Birmingham-based keyboard wizard, producer, and DJ Byron the Aquarius first came up our radar back in 2016 through his High Life EP released on Theo Parrish’s venerable Sound […]
Sweet Water: Smooth Jazz Tracks That Are Actually Good

Good Smooth Jazz from Pat Metheny, 101 North (George Duke), Craig T. Cooper, Ben Tankard, and more!
One of the most hated and controversial genres around, Smooth Jazz gets a bad rap for a number of reasons: Kenny G is the genre’s undisputed king and earned a fortune off his easy listening albums; a large majority of the music is a sort of bland, repetitive, and uninspired digital form of jazz that’s miles away from the fierce electric sound of Miles Davis or the spirituality of John Coltrane; the demographics of listeners leans heavily white; for decades, it was near impossible to avoid on the radio. While the hate on Kenny G might be at least slightly undeserved (the soprano saxophonist has actually released some great music over the years), the genre does, for the most part, represent a sort of unhinged commerciality that music lovers tend to avoid like the plague.
For a brief history, Smooth Jazz emerged in the late ’80s as the “adult alternative” commercial radio format grew in popularity. Stations would play fifteen-minute sets consisting of instrumental music (smooth jazz) bookending a vocal song or two by artists like Steely Dan, Sade, Anita Baker, Mariah Carey and Phil Collins. The term itself came through a marketing study in which a test group of listeners were played thirty-second snippets of tunes and asked to decide whether the track would pass. Industry consultant Allen Kepler recalls one woman had the perfect descriptor for the music, “She’s thinking. She says, ‘It’s jazz.’ She says, ‘It’s smooth jazz.'”
While there’s certainly a lot to hate about a marketing-informed music genre, there’s also quite a bit of gold to be uncovered from Smooth Jazz’s murky depths. In 2020, Numero Group actually released Nu Leaf – Smooth Jazz Undeground featuring private press oddities from the maligned genre. The comp’s liner notes paint a much more positive picture: “As the rift between academic jazz, new age, and pop narrowed in the 1980s, DIY practitioners of metronome driven riffs found new growth in a burgeoning managerial middle class, a commercial audience held captive in dentist offices and waiting rooms across America. Session players took to midi-banks stocked with every instrument imaginable and delivered on a road rage-induced demand to stay cool, relaxed, and focused all at once.”
As a general rule, it’s healthy to never completely ignore any genre of music. There has to be some good “Lofi Hip Hop Chill Beats to Study/Relax to” right? Country, a genre people always seems to list as something they don’t listen to, is a world of music we think everyone should get into at some point. So, today we’re highlighting a few of our favorite smooth jazz tracks in the hopes of encouraging more open listening and exploration…
Craig T Cooper – Sweet Water (1990)
Craig T. Cooper is the current guitarist/musical director of legendary UK street soul group Loose Ends and has played with other greats like The Blackbyrds, LSG, and Ray Parker, Jr. His sophomore album Got-That-Thang is a total cult classic and was championed by Larry “Doc” Elliott of WJZZ, who made Cooper a staple of late-night Detroit radio in the 90’s. “Sweet Water” has that crisp, digital keyboard sound and reverb-heavy vocals typically associated with smooth jazz, but delivered in an effortless and undeniably cool way.
Ben Tankard – Eden Celebration (1990)
Former professional basketball player, Reality-TV dad, Aircraft pilot, and multi-instrumentalist Ben Tankard called his style of music “gospel jazz.” “Eden Celebration” is a curious fusion of jazz, gospel, soul, funk and dance music featuring an upbeat electro beat, New Age chords, Tarzan sample, and drum machine percussion. It’s certainly smooth, but also weird as hell!
Pat Metheny – Slip Away (1989)
Like most of the artists on this list, jazz fusion great Pat Metheny would never describe his music as “smooth jazz,” though his music was heavily played on those classic radio stations across the United States. One of Pat’s most beloved albums, Letter from Home, features his classic group alongside the great Argentinian bass player / multi-instrumentalist Pedro Aznar, who shines on “Slip Away” with his blissful, soaring vocals.
Harry Case – In A Mood (1989)
A big favorite around here… New age and jazzy classical guitar meet drum programming and synth reggae jams on this holy grail from underground Atlanta funk legend Harry Case. In a Mood is a stretch from Case’s uptempo funk recorded past. In fact, it’s quite unlike anything that’s out there. While Case’s soul roots are still very much intact, the songs take on a more breezy and geographically unidentifiable tropical sound.
Tom Grant – Hands (1987)
Played by Tsukasa Ito on Chee Shimizu’s Organic Music NTS show, “Hands” is definitely one of the coolest tracks we’ve heard that features the easily annoying smooth jazz guitar-vocal-scatting technique. Subdued and mixed perfectly, the scatting actually adds a nice ethereal quality to the tune and is used more as a melodic element vs. the usual shred improvisation.
Lyle Mays – Before You Go (1988)
One of the great fusion keyboard / synth players, Lyle Mays is mostly known for his work in the Pat Metheny Group, though his solo output shouldn’t be ignored. “Before You Go” off of Street Dreams is a mellow cruiser that rides along an amazing digital keyboard bassline (slap preset?) played by Mays himself.
101 North – S.T. (1988)
101 North is George Duke in disguise, a secret short-lived side project he built for experimentation and to live out some musical fantasies. Duke once called the band an “instrumental group that could do some vocals…” but he was obviously adamant in assembling a malleable cast of talented studio musicians who could, if the need arose, to play anything from New Age to Quiet Storm R&B (basically smooth jazz). Unlike other picks on this list, this album is actually a great listen nearly all the way through. Underrated!