Smooth Sailing: Lazy Waves & Laid-Back Songs

Joan Smalls Instagram

I try to prove a point made by Kenny Loggins in a recent television interview. He says that yacht rock is a combination of (West Coast) rock, R&B and smooth jazz. “It’s that term that started on the internet,” Loggins explains. “It’s a term that embraces the period of pop music where we sort of channelled into a kind of smooth jazz kind of thing.”

The inclusion of smooth jazz into Loggins’ music began on his first two solo albums, ‘Celebrate Me Home’ and ‘Nightwatch’, on which he was helped by keyboard player Bob James, then known for hits like 'Westchester lady' and 'Nightcrawler'. He was Kenny Loggins' producer and that time at the forefront of the development of smooth jazz. James would later start one of the genre’s best-known and popular groups, Fourplay.
“The music sort of evolved… we were moving into that area,” says Loggins. “It was a fun ride. It’s kind of coming back into the window a little bit.”

International jazz-funk band Incognito join forces again with vocalist Maysa Leak to make magic with the silky smooth new track 'All I Ever Wanted'. While Incognito and Maysa have collaborated off-and-on since the 1990s, their chemistry remains intact and is as fresh as ever on this song. For "All I Ever Wanted," Maysa breathes over the single with her velvety vocals, complimenting Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick's groove and making it an easy listen. It’s on their new album ‘In Search Of Better Days’.

Enjoy this new episode of Smooth Sailing! Thanks to the mysterious ‘K’ who inspired me with his Summer Breeze series on Mixcloud. Next week I will team up with Martijn Soetens once more for a new Mellow Moods episode by The Smooth Operators.

Tracklist:

Randy Crawford – Living On The Outside (1983)
Jodie Abacus – Hot Kitchen (2016)
Gerry Rafferty – Night Owl (1979)
The Jeremy Spencer Band – You’ve Got The Right (1979)
Kenny Loggins – Wait A Little While (1978)
Michael Franks – Island Life (1987)
ABC – The Ship Of The Seasick Sailor (2016)
Yvonne Elliman – Love Me (1976)
Phil Upchurch & Tennyson Stephens – You Got Style (1975)
Bill Hughes – Catch Me Smilin' (1979)
Dane Donohue – Whatever Happened (1978)
Scott Jarrett – Miles Of Sea (1980)
Pages – I Get It From You (1978)
Mac McAnally – Dark Ages (1983)
Fleetwood Mac – Brown Eyes (1978)
Bear’s Den – Greenwood’s Bethlehem (2016)
Bee Gees – Nothing Could Be Good (1981)
Candi Staton – Halfway To Heaven (1980)
Cliff Richard – It’ll Be Me Baby (1977)
Incognito – All I Ever Wanted (2016)
Michael Johnson – Bluer Than Blue (1978)