UGHHH!

[Nock]

at least 10 Smooth Jazz stations including KTWV/Los Angeles have already started playing "At Last".


So who's left?

Imagine how many would be jumping on board to a new Jeff Lorber, Rippingtons track 3,4 years ago? The beef of many on this board is the "BA train" has run the format to the ground and many casualties because of their thoughts and philosophies on how it should be presented. Artists and promoters are afraid to stand up for their music for fear of not getting a look or listen to from BA. Is that how we break new artists or do we rely on the individual ear of an MD and a promoter who puts a nice spin on a project. Used to LOVE speaking with the promoters. Anymore it's who is your new vocalist you have to offer today. It's was an instrumental format, myswell be a MIX whatever or Lite whatever. IT'S NOT jazz, contemporary jazz, cjazz or smoothjazz. Yeah the purists will never get what they want. However as a purist I used to have many viable options to listen to. Not 100% of what i was looking for but something that i could listen to without moving the dial. I have tried the BA product, and i think you know how I feel about it.


Nock

 

[majaman78]

Let's not kill the messengers here! Cliff and Jason Gorov have done more for the smooth jazz format than many others and all they are trying to do is make a living like the rest of us. I know for a fact that their business, along with many other decent reps, is way off with the downturn of the format but give them a break. So someone paid them to push a cover version of an Etta James tune by Beyonce from a movie soundtrack. Is that a great cover? Up to you. Do you want to play it? Up to you. Don't we have better things to discuss? Up to all of us.

I beg to differ. Their website reads like a BA moral support group.... http://www.allthatjazzinc.com/

If these are your friends, so be it. But IMO they've more than likely a bigger part of the overall problem for this format rather than helping it.

 

[andreajesus]

ok, ok, ok, let's STOP the naming and all that...the WHOLE point of this was ORIGINALLY to express our shock, surprise, and displeasure that the smooth jazz format, with ALL the "Beyonce-a-likes" going on, has SO FAR drifted away from its ORIGINAL focus (god, i STILL miss Miles Davis!!)...

 

[zcarzz]

I have an idea,why not stifle all the true artists of this format ,not support their great music just so we can all hear artists backed by corporate dollars who (the artist) don't even know they are being promoted in a format where they DON"T belong! This format has been deteriorating since the inception of "smooth jazz" and a singles driven, corporate maintained monopoly consulted by a bunch of suits who appear as non-musical morons. When it was "contemporary jazz" is what got many people interested and hooked on the music. Stations are dropping like fly's...artists are struggling to survive and yet they march on "smoothly" into the sunset! It MUST and will crash and burn and then have to rebuild itself without BA and the likes ! I hope we can get back to what this music really is...PLEASE! :-\

 

[AnotherCat]

When I was in A/C we used to complain about being the dumping ground/last gasp for songs that were not getting spins in other formats because basically they just weren't that good. Some were flat out awful. Now smooth A/C has taken over that role. A lot of these vocals are just weak both in terms of vocal quality and songwriting. Or the are from singers who were hot in another era and are trying to come up with some gimmick to make them stand out again instead of hunkering down and writing and performaing a batch of really strong new songs. The vocals we did play in the format used to be adult alternative, an alternative to what was being overplayed on more generic sounding stations. Now they are just the last gasp before the cutout bin.

 

[majaman78]

The great news here is that Beyonce's horrific rendition of "At Last" as well as the mediocre movie Cadillac Records have both flamed out horribly at both the box office and the music charts.

Goes to show you, you can't pump garbage.

Another craptacular showing by BA shoving this junk down our throats.

 

[Double D]

The great news here is that Beyonce's horrific rendition of "At Last" as well as the mediocre movie Cadillac Records have both flamed out horribly at both the box office and the music charts.

Goes to show you, you can't pump garbage.

Another craptacular showing by BA shoving this junk down our throats.

Speaking of craptacular (I love that term majaman78) BA rubbish being shoved down our throats, did anybody take a listen to this weeks Allen Kepler Craptacular Feedback Track of the WeeK? There's yet another vocal doozie!!

Listen, if you dare...


"LAY IT DOWN" -AL GREEN

Now, I personally have nothing against Al Green...I think he is a legendary R&B/Soul vocalist who I grew up listening to...but to trot this type of song out, and to present it as Smooth Jazz, is nothing short of a travesty!!

I gave it a "1"!

This example again tells you everything you need to know about why the format, now in the sole/exclusive hands of BA, is dying a painful death!

DD

 

[majaman78]

The great news here is that Beyonce's horrific rendition of "At Last" as well as the mediocre movie Cadillac Records have both flamed out horribly at both the box office and the music charts.

Goes to show you, you can't pump garbage.

Another craptacular showing by BA shoving this junk down our throats.

Speaking of craptacular (I love that term majaman78) BA rubbish being shoved down our throats, did anybody take a listen to this weeks Allen Kepler Craptacular Feedback Track of the WeeK? There's yet another vocal doozie!!

Listen, if you dare...


"LAY IT DOWN" -AL GREEN

Now, I personally have nothing against Al Green...I think he is a legendary R&B/Soul vocalist who I grew up listening to...but to trot this type of song out, and to present it as Smooth Jazz, is nothing short of a travesty!!

I gave it a "1"!

This example again tells you everything you need to know about why the format, now in the sole/exclusive hands of BA, is dying a painful death!

DD

Wow, I couldn't get thru the first 20 seconds, but I gave it a "2" for effort I liked Al Green when I was in high school some 35 years ago :-[

The things that gets me rotflmfao is that no matter how you vote, it's gonna get played.

Alan Freed is rolling over in his grave!!!! ;D

 

[AC Tones]

OK, I can't believe I am saying this, but I am going in . I remember when a cut from Al Green's CD appeared on Kepler's Top 20 months ago, and I refused to sample it. I love Al Green's music from the early 1970s as much as you guys, a true R&B legend. But I could not see myself enjoying anything he is doing these days (much like that Chaka Khan duet w/Michael McDonald that BA et al spun the hell out of), especially when it is being peddled as SJ.

 

[AnotherCat]

The Al Green song just sounded sad...to sad to even vote for or against. It's like someone shoved him into a studio and said "do smooth jazz nostalgia trip." While I could believe the corporate stations would play Beyonce, Fergie, and Wayne Brady what kind of made me go huh was when a person who is not required to and usually does play excellent music on her noncommercial station/stream ended up with such "stuff" on their playlist. Dumping ground.

 

[Tosh]

It will take owners an operators with "balls" to stop the nonsense, drop BA and recover from the apparent format demise.....wait...too late BA has a firm grip (contract) on 'em all.

 

[AnotherCat]

I was doing their online music panel but I am no longer doing it because out of the 40 songs they tested only 3 were not weak vocals or songs that would sound right at home on a B/EZ station. makes no sense to keep sliding that scale in the dislike to just apathetic zone (25-50) over and over. Interesting how without knowing the artist and feeling motivated by some modicum of loyalty the bland, lite, nondescript stuff really stands out. Then you feel bad when it is by people you respect. At least when musicians were doing sessions for the old Muzak/B-EZ providers they didn't have to put their name on the product, they could take the paycheck without the credibility hit.

Here are some of the vocals that comprised about 50% of the test. Most of these versions were weak interpretations/arrangements and the songs themselves are burnt, tired, and fried outside of the oldies format:
Seal-Stand By Me
Fergie (Mendes) - Look of Love
And I Love Her - Kenny Latimore
Go Now (moody blues) - Simply Red
Ordinary - Wayne Brady (an example of the "dumping ground"theory. Too weak a performance for Urban A/C so we end up with it)
For Once In My Life- Michael McDonald
Sweet Dreams (are made of this) - D'Nate
Good Morning Love - John Legend (decent song but there is nothing jazzy, fresh, or adult alternative about it. It sounds like a 60s tinged pop song. What's next? Cherry Cherry? Up Up and Away?)
Shower The People - Phil Perry (I love Phil Perry on original material but this works about as well as Baby Face doing Fire and Rain, which is to say not at all)
At Last - Beyonce (jeez, I just got another version of "At Last" by some other female singer in the mail. enough already!)
Boney's "Stop Look Listen" and all the Kenny G trax sound like dentist's office circa 1968.

Bonneville/TM flashbacks anyone?

 

[Tosh]

Seal-Stand By Me
.......please
Fergie (Mendes) - Look of Love
.....Diana Krall's remake was an exception
And I Love Her - Kenny Latimore
......nooooo
Go Now (moody blues) - Simply Red
......groan
Ordinary - Wayne Brady (an example of the "dumping ground"theory. Too weak a performance for Urban A/C so we end up with it)
....when I saw him do it live on TV I predicted BA would be all over it
For Once In My Life- Michael McDonald
......for once...stop doing remakes and stick with originals
Sweet Dreams (are made of this) - D'Nate
.....why? the original was bad enough on the playlist
Good Morning Love - John Legend (decent song but there is nothing jazzy, fresh, or adult alternative about it. It sounds like a 60s tinged pop song. What's next? Cherry Cherry? Up Up and Away?)
.....exactly
Shower The People - Phil Perry (I love Phil Perry on original material but this works about as well as Baby Face doing Fire and Rain, which is to say not at all)
.....would you believe I had that Baby Face tune scheduled everyday while doing afternoon drive, with just as many listener's calls begging me to stop

At Last - Beyonce (jeez, I just got another version of "At Last" by some other female singer in the mail. enough already!)
........"I threw both in the garbage after opening"

Boney's "Stop Look Listen" and all the Kenny G trax sound like dentist's office circa 1968.
.....thank you!!

 

[Double D]

For Once In My Life- Michael McDonald
......for once...stop doing remakes and stick with originals

And lookey here...Allen Kepler's Craptacular Feedback Track of the Week...I give it a "0", although I have to confess to rendering my 0 rating after just 5 seconds of listening to this piece of garbage!!

For Once In My Life- Michael McDonald - Click to Listen & Rate This Piece of Trash

DD

 

[andreajesus]

For Once In My Life- Michael McDonald
......for once...stop doing remakes and stick with originals

And lookey here...Allen Kepler's Craptacular Feedback Track of the Week...I give it a "0", although I have to confess to rendering my 0 rating after just 5 seconds of listening to this piece of garbage!!

For Once In My Life- Michael McDonald - Click to Listen & Rate This Piece of Trash

DD

sorry, guys - i just checked this out and i gave it a 73 on the positive side - i actually LIKE this track!!

Andrea

 

[Tosh]

to be fair I understand Michael McDonald, Boney and others are compelled, if not forced to do remakes in order to get some air, especially if BA is pulling the strings. Somehow the bills have to be paid. Truthfully the only times I would get positive listener feedback for a McDonald piece was when we played his original..."The Meaning Of Love".

 

[kenglish]

With the "No one wants to listen to anything except what everybody else wants to listen to" line of reasoning, how much longer before we hear Celine Dion on a "Classic Rock" station?
All it would take is one Arbitron.

 

[AnotherCat]

But exactly are they getting airplay on? A few remaining stations that play in the background while people who have them on don't really pay attention. How can an artist keep themselves top of mind that way? How can they nurture the fan base the already have and expand their audience. If your music is unnoticable nobody will even know you have anything new out. I think projects like Boney's were in the works before the format imploded and the backlash started so they are victims of bad timing. Money is tight. How many people are going to shell out for another instrumental version of a Stevie Wonder song.

 

[Nock]

Anyone seen what Etta said about the person that started this whole thread? Need more artists to stand up for their "original" work.

"You know that woman he had singing for him, singing my song, she's going to get her a-- whipped," Etta said to a thunderous applause. She went on to add that she could not "stand" Beyonce.

Nock