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My Smooth Jazz Essentials Vol. 1

Thirty-eight tracks assembling the contemporary jazz canon as it is actually listened to rather than as critics file it.

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The essentials, honestly chosen

Smooth jazz gets dismissed as a genre, and a selection like this is the best argument against the dismissal — not because it defends the format, but because it shows the range of musicianship inside it. There are serious jazz players here, gospel-trained saxophonists, and a couple of records that would sit comfortably on any contemporary jazz list.

The lineage runs clearly from Grover Washington Jr. and George Benson in the 1970s through the radio format's peak in the 1990s to the present.

What to listen for

George Benson's "Breezin'" opens, which is correct — the 1976 album was the first jazz record to go platinum and effectively created the commercial category.

Robert Glasper's "Cold" is the modern intrusion and the best track here by some distance. Glasper is a jazz pianist of genuine standing, and his presence recontextualises everything around it.

Ronny Jordan's "After Hours (The Antidote)" is the British entry and matters historically — Jordan was central to the acid jazz movement, and his version of Miles Davis's "So What" was a genuine crossover moment. He died in 2014.

Art Porter's "Send One Your Love" is the poignant one. Porter was an exceptional saxophonist who drowned in a boating accident in Thailand in 1996, aged thirty-five.

Joe Sample's "In All My Wildest Dreams" and George Duke's "No Rhyme, No Reason" are the veterans, and Najee, Kirk Whalum, Richard Elliot and Peter White are the format's most reliable hands.

Paul Jackson Jr.'s version of "Let's Wait Awhile" takes on Janet Jackson — and Jackson is a serious session guitarist who played on a great deal of what you already know.

Urban Knights is the Ramsey Lewis project, which is a stronger jazz credential than the name suggests.

Go deeper

Grover Washington Jr.'s Winelight is the album that should be the genre's calling card.

Ronny Jordan's The Antidote (1992) is genuinely excellent and connects this world to the British acid jazz scene — Incognito, Brand New Heavies, Us3.

And Ramsey Lewis is the elder worth knowing: his The In Crowd was a jazz record that went to the top of the pop chart in 1965, and the whole commercial-jazz question starts roughly there.

Listening note: smooth jazz gets dismissed on the strength of its worst examples, and a set like this is the corrective. Listen to the rhythm sections rather than the melodies — the players here are working, and the ease on the surface is the result of craft rather than the absence of it.

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