Toward the end of last year several of the power players in the  smooth jazz universe started talking about not using the word "jazz" anymore. They began to refer to their format as "Smooth A/C" (Smooth Adult Contemporary). The idea was to use this terminology when presenting the format to potential advertisers because the minute you used the word "jazz" all these connotations came up that made potential clients think this was an esoteric format that only appealed to a small, scholarly contingent of listeners. As we enter 2008 a number of stations have started to phase the word "jazz" out of their on-air presentation and promotional content as well. If you check out heritage station KKSF's website and click their playlist it says "Smooth A/C". Stations across the country are shifting to variations on "Smooth FM" and the new Kenny G "single" has arrived packed with a note that says "Impacting Smooth A/C." I have always been ambivalent about using the word jazz to describe the pop instrumental side of the genre. The "J" word tends to scare off the very segment of the audience that will enjoy it the most - listeners and music fans who grew up with progressive rock or soul and loved the instrumental passages and extended jams, then started getting into instrumental music.. Even worse, that fear factor has also caused radio programmers to veer away from a lot of extremely accessible pop instrumental music because if it is an instrumental then it is jazz, and if it is jazz it's too scary for the average guy and gal. So they apologetically buffered the instrumentals with familiar pop hits, then began to phase out instrumentals that were not covers of familiar pop hits. The baby got tossed with the bathwater and 15 or so years into the smooth era it has gone down the drain and disappeared. Turn on your average smooth jazz station and you are more likely to hear Toni Braxton, Eric Clapton or Kool and the Gang than Boney's sax or Benson's guitar.

This is sad. because both "waves" of instrumental driven radio formats were spiked by songs that were big pop hits. Listeners loved these instrumentals. In the pre-consolidation climates of the late 70s and early 90s when listeners still had a voice and music selection was done locally, George Benson and Chuck Mangione climbed the top 40 charts and got a lot of people interested in this music. That helped launch a thousand brunch and late night radio shows. A decade later Kenny G's "Songbird," Candy Dulfer's "Lily Was Here," and Dave Koz's "You Make Me Smile,' were Adult Contemporary hits that inspired radio programmers to believe that there was an audience for a full-time format driven by instrumentals. One obvious point gets overlooked though. On the top 40 and A/C stations they were never called "jazz." They became hits because we treated them like any other cool song we played, and the audience related to them that way. The minute the full time stations started using the word "jazz" they got scared of their own music and created a whole culture based on exploiting the stereotype (the idea "jazz" drew a sophisticated, educated listener) and then apologizing for it (playing Lite crossovers to make "real people" comfortable).

I don't think we need to call it jazz. It may actually be holding us back. I've been lucky enough to hear glimpses of what innovators like Ken Navarro and Steve Oliver are going to give us this year and see Acoustic Alchemy play music that could be compared to a jam band but on a whole different level. I've been transported to rock guitar geek heaven by Golub and Brian Hughes and seen Warren Hill, Craig Chaquico, Jeff Kashiwa and Euge Groove stir a crowd into a frenzy,  It is so so obvious that we need to find a way to bring original, innovative and accessible instrumental and pop instrumental music back to the foreground and let it be heard. Both "smooth" and "jazz" carry baggage that is too constricting.  Smooth A/C promises to be nothing more than “Liter than Lite.” Before the genre and radio format were called Smooth Jazz the trade publications called this music Adult Alternative or Progressive A/C. In the corporate media world the word "progressive" is as scary as "jazz" but the corporate music environment is becoming less relevant by the minute. Didn't a lot of us stumble into this music as an extension of "progressive" rock? Then again a lot of it is so accessible in the best sense of the word that calling it progressive might make it seem scarier than it is. That leaves Adult Alternative. It is music created by and for adults and it is an alternative that sounds fresh and wonderful after you've been lulled into passivity for so long by the smooth and relaxing. If music must be labeled this feels like the most adequate way to do it. When it comes to the adult-oriented music that is currently getting the most attention, the alternative that our musicians create when they aren't forced to fit a formula will surely be welcomed with open ears.