Like many other installments in this 10 Best series, this list shouldn’t be considered a categorically definitive one, but rather a collection of entry points for those looking to explore this style of music.

Do so, and you’ll reveal an aural history (forgive the pun) that connects trailblazers like John Klemmer and Lonnie Liston Smith to contemporaries like Thundercat and Terrace Martin. This, perhaps, is why people are more likely to associate this music with a sexless goon like John Tesh than, say, a talented jazzman like George Duke.Ĭonsider, instead, the other legacies of smooth jazz: its twin statuses as the unmistakable sound of late night rendezvous and the bountiful sample source for some of hip-hop’s most important recordings. Though much of what came of this shift perhaps belongs in the bargain bin if not the trash bin, smooth jazz became the prevailing sound of vocal-oriented adult contemporary and easy listening. (Though the industry definition has since changed to instead reflect a soft rock sound, the consensus term “adult alternative” was used throughout the 1980s and into the early part of the subsequent decade.) Stations adherent to this template played a selection of instrumental and vocal cuts, with saccharine pop and even new age making it into the mix.

Explore the soul sounds of the 1970s for long enough and you’re bound to stumble into its jazzier corners, expressed in a number of the latter genre’s splintering trends during the decade.īeginning the mid-1970s, American radio stations recognized the broader appeal of certain fusion records and began experimenting with what would ultimately become the smooth jazz format, one that enjoyed significant success in the 1990s. Straight outta the very same fusion scene that yielded now-iconic records like Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters, many of the artists who would pioneer this relaxing, sensual offshoot arrived at it quite naturally. Whatever your exposure to this music, be it via your parents’ obsessive love of Kenny G or that time you got stuck in an elevator for seven hours, now is a great time to make some new positive memories.

Soft jazz instrumental jazz