Wait long enough, and almost anything becomes cool again.
Remember tapered-leg jeans and hair metal albums? Of course you do, because you can buy them at Target, even though they languished in pop- cultural lameness more than a decade.
Still, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which smooth jazz music would ever be embraced by critics and hipsters — even ironically. Jazz purists and writers routinely knock the 30-year-old radio format, decrying its blandness and lack of stylistic innovation over more vigorous genres like indie rock and hip-hop.
“For 20 years it has appealed across race and class and gender, partly because it asks so little,” Ben Ratliff wrote recently in The New York Times. “It is a physical presence but an intellectual absence.”
Ratliff’s musings prefaced a review of a concert by saxophonist Kenny G, who plays the Paramount Theatre tonight in support of his Latin-themed album “Rhythm and Romance.”
What Ratliff and others usually fail to mention is that smooth jazz performers and fans care nothing for critics’ opinions, embracing the instrumental format for the same reasons the haters dismiss it.
“The people who listen to this format are incredibly passionate about it,” said Michael Fischer, program director for Denver’s Smooth Jazz 104.3 and one of the architects of the format. “Everybody has an opinion and rightfully so because it’s an art form. Art is always subject to criticism.”
Smooth jazz may be the Rodney Dangerfield of music, but where Dangerfield was abrasive and loud, smooth jazz is unctuous and personal, leaning heavily on a mood-based connection with listeners.
“When I perform a concert, I picture myself in the audience,” said Kenny G. “I play songs people want to hear. Critics don’t bother me because I know I have integrity and I’m doing exactly what I should be doing as an artist.”
Kenny G has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, according to his website, and won a Grammy in 1993 for the song “Forever in Love.” But even smooth jazz’s critic-bucking commercial appeal has become tarnished lately.
Earlier this month New York’s WQCD-FM, which boasted the genre’s biggest market share in the country, went off the air. It was replaced by WRXP — a rock station.
“We appreciated its loyal listeners,” Dan Halyburton, senior vice president of WQCD’s parent Emmis, told the New York Daily News. “But it wasn’t doing what it needed to do in terms of revenue.”
Smooth jazz is not alone. Every level of the music industry is suffering at the hands of illegal downloading and ever-shifting delivery modes. Artists often make more money from touring and alternate revenue streams than album sales.
That’s where smooth jazz has a distinct advantage.
“With the exception of a few artists like Chris Botti, it’s really rooted in touring, with some radio exposure,” Fischer said. “There’s only a handful of stations around the country left doing it, but there’s generally one in every major media market.”
These days smooth jazz is more subculture than mainstream, serving listeners with free concerts and late-night TV programming (Smooth Jazz TV on CW2) while employing niche-marketed social networking sites like MyJazzNetwork to connect with fans.
“It’s still a very loyal listenership,” said saxophonist Dave Koz, who hosts the weekday Smooth Ride Home on Smooth Jazz 104.3. “We’re not dealing with fickle kid’s music and Top 40. That fact has propelled this format through many years.”
It may also explain why 104.3’s samplers frequently top weekly sales charts at Denver retailer Twist & Shout, which exclusively carries the compilations. Last week Vol. 7 beat Widespread Panic, Herbie Hancock and Flobots for the No. 1 spot. And it was released in November.
“I think the jazz purists should be looking at me and saying ‘thank you,’ ” Kenny G said. “I’ve brought people into buying instrumental music. Maybe they’ll open up and find an old Sonny Rollins or Charlie Parker record after that.”
That may sound like blasphemy to those who regard smooth jazz as the apex of adult contemporary pap. But Koz, a friend of Kenny G’s and a Grammy-nominated artist himself, has a response.
“You can say it’s lightweight, that it’s not as serious or demanding, but the point is (Kenny) makes his music and people love it,” he said. “Critics haven’t mattered to me either because I’ve never been a critical darling, but I’ve had a successful career.”
Smooth Jazz 104.3’s Fischer said audiences bond differently with smooth jazz musicians. The artists make themselves accessible, often chatting after shows and holding events like music-centered cruises.
“It fulfills their lifestyle in a number of ways by allowing people to escape the worries of the day,” Fischer said. “Even the format name was not named by radio. It was named by listeners.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
Kenny G.
Smooth jazz. Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place. Tonight. 8 o’clock $39.50-$125. 866-461-6556 or .
