Smooth Jazz
Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented sub-genre style of jazz music that is influenced by R&B, funk, rock and pop music styles (separately, or in any combination).
Beginning in the early-1970s, jazz fusion (aka "fusion") was a movement by some jazz musicians to merge the instrumental virtuosity and improvisation of traditional jazz, with a modern, electronic sensibility. The instrument that has become the most widely-associated with the genre is the saxophone inspired by players like Grover Washington Jr., Ronnie Laws, Wayne Shorter and Nathan Davis; plus a gentle, legato electric guitar (influenced by players like Wes Montgomery and Grant Green). Jazz fusion ensembles such as Weather Report, Spyro Gyra, Hiroshima and Bob James' Fourplay were vital to the development of the genre.
Modern derivatives of the genre includes the more recent New Adult Contemporary format broadcast radio. "Smooth jazz" has been successful as a radio format, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s; however, its popularity has been on a decline since the 2000s, and most radio play today takes place on non-commercial radio stations.
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