Smooth jazz

Smooth jazz is a music genre that emerged in United States in the 1980s. It is usually classed as a form of jazz. Explore its 1 subgenres, key artists and related styles.

Listen: Smooth jazz examples

Smooth Jazz Ballad no3 (exploration)

3:29CC BY-SA 4.0by Claude ReidWikimedia Commons

3:29

Smooth Jazz Ballad no3 (exploration guitare et trompette)-en wav

3:29CC BY-SA 4.0by Claude ReidWikimedia Commons

3:29

Smooth Jazz Ballad no2 (exploration)

3:32CC BY-SA 4.0by Claude ReidWikimedia Commons

3:32

Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.

About Smooth jazz

Smooth jazz is a music genre that emerged in United States in the 1980s. It is usually classed as a form of jazz.

Well-known performers associated with it include Norah Jones, Bobby McFerrin, Diana Krall, George Benson, Kenny G and Al Jarreau.

Smooth jazz has given rise to 1 subgenre on this site, such as Quiet storm.

From Wikipedia

Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented sub-genre style of jazz music that is influenced by R&B, funk, rock and pop music styles (separately, or in any combination).

Beginning in the early-1970s, jazz fusion (aka "fusion") was a movement by some jazz musicians to merge the instrumental virtuosity and improvisation of traditional jazz, with a modern, electronic sensibility. The instrument that has become the most widely-associated with the genre is the saxophone inspired by players like Grover Washington Jr., Ronnie Laws, Wayne Shorter and Nathan Davis; plus a gentle, legato electric guitar (influenced by players like Wes Montgomery and Grant Green). Jazz fusion ensembles such as Weather Report, Spyro Gyra, Hiroshima and Bob James' Fourplay were vital to the development of the genre.