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unusual facts about smooth jazz



Alexander Zonjic

Since 1997, Alexander Zonjic was the morning show host of WVMV, now WDZH-FM (Smooth Jazz V98.7), a smooth jazz radio station in Detroit, Michigan until CBS Radio ceased broadcasting smooth jazz over the airwaves on October 2, 2009.

Gregg Karukas

Gregory Harry "Gregg" Karukas (born May 18, 1956) is a Grammy winning smooth jazz keyboardist, producer and pianist, originally from the Washington, D.C.-Bowie, Maryland area.

KDZZ

The KLCX call letters were originally assigned to a station in the Palm Springs, California market in the early 1990s but were surrendered when its new owners changed the format to smooth jazz and the call letters to KJJZ.

KPLM

KLCX was immediately reformatted into KJJZ, a pioneering smooth jazz radio station under the program direction of Jim "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a major smooth jazz concert promoter from New York who has been in the morning drive slot since the station's inception.

Let's Go to Prison

Despite his fearsome appearance, Barry has the heart of a true romantic beating within his massive, hairy torso – he likes smooth jazz (Chuck Mangione is a favorite of his), he plies potential romantic partners with his finest toilet-made Merlot, and he has transformed his prison cell into a candle-lit, rose-bedecked passion parlor.

Marion Meadows

Marion Meadows is an American Saxophonist, composer, and smooth jazz recording artist of Native American, African American and Caucasian descent.

Rudy Van Gelder

Van Gelder remained active in music, most notably as the engineer for most of Creed Taylor's CTI Records releases, a series of proto-smooth jazz albums that were financially successful but not always well received by critics.

Tower of Soul

"Tower of Soul" is a 2011 smooth jazz song recorded by Patrick Yandall.

TSR Records

Since its hey-day, TSR moved on from dance music to releasing mostly new age and smooth jazz music in the 1990s under the name Baja/TSR Records, including several Billboard chart-ranked albums of Nuevo Flamenco guitar music by Armik, Young & Rollins, NovaMenco, Behzad, and Luis Villegas.

WEKU

EKU also programs former smooth jazz station WKYL 102.1 FM as a primarily classical music service and sister to WEKU.

WWKR

The station began broadcasting in 1995 as WEWM in Pentwater, Michigan, with a satellite-fed smooth jazz format from Jones.

Zanzibar Blue

The club closed on April 29, 2007, Robert Bynum stating "we didn't think it was in our best interests to renew the lease. We'd rather own our building than lease." WJJZ, Philadelphia's smooth jazz radio station broadcast Sunday brunches from Zanzibar Blue, and performers such as Lou Rawls, Chick Corea and Chuck Mangione have played there.


see also

Art Good

Good left KIFM for a brief period to host a program on competitor KSWV 102.9 ("The Wave", now Spanish music station KLQV), returning when KSWV discontinued their Smooth Jazz format.

Artistry Music

In July 2006 the label released the Jason Miles smooth jazz album "To Grover, With Love", a tribute to Grover Washington, Jr. Contributing to the album were some of the biggest names in smooth jazz, including Regina Belle, Dave Koz, Russ Freeman, Gerald Albright, Peter White, Chuck Loeb, Joe Sample, George Duke and Steve Cole.

Gigi MacKenzie

Gigi MacKenzie (born 1962) is a smooth jazz artist, daughter of the singer Gisele MacKenzie.

Johns Quijote

Johns Quijote's music style is a smooth jazz, rock, cabaret and Tom Waits-esque music style, often described as 'adult, cultivated, and melancholy'.

Julio Fernández

Julio Fernández (musician) (born 1954), guitarist of jazz fusion/smooth jazz group Spyro Gyra

Nelson Rangell

Though Rangell has recorded mostly in the contemporary/pop and smooth jazz formats garnering top radio play and a large audience, The Times notes "heard live a much more robust and idiosyncratic player emerges."

Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out

The song features a smooth jazz sound and the baritone vocals of lead singer Ashley Slater.

WCEE

WGRV-LP, formerly known as WCEE-LP, a smooth jazz radio station in Melbourne, Florida

WDZN

On the afternoon of April 2, it was announced that the smooth jazz format and the man named "Stu" were part of an April Fools' Day joke and that the station would in fact, be carrying a country music format.

Wernaldo

"Nature" had first aired on WSJT 98.7, a popular smooth jazz radio station situated in the Tampa Bay Area, in mid-2008.

WNRG-FM

On May 27, 2010, at Noon, WJZX flipped from Broadcast Architecture's syndicated satellite feed Smooth AC "Smooth Jazz Network" to a stunt format called "Tiger 106.9", which referenced Tiger Woods's scandals and featured cheating-themed music from all eras.

WUSL

Bill Simpson, who would later host a nighttime show on both incarnations of Smooth Jazz WJJZ (first at 106.1 and later at 97.5), used the alias Dave Sanborn on the show, which often created confusion with the well-known jazz saxophonist David Sanborn, especially among those who were not regular listeners.

Zobo Funn Band

By 1979 they and nearby Buffalo, New York "smooth jazz" band Spyro Gyra were both asked to make a demo and compete for a record contract, which ultimately went to Spyro Gyra, whose first album was a huge hit, leaving members of Zobo frustrated and ultimately leading to the dissolution of the band in 1980.