Why would I start a piece on contemporary instrumental music with a line from a 70s disco hit? Because if you tune into The Wave, the heritage poster station for the smooth jazz radio format, you're more likely to hear a disco influenced song from the 70s by EWF, Stevie Wonder, The Emotions or The Spinners than Peter White or Eric Darius. They got a new Program Director, Jhani Kaye, an excellent Adult Contemporary programmer with an impressive major market track record. He was brought in to reposition the station musically without creating the impression of a format flip. They are only playing a few instrumentals an hour now, sandwiched between sets of 2-4 vocals. The vocals seem to be mostly pop hits from the 70s and 80s with some more recent adult contemporary hits in the mix. This station was launched in 1987 as an alternative to the standard top 40 and A/C fare.  Now they have become what they were originally created as an alternative to.

This shift is the latest in a string of high profile stations that have either overtly flipped formats or quietly segued to Smooth A/C - a more vocal oriented oldies driven approach that seems to be designed for listeners who think regular adult contemporary stations rock too hard but who aren't ready for Bread and Neil Diamond oldies. There are very few traditional radio outlets still playing an instrumental oriented music mix. Needless to say the industry community is freaking out. How can they get their music heard without a lot of high profile major market radio stations playing it? Well, here's the answer. We did it before and we can do it again. And, you know what? It was a lot more fun and the audience was a lot more excited about the music back then too. As Jeff Golub observes in this month's interview, we are standing on the brink of something exciting. A beaten path to learn from and any number of unbeaten paths to explore.

Before there was Smooth Jazz there were contemporary jazz, fusion, new age, and world music instrumentals. Before that there were progressive rock albums filled with songs that had long instrumental passages. In between there were pop and rock bands who were influenced by this new rock and R&B flavored instrumental music and bringing big parts of it into their sound. The first wave of stations to play this music preceded The Wave by 10 years or so. They targeted the audience that heard Benson's "Breezin" and wanted more of that. They mixed in a lot of vocals but the vocals were original and current. This was the era of musical excitement and exploration and artists like Steely Dan, The Doobie Bros, Joni Mitchell, and even Carly Simon and Carole King were doing jazz flavored songs and using jazz musicians in their recording sessions. These stations usually called themselves "soft rock" or "progressive adult contemporary."  I was lucky enough to work at 3 of them and network with several others. Brunch shows were popping up everywhere too. Serving up a new, hip, musical trend on Sunday mornings was so much cooler than airing interviews with local newsmakers or church services.

Networks were rare, syndication was too, and the idea of someone from out of town recording the between-songs talk on a computer instead of a live person being in the studio was unheard of - pure sci-fi! So there were all these people who were playing this music on the radio, getting excited about it, and they were in direct contact with their listeners. It started to snowball. More and more people were discovering it.  More people played it on the radio which created a fan base so the labels started releasing more of this music. Media people and fans spread the word and even more music showed up. It was music without boundaries too - everything from meditative synth based New Age to Nouveau Flamenco to R&B sax and rock guitar. It was alternative music for adults.

Then something happened. Big corporations bought the radio stations and exciting music became risky. The music had to be "smoothed out" to make it palatable for airplay at stations whose owners were scared of music. The guitar solos went away, so did horn sections, "wailing" sax, any world influences, anything with a beat, anything that smacked of "new age," and anything that was too fast, too loud, or too noticeable. Kenny G's "Songbird" was a hit, it was soft and unobtrusive, and that became the template the music had to fit. Artists had to play music that fit so they could get airplay and climb the Radio and Records chart which would get them more airplay since some stations only played new music if it made the top 10. That would get them booked for live gigs.

Now there are very few radio stations, Arena is out and intimate is in. Radio and Records does not exist and the new charts are derived from a much more diverse group of of brunch shows, internet stations and noncommercial or independent radio stations , Musicians don't have to play music that fits the criteria of a small group of guys who are in control anymore because those guys are playing old Stevie Wonder and Phil Collins songs. Now they can play for you - the audience, the fans. When they see you stand, dance, clap, and sing along they can give you more of what got you goin'. It may be a ballad. But it might be a percussion jam or a really tight, in your face horn section. The stuff that made this music exciting during the first wave is sneaking back into the mix. Golub did it, Ken Navarro is doing it. Steve Oliver and Greg Adams are too. Lots of artists are shakin' off the smooth and showing all the facets of their talent on their new CDs. It's starting to happen just as the totally new business model takes hold so going to be a scary ride at times,  especially to those who cling to the old ways. But in reality its going to be really exciting and a whole lot of fun.

Our December/January Perspectives piece featured some of the independent music programmers who are making waves now. This is not a complete list but since this is a cool community, most of them link other sites and stations so go exploring..there is some stunning music waiting to be discovered.