Smooth and Simple Sounds

Real jazz fans tend to be understandably vexed by the huge, misleading phenomenon known as “smooth jazz.” The intentional simplicity and rhythmic rigidity of much of the music heard on smooth jazz radio seems to suggest an anti-jazz bias. The format has become a world unto itself, generally ignored by the jazz press.

Needless to say, the genre gets very short shrift in Ken Burns’ epic “Jazz” documentary premiering on PBS in January, and with a fantastic box set released in time for Christmas. On that box set, the closest thing to a reference to this pop-jazz scene is Grover Washington’s proto-smooth anthem, “Mister Magic.”

On the up side, though, the smooth jazz, or adult contemporary radio format, has also given valuable exposure to a branch of vocal artists with a style merging jazz sophistication, pop and R & B. Brenda Russell, who plays the Oxnard Civic Auditorium on Wednesday, is a prime example of the virtues of the style called, after-the-fact, “smooth vocals.” She has had hits, including “Piano in the Dark” and “Get Here,” but her real musical worth is about development of a musical “voice.”

Russell, blessed with a warm, understated voice and a distinctive, jazz-flecked palette as a songwriter, has been around for decades and her work sounds newly fresh on her album from this year, “Paris Rain.” Russell has survived the fickle turns of pop, and found a new home amid lesser instrumental music. It’s almost worth wading through the dross to get to stuff like hers on the radio again.

DETAILS

Brenda Russell performing with Dave Koz, Rick Braun and Peter White, at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Oxnard Civic Auditorium, 800 Hobson Way. Tickets are $31-$45; 486-2424.

Bach Report: An excuse should never be required to program Bach’s music, which accounts for some of the most profound, and most formally riveting, Western art ever created. Still, it has been nice this year to have a milestone to latch onto, being the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death in 1750.

But even this year there has been less of a Bach parade than we’d expect, compared, for instance, with the torrent of Mozart heard on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s death in 1991. In the classical music world, Bach has always been a giant half-hidden in the corner. We know he’s there, but his serious demeanor is perhaps not as ingratiating as other stalwarts of the repertoire.

Last week the Camerata Pacifica (which began its life 11 years ago as the Bach Camerata) gave us a compact, yet hearty dose of Bach, courtesy of Baroque specialist Corey Jamason. The harpsichordist played, beautifully, Bach’s Italian Concerto, following the “Sonata for Viola and Harpsichord” of Johann Sebastian’s son Wilhelm Friedemann and a last-minute addition to the program, the senior Bach’s “Sonata in G,” played by Jamason and the Camerata’s fearless leader, flutist Adrian Spence.

In the concert’s second half came an intriguing oddity, famed Estonian composer Arvo Part’s rereading of an out-of-place bit of British romantic fluff, Frank Bridge’s “Phantasy Trio in C Minor.” That left the spotlight wide open for stealing, and Jamason’s clear-headed performance of the Italian Concerto rang in our ears. Jamason navigated easily through the work’s contrapuntal maze and gave it the careful, due balance of objective detachment and lofty passion.

For further Baroque enticements, watch for the Camerata Pacifica’s sub-series of Sunday afternoon concerts at 3 p.m. at Santa Barbara’s Unitarian Church, organized by Jamason.

Joyful Choral Noises: The Ventura Master Chorale will do its duty, gleefully, and give a holiday program in Ventura’s beautifully ambient Old Mission tonight and Sunday and the musical menu is a nicely varied one.

Befitting the yuletide cause, we’ll hear Sir David Wilcocks’ arrangement of “Deck the Halls,” along with a Hanukkah song, Mexican folk carol and music of Rutter and Praetorius.

But the piece perhaps most anxiously awaited is a premiere of a composition by the Chorale’s longtime director, Burns Taft. Taft’s “Eclipse” is based on texts of Leo the Great and Diego Hurtado Mendoza. The regional music scene has been favorably affected by Taft’s work as a conductor and facilitator, but his compositional voice is, as yet, little known around here. We’re all ears.

DETAILS

Ventura Master Chorale, 8 tonight and 5 p.m. Sunday at the San Buenaventura Mission, 211 E. Main St., Ventura. Tickets are $15-20; 653-7282.

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Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com.