Know about the origin of a musical initiative that has become a European benchmark.
When you listen to a random song that plays on the radio in a car and discover a new musical style, you let yourself be overwhelmed by new melodies that you did not know and you decide to turn that melody into your lifestyle, this is how Smooth Hot Jazz was born… Discover our history!
Once upon a time, far from the Shazam era, where there were no Siris or Alexas, radio was the tool to open our minds to new melodies that could even change our lives. In one of those moments, which now seem prehistoric, a music lover discovered in the United States a radio station that proclaimed: “The best Smooth Jazz in the World“.
Song after song the incredulous listener discovers, with his great musical ear, the perfect mix between Jazz fusion, Rhythm and Blues, Funk and Pop. That mix is called Smooth Jazz and in his country, in Spain, it will take more than 30 years of being able to appreciate it live.
But the seed of Smooth Jazz grows and in 2017 it sprouts so strong that the First Smooth Hot Jazz Festival is organized, with a great stage such as the Philips Gran Vía Theater of Light. The main course is one of the biggest stars of the genre, today unreachable, Dave Koz, in charge of the closing of the Festival, neither more nor less than a saxophonist, nominated nine times for the Grammy-Awards and with millions of records sold behind him , apart from being recognized for his solidarity and philanthropic activities, and being an active entrepreneur and radio commentator. As if that were not enough, he has a star in the Hollywood Hall of Fame and in his career he has placed nine albums in number one of Billboard magazine’s success lists.
As a starting point, if you add insurmountable voices like Mario Biondi, Maysa, Avery * Sunshine and Gary Taylor, along with instrumentalists like Najee, Jim Brickman, Kim Waters or Josemi Carmona, the result is the best and brightest fireworks to inaugurate the birth of Smooth Hot Jazz.
The success of the Festival confirms that music lover who fell in love with Smooth Jazz that Spain is ready to discover what from now on will call #TheMostBeautiful MusicInTheWorld.
Since then, under the leadership of Jorge Arqué, Madrid has become the capital of Smooth Jazz, not only for record numbers: artists with 14 Grammy-Awards and 55 nominations in around thirty performances; but for the quality of those concerts that have left an essential mark on the music scene of the capital.
The story continues with more than 15 concerts with guitarists such as Larry Carlton, Chieli Minucci, Marc Antoine and Paul Brown; pianists Greg Karukas, Jonathan Fritzén and Brian Simpson or saxophonists Vincent Ingala and Michael Lington, throughout 2018 and 2019.
The second edition of the Smooth Hot Jazz Festival changes the stage to the María Guerrero Theater – Dramatic Art Center, to become an exclusive event that was filled to the brim with the hands of the classic Earth, Wind and Fire by Al Mckay `s Experience. A kick-off to a great date with unique collaborations between artists who mostly stepped in the capital for the first time, including The Lao Tizer Band, Paula Atherton, Roberto Tola, Adam Hawley, Paul Taylor and repeating experience with the house, Michael Lington.
Scenarios such as the Only You Hotel or the Nubel Reina Sofía – Space have witnessed during 2019 and 2020 an assortment of artists such as Mezzoforte, Antonella Mazza or Ginelle Nicolás and many more, who continue to pass through the capital to be discovered by those who still We do not have the genre and to delight those who come even from outside Spain to enjoy the best Smooth Jazz.
And this is just the preamble to how the history of Smooth Hot Jazz was born, a musical dream that has become a reality within the reach of everyone who dares to discover #TheMostBeautiful MusicInTheWorld.
