 wrir - Richmond Independent Radio

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.

Tedikuma’s playlist: