It happened a few weeks ago. A friend and I were running errands with
her two young children in tow. My CD player was on the fritz so we were listening
to the local smooth jazz station. Pretty harmless, right? The usual "relaxing
blend" of instrumentals and oldie vocals. Then a song comes on with a
deep male voice crooning to someone named "baby" about how he is
going to take all her clothes off and touch her everywhere. This wasn't during
a late night love song show for grown folks. It was the middle of the afternoon
around the time parents pick their kids up from school. The kids in my car
had latched on to a suggestive line from the song and started repeating it
before I could hit the button. I know, Top 40 has "Sugar" and "My
Humps," songs that are graphic to the point that teenagers even think
they are mostly for the pre-teen giggle set. Smooth jazz fans proudly state
that our music is mature and above gimmickry. Then in the middle of an excellent
CD by one ouf our premiere bands there's a song about doing it on the kitchen
floor. Unlike the Top 40 hip-hop songs where the words are buried in loops,
beats and samples, you can hear every word very clearly.
There has always been a thread of sexuality in smooth jazz. From the
beginning there was a strain of mellow late night music designed to "set
the mood" and R&B ballads with adult themes were a staple on Quiet
Storm shows. A lot of the early contemporary jazz radio shows had titles like "Jazz
Penthouse" and were hosted by women who back announced sets of songs with
a breathy purr. Playboy Magazine always touted jazz as the musical setting
for sophisticated seductions. Sexuality and seduction have been an ongoing
theme in this music, but at some point the threads of sexuality that provided
alluring erotic shadings when used with discretion and class took over the
weave and turned garish and cheap. Around the time that contemporary jazz turned
to “smooth” and the words "sultry" and "seductive" started
being used to describe every new release, there was a glut of CD covers featuring
naked women posing and pouting while being ignored by the fully dressed male
musicians. Anorexic looking female torsos were superimposed over saxes and
guitars and graphically juicy slices of fruit passed the scrutiny of the buyers
at "family friendly" retail superstores and made their way into the
bins. Suddenly there were a lot of songs about "doin' it all night long." At
the time one of our major artists commented that consultants and marketers
had taken music that can express a wide range of emotions and narrowed it down
until there was nothing left but background music for booty calls.
Sex sells. That's the marketers
mantra. What marketers seem to do is take away the essence
of everything they touch and hand us what is left: the superficial,
the cliches, the lowest common denominator. Maybe seeing women
portrayed as shallow and ornamental on CD covers and in promotional
blurbs that say things like "put this CD on and her clothes
will come off" bothers me. Even stereotyping us all as
ready to swoon at the sound of a romantic cliche makes me antsy.
Maybe it has to do with my other favorite music, singer/songwriters
who play for grownups. After you've heard the love songs people
like Pierce Pettis, David Wilcox, Shawn Colvin or Bonnie Raitt
record, "turn off the light and do me all night" just
doesn't pass muster. But it really isn't necessary to even
go out of the Cjazz/Smooth jazz realm. Marilyn Scott, Brenda
Russell and Michael Franks write brilliant, mature, and, yes...sexy
love songs and sing without pathos or histrionics. There are
plenty of instrumentalists can put you in the mood without
having to overstate the fact that that's what they are trying
to do. They just don't get airplay so they are no longer the
face of this music. Dig through the bins and between the pictures
of sad or serious women with sultry pouts there is the cover
to Euge Groove's Play Date, with
him and this beautiful, healthy woman (his wife, Bane) looking
like they are in love and having the time of their life. The
cover and promo poster for Sherry Winston's "Life
Is Love and Love Is You" shows her standing proudly, beautiful,
middle aged and not trying to hide it. More of this, less of
that, is what I would ask. Celebrate sexuality, but give us
something more substantial than "I want you because you
look hot." And remember that sex is a part of our lives
but not the only thing in our lives.
Last week I was drivng again with the radio
on, listening to an eclectic freeform music show on our public
radio station. They played Al Jarreau's "Midnight Sun" into
Belbel Gilberto's "So Nice (Summer Samba)." Left
me thinking about kissing under streetlights and walking in
the sun. Dreamy, smart, and sexy. Perfect!
- Shannon West
|
