Jazz fans?

[Archae]

I'm recording my sister's jazz records, they are mostly "soft jazz" (I think that's what they call it,) like Montreux, Jean-Luc Ponty, Checkfield and Al Di Meola.

Is "soft jazz" considered to be "real?"

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Yes.

Next question?????

[nolabear]

2. Jazz has lots of subsets.

Soft is as real as Dixieland, Fusion, Modern, Trad Jazz (traditional), and a host of others. It's just not the same.

[mzteris]

3. yes.

jazz is jazz. Soft. Hard. New Orleans jazz. Kansas City jazz. From Thelonious Monk to Miles Davis and John Coltrane and Anita Baker, (early) Sade, George Benson, David Sanborn, Earl Klugh, jazz fusion, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Stanley Turrentine, Stan Getz, Louie Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Chicago jazz. Josephine Baker. MJQ (Modern Jazz Quartet), Dave Brubeck, Pete Fountain, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbeck, Dixieland, Bebob, cool, mainstream, freestyle, Sonny Rollins, Wynton & Bradford Marsalis, Ramsey Lewis, Pat Metheny, David Benoit, Stanley Clark, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Jobim, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Bird Parker, Bill Evans Trio.

It's all jazz. Whether you like the particular sub-genre or not. Many of the above, I REALLY don't like much at all. But they're still jazz.
Soft jazz is as much jazz as hard jazz.

[HopeHoops]

4. Absolutely. Some of my favorites I ever played were soft and gentle with drum brushes.

It's actually much harder to play the soft style than the more boisterous. The dynamics are far more critical and any one player can throw off the entire feel of the song. That's particularly true for a muted trumpet. Hit that note too hard and it will sound like Sarah Palin opening her mouth. I've done both big band and small ensemble and curiously it's harder to do soft jazz in big band. With ensemble, it is much easier for everyone to adjust to whatever happens.

I've also had the pleasure of hearing The Woodie Herman Band live (high school auditorium, 1980 I believe), Maynard in college (mid 80's), and I studied under both Buzz Jones and Rex Mitchell. One of the favorite quotes (forget the origin, but both Buzz and Rex used it) was along the lines of "when improvising, if you hit a sour note, hit it again harder and everyone will think you meant it". I've had to improvise on alto, tenor, and baritone saxes and those words are great to keep in mind when you're sweating under hot lights, in a suit, standing up, and can't see shit because there's a spotlight in your face. I usually just closed my eyes and got lost in the moment.