Pleasantly surprised with this one. I gave up on Dave quite some time ago, given his ties to the BA machine. But his latest is fresh and vibrant, some of the best stuff I have heard from Dave in years. A good half-dozen cuts worthy of airplay. Really like "Anything's Possible," as well as "When Will I Know For Sure," and "Remember Where You Come From"---well, it seems that anything IS possible. Dave nailed this one, and I think the song titles are very appropriate---Dave suddenly remembered where he came from. Good stuff, gang. Check it out.
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Dave Koz - Hello Tomorrow
- Thread starter AC Tones
- Start date
I was quite amazed but then again even though he is part of the BA machine he has never fallen into generic R&B, riffy stuff, or all mellow all the time - the traps most smoothers tripped into. He's actually had some hits that went against every rule BA has made (remember when "Together Again" was criticised by BA as not R&B enough, and Honey Dipped and Life In the Fast Lane were not "smooth and relaxing" by any means. I think it is very strong as a contemporary instrumental album where an artist actually sounds like he sounds without handcuffs on.
http://www.smoothviews.com/cdreviews/koz_hellotomorrow.htm
http://www.smoothviews.com/cdreviews/koz_hellotomorrow.htm
On ColumbusJazzRadio.Com I'm playing "Anything's Possible" and "Put the Top Down" (full version with Rit's guitar intact) and at the Harmonic Lounge, I'm playing "What You Leave Behind" and "It's Always Been You" with Brian Culbertson. It's nice to see that the artists are starting to respond with original material once again.
M
majaman78
Guest
Nock said:I am warming up to it. Been spinning When Will I Know For Sure.
Nock
Just heard this cut after running into my office to see what was playing!
It's stunningly good with a nice vibe, and a nice fresh sound of something new for a frickin' change!
I'm actually shocked....this is the best tune I have heard from Koz in years.
It's nice to see that the artists are starting to respond with original material once again.
So don't you feel cheated all these years that the artists felt they had to kiss the ass of BA instead of giving the listeners their real talent? They decided to give themselves to original material after the whole house of cards falls apart?
It's not all artists but many of them took this path rather than the real path of the artist. Now That BA doesn't mean anything where are they now? No Labels and very few gigs. This is a huge lesson. an artist needs to be themselves and not the artist that people tell them they need to be to benefit everybody else but themselves
So don't you feel cheated all these years that the artists felt they had to kiss the ass of BA instead of giving the listeners their real talent? They decided to give themselves to original material after the whole house of cards falls apart?
It's not all artists but many of them took this path rather than the real path of the artist. Now That BA doesn't mean anything where are they now? No Labels and very few gigs. This is a huge lesson. an artist needs to be themselves and not the artist that people tell them they need to be to benefit everybody else but themselves
It's hard to change a 15 year habit. BA pretty much ingrained in the artists' consciousness that the sound that they specified was the one that the audience wanted and they had the "research" to back that up. Of course the research method was flawed and had an intrinsic bias that was destined to booby trap the genre in the long run - in a hook test covers and pop songs will test better than original instrumentals because more people recognize them in 7 to 10 second clips. That filtered out more and more of the songs that the audience actually came to the format to hear, the original instrumentals, until the format almost totally abandoned them and the listeners abandoned the format as a result. Which left the artists in the position that they had been sold a bill of goods, recorded music to a set of specifications that caused their audience to lose interest.
During a lot of the interviews I have done, especially over the last few years, I've asked artists why their recorded product always sounds so subdued compared to their live performances that it is almost a totally different genre. They always say that
they have to do it for airplay and they were told that is what the audience wanted. then I would say they should look out at the crowd and see how they were responding and use that as their guide, which seemed to be something they hadn't really thought of. Old habits die hard, especially since these '"research results" and criteria were presented with such power and authority and used to be live-or-die in terms of airplay. But what airplay would they lose now? A few small markets and some HD stations? The handcuffs are off but some (a lot) of artists are too gun shy to wave their hands in the air. As I said at teh end of the review I'm hoping that in the high profile leadership position Koz has this will influence the big name artists that worked with him and Marcus Miller to abandon the format fluff themselves. Especially now that the CD is doing so well.
During a lot of the interviews I have done, especially over the last few years, I've asked artists why their recorded product always sounds so subdued compared to their live performances that it is almost a totally different genre. They always say that
they have to do it for airplay and they were told that is what the audience wanted. then I would say they should look out at the crowd and see how they were responding and use that as their guide, which seemed to be something they hadn't really thought of. Old habits die hard, especially since these '"research results" and criteria were presented with such power and authority and used to be live-or-die in terms of airplay. But what airplay would they lose now? A few small markets and some HD stations? The handcuffs are off but some (a lot) of artists are too gun shy to wave their hands in the air. As I said at teh end of the review I'm hoping that in the high profile leadership position Koz has this will influence the big name artists that worked with him and Marcus Miller to abandon the format fluff themselves. Especially now that the CD is doing so well.
do you think his CD is doing well?-Sales are not great
producer57 said:do you think his CD is doing well?-Sales are not great
As I have said here before, I think lagging CD sales are not necessarily indicative of whether it is a good project or not, particularly when it comes to this genre. People are not buying CDs these days for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the availability and affordability of a la carte digital downloads. Couple that with the continual decline in the number of terrestrial radio outlets for this brand of music (particularly in large markets), as well as fewer discretionary dollars to see these acts perform live, and it is easy to see why artists are struggling to sell CDs. That said, when a star like Koz (who I think hit this one out of the park) struggles to sell CDs (as you claim), I think it paints a pretty bleak picture as to the longterm survivability of this genre. Very sad, but that is the reality. Gone are the days when cranking out contemporary jazz CDs paid the bills and then some.
You make some good points-The "so I claim" is backed up by the soundscan numbers.In this genre I want to know if his new CD sells 30,000 copies then What happened to the other 200,000 fans of his that used to always buy his CDs.I wonder about this for all artists but for an artist like Dave who gets mass promotion by his label it is still puzzling. His at the Movies CD sold about 100,000 CDs and downloads and I will say that personally I didn't think it was a very good CD. Also sales these days reflect CDs and downloads all in the same number
Even if you were a person who wanted to buy a "hard copy" of this CD at a brick and mortar store would you be able to? Most of the stores that still sell CDs just sell the big top 40 hits and a few heavily promoted major label adult oriented titles...usually the gimmicky stuff that is getting cross-media exposure and the Movies CD was a gimmick that got cross media exposure, actually. Concord doesn't have the marketing resources Capitol did.
Outside of the fan community how many people even know the CD is out. One of the issues with tracking adult oriented music at retail/sales level has always been that adults don't jump on new titles on release date the way kids do..it tends to be a slower build over a longer period of time which can result in decent long term sales but doesnt light up the charts in the 4 weeks and done fashion that pop albums do.
It's not just the "smooth jazz" genre as far as exposure to new music...even having no radio outlet isn't much different from having only gold/recurrent driven stations that play a few proven big names. All adult oriented formats are notoriously slow on adding current music and still focus on recurrent and gold with only 1-2 currents an hour. Country is a bit more aggressive with new stuff but A/C, Urban A/C, Hot A/C etc would rather stick with songs that "test well" usually songs between 5-20 years old.
Outside of the fan community how many people even know the CD is out. One of the issues with tracking adult oriented music at retail/sales level has always been that adults don't jump on new titles on release date the way kids do..it tends to be a slower build over a longer period of time which can result in decent long term sales but doesnt light up the charts in the 4 weeks and done fashion that pop albums do.
It's not just the "smooth jazz" genre as far as exposure to new music...even having no radio outlet isn't much different from having only gold/recurrent driven stations that play a few proven big names. All adult oriented formats are notoriously slow on adding current music and still focus on recurrent and gold with only 1-2 currents an hour. Country is a bit more aggressive with new stuff but A/C, Urban A/C, Hot A/C etc would rather stick with songs that "test well" usually songs between 5-20 years old.
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