This month I got to talk to Chieli Minucci, one of the founding members of the heritage band Special EFX. Since I was there at the beginning - I was already hosting a brunch show on a small station in North Carolina - the conversation drifted away from the interview and into random asides pretty often. There were memories and fascinating territories to venture into. Minucci, George Jinda and a group of musician friends started the band in 1982 and released their first album in 1984. What followed were a series of releases that contained some of our genre's defining moments - a series of hit songs that span the history of the music from its earliest days through the evolution from music into format and now from format back into music.

I dug into my collection and rediscovered my Special EFX albums and Minucci's solo projects as well as some albums Minucci and Jinda had played on or produced. About 2 weeks ago I grabbed Play, their 1992 release, and put it on to listen to during a long drive across town. I've been listening to it ever since, because it sounds just as wonderful now as it did 18 (!) years ago. This is joyous, spirited music that makes you feel good from the opening note. It is bright, multitextured and multifaceted - veering from a Metheny-ish vocal/guitar sound to rock guitar leads, percussion driven world music, and expressive ballads. That's what this music was like in 1992. It covered a lot of territory and took the listener on a  joyous journey. Then something happened.

 As contemporary jazz evolved into smooth jazz, layers were peeled off one by one. No more energized percussion, no more world-beat flavor, no more electric guitar solos or loud funky horn sections. Blues, pop and rock flavor were phased out in favor of "sensual seductive" R&B grooves. These R&B grooves had always been a delicious part of the mix but over the next two years they became the only part of the mix. The whole genre drifted into a homogenous sound that smoothed out the ripples on the surface and shaved off the rough edges.

The abrupt switch in direction is clearly exemplified by the difference in sound between Play and Catwalk, which followed two years later. Catwalk is not a bad album, it's actually very good, but it was a complete 180 for the band. Where Play was bright, spacious, and had a live, organic sound, Catwalk was dark, dense, and used a lot of loops and programming and put guitar and percussion behind sax for the first time. In a parallel situation the sax player on Catwalk was Mark Johnson. Johnson's 1993 debut is one of my all time favorites - a big, loud, funky project driven by heavy doses of Jinda's percussion that arrived with a sticker on the front describing it as "funky" “deep,” and "explosive." His follow up, Daydream, was not as much of a flip as the Special EFX albums were but it was much more subdued. It contained the trendy but annoying vocal chants over several songs and arrived with a sticker saying "sensual and seductive grooves" or something like that. The difference between Boney's first two releases was equally telling. Trust, his debut, sent a buzz of excitement and discovery through the contemporary jazz community. It had a definite R&B lean but delivered an equal amount of pop/rock textures, especially with the two standout ballads "Lily" and "Kyoto." Backbone followed with a darker, denser, and more programmed sound but it was laid over some energized playing and strong melodies. The next one, Seduction, completed the smoothed out shift with more emphasis on textural grooves and soprano sax, plus covers of two extremely well known pop songs. Look back at reviews of these and other CDs that were released when the Smooth Jazz radio format emerged in the mid 90s and you'll see two phrases appear repeatedly: "melodic background music" and "never cuts loose or takes chances." The music had been smoothed into submission and would continue in that direction for the next 15 years or so, until it became obvious that listeners had lost interest in a constant diet of slow songs that sounded pretty much just alike and new fans were not coming into the fold. Why should they when the music had been reduced to background music and rote covers of songs that were older than they were?

Something has happened over the last year that is again illustrated by a new Special EFX album - Without You. The world has opened up and the elements that have been forbidden for so long are being brought back in. The new Special EFX album showcases every facet of contemporary instrumental music. There are lyrical ballads, percussion driven world beat influences, ambient chill grooves, and in-your-face rock guitar solos. It doesn't even tap you on the shoulder in introduction, it kicks the door in with lightning flashed flamenco licks. This band that has been an integral part of the history of this music and mirrored its ebbs and flows has been a creative force even during the down years. "Cruise Control" was probably the most uptempo song to go to the top of the charts during the format's most "smooth and relaxing" period and their next album, Party, was just that. Hopefully their finger is on the pulse of a reemerging genre - the contemporary jazz/adult alternative instrumental music that excited us so before the great smoothing out occurred.

There are lots of signs of life out there. Jeff Golub put out a blues-rock album, Mindi delivered a down'n'dirty sax project that had its roots in mid-70s pop/jazz/funk but didn't play the retro-nostalgia card, Ken Navarro has delivered two completely original projects in a row that bring back a multitude of influences and evolve them even further, Lawson Rollins is riding the charts with a virtuoso flamenco-world beat project, Eric Darius' new one is full of energized party music and some deep jazz licks, Chris Standring's brilliant Blue Bolero went #1, Steve Oliver fuses guitar pyrotechnics with some of the best singer/songwriter material that is in the league with John Mayer and Jack Johnson, and nobody can say that these projects are "not commercial" because they are all riding high on both the sales and airplay charts.

It's sad that a whole generation of listeners have come into this music via radio stations that only touched the tip of the iceberg and have not necessarily showcased the best of what is out there. It's equally sad that a lot of artists have become sensitized to the sound that radio demanded for so long and are either afraid or tentative when it comes to going beyond those boundaries. A lot of newly independent radio programmers who were steeped in the Smooth Jazz culture are finding it equally hard to go beyond what they were conditioned to do for over a decade and younger programmers who saw them as role models are equally tentative. There are lots of signs of life though, with the commercial success of some of these innovative new releases and growing listenership for some of the more innovative brunch shows and indie and internet radio shows. It hasn't been that long since the start of the shift but there are a lot more ways to hear music now and new and old fans are putting their money and their bodies where the excitement is. Musicians and music programmers, please trust the crowds that give standing ovations to the powerful, exciting side of this music. This is where our future is and it's exactly where a lot of us hoped the future would be back in the early 90s. Second chances don't come too often but we are getting one now. We blew it the first time by trusting corporate credentials more than our own gut feelings and by hushing and marginalizing anyone who questioned the process. This time around we get to learn from our mistakes and bring this fabulous music back into the foreground where it belongs.