rostasi

Thanks for the words, but it really is mostly an age thing.
I've been listening and adding to my tastes for a long time.

That whole '70s/'80s crossover phenom was something that
pretty much made a lot of money for these guys. The Sanborns,
Bensons, Grover Washington Jr.s, etc of the jazz world did have
good chops, but the lure of the big bucks was so much greater -
George Benson speaks honestly about this to this very day.
(Sanborn's "Night Music" was an incredible late night TV show).

The closest I can come to this with fresh ears is with some of
these young guys who crate dig and pull up some sounds
that they try to emulate from that era and that's about as
close as I can get to it. The modern forms don't seem as
manipulative as the ones from 3-4 decades ago. Then,
you always had the feeling that some record exec with a
big cigar was pushing the music instead of the artist.
If you wanted to get some fake-tits air-headed blonde into
the sack, you were almost guaranteed this by putting on
some John Klemmer - who was happy to provide this for
the big bucks in return. It's all in where you draw the line.

An example of a more modern young take on crossover.



Also, there's this slice from Verneri Pohjola,
the 40 year old son of Pekka Pohjola -
the well-known Finnish bassist from the band Wigwam
that moves nicely thru some 70's-based jazz elements.



and here's the original (in Finnish, "Ensimmäinen aamu")