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Saying the smooth-jazz genre has a foundation seems oxymoronic. But, back in the mid-1980s, when KIFM-San Diego, KTWV-Los Angeles, and WNUA-Chicago first went on the air, contemporary jazz musicians were recording music aimed straight at the public's heart, not toward what radio programmers were thinking. Most of the music on the first of this three-volume retrospective reflects that postfusion period of the late 1970s and early 1980s before the term "smooth jazz" existed. It was a time when technically brilliant and commercially successful musicians--such as Ronnie Laws, Bob James, David Sanborn, and the Yellowjackets--were rejecting disco and mixing together rock, jazz, funk, European classical, pop, and New Age music. The resulting sound managed spirited rhythms, interesting harmonies, and quality improvised solos, unlike much of the smooth jazz that would follow. At least half the tracks here, including the first four, are smooth-jazz radio standards. Other tracks, such as Rodney Franklin's "Song for You," Mike Mainieri's "Wanderlust," and "May I Have This Dance," from the exciting Brazilian group Azymuth, are out-of-print gems that alone make this compilation worth having. --Mark Ruffin
