Smooth Jazz

32 profiles tagged Smooth Jazz, A-Z.

Smooth jazz emerged in the United States in the 1980s and became a defined radio format by the early 1990s, built on the crossover jazz and jazz-funk of the preceding decade. It favors polished production, mid-tempo grooves, R&B- and funk-inflected rhythm sections, and accessible, melody-forward playing with comparatively little extended improvisation. Saxophonists Kenny G and Grover Washington Jr., along with saxophonist David Sanborn, are among its most commercially prominent figures.