There's
More Smooth Jazz At SmoothJazzTherapy.com September
24, 2005 - Smooth jazz fan, and frequent contributor
to Smooth Jazz Now, Denis
Poole, has launched a site of his own, check
it out at www.smoothjazztherapy.com.
Denis is a regular contributor to several smooth
jazz sites, and in response reader requests
he launched his own site to have "all my
stuff together in one place." Denis also
is a believer in the "smooth jazz family"
so he has his site linked to Smooth Jazz Now.
"A reader can visit my site, and with one
click, go to another great smooth jazz site.
Smooth jazz musicians are always collaborating
with one another, why shouldn't smooth jazz
websites?"
Denis is also committed to promoting up and
coming smooth jazz talent. "I really want
to concentrate on giving the many great up and
coming artists some much needed exposure. Sure,
the big names will always figure , but there
are hundreds of talented artists out there,
looking for a break." There seems to be
a constant buzz that smooth jazz is dying, not
so says Poole " with the number of covers
around these days it could be argued that much
of the originality that "fusion" had
when it first popped up in the late eighties
has been lost. But look at the fervor of the
fans, and the hugely energetic live jazz circuit
and the run away phenomenon of smooth jazz cruises.
All those fans can't be wrong. Sure, smooth
jazz is a fringe genre, but it's a pretty significant
fringe!"
Make
sure to check out Denis's new site www.smoothjazztherapy.com and
watch for his continuing contributions
here.
February
27, 2005 - Denis Poole got hooked on soul
music as a teenager and never really got
unhooked. When, in 1963 and 1964, pop music
first exploded in the UK, artists such as
Chris Farlow, Dusty Springfield and even
the Beatles looked to the music already
being produced on the east coast and in
the mid west of the USA for material to
cover. The success of these early attempts
opened the door for soul music in general,
and Motown music in particular, to be heard
in the UK and for artists such as Martha
Reaves, The Supremes and Marvin Gaye to
tour there. Once Denis heard these sounds
and saw the tightly choreographed splendour
of their performances
then that was that.
Another
layer was provided the first time he heard
Junior Walker and the All Stars and realized
that this was more than soul music. The
soulful vibe of the saxophone, and its
ability to communicate just as effectively
with the listener as vocals ever did,
set him off in search of what were still
rare soul instrumentals. He loved what
Isaac Hayes was doing with the arrangements
on his expansive releases and considers
to this day that the groove generated
on the soundtrack from the 1971 movie
Shaft was twenty years ahead of its time.
Through the glorious era of Philadelphia
and on into the eighties he arrived at
yet another defining Denis Poole musical
moment. The TV show 'Taxi' started to
air on UK television and on the back of
that the Bob
James soundtrack from it, 'The Genie',
crept onto the shelves of a few specialist
record stores. That was when the door
opened to a whole new genre and his love
affair with what became smooth jazz really
began.
Seeking
out rare records on import became a passion
and then, in the nineties, with UK radio
station formats becoming briefly more sympathetic
to fusion, new adult contemporary and finally
the newly termed smooth jazz, everything,
for a while at least, became more accessible.
Even so, smooth jazz pretty much remained
a hidden genre in the UK but Denis was helped
by the increasing opportunities he had to
travel to the USA, first for pleasure then
on business. These visits offered readily
taken chances to access the network of radio
stations dedicated to smooth jazz and to
see the artists perform
He
lives in rural North Yorkshire, England,
with his wife Annette, who has now fully
succumbed to the allure of smooth jazz.
When not combining his twin passions of
music and writing, Denis loves movies
and cites Woody Allen's Manhattan as his
all time favourite.
Denis
writes for a number of specialist smooth
jazz and soul web sites and is available
to artists and publicists for the production
of biographies, discographies and promotional
material. Contact him at denispoole2000@yahoo.com
September
24, 2005 - Smooth jazz fan, and frequent contributor
to Smooth Jazz Now, 
February
27, 2005 - Denis Poole got hooked on soul
music as a teenager and never really got
unhooked. When, in 1963 and 1964, pop music
first exploded in the UK, artists such as
Chris Farlow, Dusty Springfield and even
the Beatles looked to the music already
being produced on the east coast and in
the mid west of the USA for material to
cover. The success of these early attempts
opened the door for soul music in general,
and Motown music in particular, to be heard
in the UK and for artists such as Martha
Reaves, The Supremes and Marvin Gaye to
tour there. Once Denis heard these sounds
and saw the tightly choreographed splendour
of their performances
then that was that. 
Seeking
out rare records on import became a passion
and then, in the nineties, with UK radio
station formats becoming briefly more sympathetic
to fusion, new adult contemporary and finally
the newly termed smooth jazz, everything,
for a while at least, became more accessible.
Even so, smooth jazz pretty much remained
a hidden genre in the UK but Denis was helped
by the increasing opportunities he had to
travel to the USA, first for pleasure then
on business. These visits offered readily
taken chances to access the network of radio
stations dedicated to smooth jazz and to
see the artists perform
