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RockerZ Jazzy Chill

Forty-four tracks of contemporary jazz for a Sunday afternoon. Unfashionable, superbly played, and considerably deeper than the genre's reputation allows.

In defence of smooth jazz

Smooth jazz is the most maligned genre in American music, and some of the criticism is fair — the format's radio incarnation was formulaic, and it swallowed a lot of players who were capable of more. But the dismissal has also buried a great deal of genuinely excellent musicianship, and a well-chosen mix like this makes the case better than any argument.

The lineage is real: it runs from Wes Montgomery's CTI records through Grover Washington Jr. and George Benson, and its practitioners are almost without exception serious players who chose accessibility rather than being incapable of anything else.

What to listen for

Grover Washington Jr.'s "Jammin'" is where to start. Washington is the pivotal figure — Winelight and "Just the Two of Us" effectively created the commercial category, and his playing is beyond reproach.

Bob James' "Lotus Leaves" connects to the Restless album, and James is another figure whose reputation deserves rehabilitation — his "Nautilus" is one of the most sampled records in hip-hop history.

George Benson's "Calling You" — the song from Bagdad Cafe — is the most emotionally substantial thing here, and Benson remains one of the great jazz guitarists whatever he chose to record.

Jean-Luc Ponty's "Faith In You" brings the electric violin and a genuine fusion pedigree — he played with Frank Zappa and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Prince and The New Power Generation's "Strollin'" is the surprise, and it belongs: a jazzy, unhurried album cut from Diamonds and Pearls.

Kirk Whalum's "Anytime" — Whalum played the sax solo on "I Will Always Love You" — and Gerald Albright, Boney James, Norman Brown and Dave Koz are the genre's reliable hands.

Yellowjackets' "Even the Pain" and Cecil Alexander's take on Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free" are the most harmonically ambitious.

Go deeper

Grover Washington Jr.'s Winelight (1980) is the album that should be the genre's calling card. George Benson's Breezin' (1976) is the commercial breakthrough.

For the tradition it descends from: Wes Montgomery's CTI records, Creed Taylor as producer, and Bob James' One.

And Yellowjackets are the band to follow if you want the version of this music with the most harmonic ambition intact — they are a serious jazz group who happen to get filed here.

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