Smooth Jazz continues to struggle as the year moves on. I just updated my my article on FACE BOOK with a mention of jazz clubs adding to the list of Smooth Jazz bailing in the US. I am still saddened in one sense and actually glad in another.

Sad - my outlet of saxophone music to the world is in turmoil.

Glad - the business of music <Music Business> has done great harm to instrumental pop jazz artists for too long. This death will be followed with a rebirth that WILL be a huge improvement over the lame non-direction the genre has been subject to. That would be the Circle of Life!

SO - I find it funny that I have been Nominated for an American Smooth Jazz Award for 2010 - the year that well will mark the end of the art form with that name. How strange is that? I would bet my left arm that this is the last year that Smooth Jazz will be around under that name, and I am nominated on the closing year of a genre I was there at the very beginning of.

Then - running right in the face of this trend and in the other direction is my FACE BOOK Smooth Jazz group. A Smooth Jazz Group on a Social that is growing by leaps and bounds!! This fan page has more fans than any other page I run on FACE BOOK. We have added 1000 fans in the last 3 months alone!!!!

We are living in a changing world and the direction is change, the destination is unknown.

I will stick to my heart on this one. Real music will always find a life because it gets people excited. Business always limits and destroys the art, but the artist lives on. We don't care what you call our music. We don't believe in labels anyway!! But too often, in the name of more success, we buy into a label or format and allow the promise of fame and money to shape the art we STARTED OFF WITH!

Those that were in the music business for the quick money are all gone. Those that love the art and the artists that love real music are still right there - trying to do what they loved from the start!

I, for one, see little change in my life in the near future. I still want to play the sax. I plan on working with other great players, booking gigs that we can have a ton of fun creating together, writing and recording music that gets me excited, improving my skill base, expanding my abilities to play more instruments, and maintaining a little corner of cyberspace to let people know what is going on.

The only business change for me, is preparing to change the name of the music when a name is agreed upon. Other than that - business ususual.

I'll end with a quick note on last nights gig. I was with one of many artist that don't really care what people say. He recorded a CD that broke lots of rules and is doing great with it. He put a band together for the gig that could actually BLOW and we tore the roof off the club! The turn out was great and the people that came had a great time with the response was much larger than what I usually expect from the Smooth Orange County crowds.

It is obvious that the business is sick, because the business people don't get it. Let artist create art! Audiences will feel it and respond! REAL is my pet phrase for 2010.

Keepin' it REAL!

PS - I will let y'all know when the voting begins on the American Smooth Jazz Awards - If I end up with an award I'll have a collectible piece of music history in only a year or two!!

Blessings and Peace to those struggling in this tough economy. Keep looking up!

The following is an adaptation of a post to the Smooth Jazz Face Book Fan Page - NOTES
To join the Smooth Jazz Fan Page - you have to be a member of FaceBook - hit the link and JOIN GROUP!
http://www.facebook.com/SmoothJazzMusic

The American Smooth Jazz Awards Home Page - being built but the link is good, the voting content is coming soon......