Smooth Grooves: Smooth Jazz 3
If the purpose of the three volumes ofSmooth Grooves: Smooth Jazzwas to give a wide overview of the music, the good folks at Rhino Records got it partially right.Volume OneandVolume Tworepresent a time when those pioneering radio programmers had to choose from whatever contemporary jazz musicians were putting out on the musicians' own terms.Volume Threetouts what smooth jazz has become, a bland, corporate expanse of pop grooves topped by simple lines played without emotion. The main culprits areSpyro Gyra,Hiroshima, andNajee, all three of whom are represented in this collection. Smooth-jazz trivia buffs are more likely to have fun with the list of artists on this set than with the actual music. Included are theJeff Lorber Fusion, the group that gave the worldKenny G; Caldera, the group that spawned the duoStrunz & Farah; andRoy Haynes's "Water Children," surely the bebop veteran's only tune to be considered smooth jazz. Without the brilliantDavid Sanborn-Marcus Millercollaboration "Let's Just Say Goodbye" andBilly Cobham's cover of "Take It to the Sky,"Volume ThreeofSmooth Groovesis stale music just hanging there.--Mark Ruffin