Marking a Decade of All That Smooth Jazz

No radio station has so defined a style of music as has KTWV-FM (94.7) “The Wave.” The station, which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a concert Saturday at the L.A. Tennis Center on the UCLA campus, literally created the easy-listening radio format of soft jazz and pop ballads that has become known as New Adult Contemporary.

The Wave has come up with its own designation--”smooth jazz”--to define the largely instrumental genre (the words, in giant letters, bracketed performers on the concert stage and were used any number of times in introductions and the program).

But what is smooth jazz? A list of the station’s all-time “hottest tracks” in the event’s program emphasizes its crossover nature. Along with the expected names, such as Kenny G, David Benoit, John Klemmer and Sade, it also includes such artists as Sting, Eric Clapton and, a bit surprisingly, Dave Brubeck, whose 1959 recording of “Take Five” now stands as smooth jazz’s ancestral fossil.

The birthday concert lineup, which served as a benefit for the World Children’s Transplant Fund, also cast light on the genre’s parameters, with headliner David Sanborn, vocal stylist James Ingram (who replaced the previously advertised Peabo Bryson) and a package of instrumentalists billed as Guitars, Saxes and More.

The show served to underscore the background nature of the music, demonstrating that smooth jazz sounds better coming from a car radio, preferably with the windows up and air-conditioning on, than it does from the concert stage. No matter what histrionics were employed, and there was plenty of posing from Ingram and the members of GS&M;, the music itself was mostly atmosphere, with little upfront feeling.

Guitars Saxes and More, a mix-and-match collaboration between guitarists Peter White and Craig Chaquico, saxophonist Richard Elliot and trumpeter Rick Braun, delivered grooves, riffs and little else. That much of this music is meant to illustrate a setting and its resultant mood was suggested when White stopped playing at various times during one soft rocker to cue the audience with hand signals suggesting ocean waves and car driving.

The evening’s low point occurred when the group brought out Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, who muddled his way through a pseudo-flamenco number of the sort currently popular on the Wave.

During his overextended set, Ingram wasted his attractive voice on over-stylized appeals to soul. Only saxophonist Sanborn, whose brief appearance closed the show, brought any measure of conviction and genuine spirit to the performance. Aided by scintillating guitarist Hiram Bullock and slap-happy percussionist Bobby Thomas, Sanborn signaled that a gritty edge would make smooth jazz immeasurably more relevant and appealing.