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Description
In the wake of fusion's decline in the mid-1970s, jazz artists who sought commercial viability began incorporating a variety of popular sounds, forming a group of accessible styles that became known as Crossover Jazz in which rock played only a very small part. Influential saxophonist Grover Washington and guitarist Wes Montgomery incorporated elements of Funk and R&B into a sound based in Hard Bop, while singer Al Jarreau blurred the lines between jazz, pop, and Soul. Other artists, such as the Rippingtons and Spyro Gyra, injected their pop-flavored instrumentals with Latin rhythms and electronic keyboards. Unlike the related genre Smooth Jazz, Crossover Jazz retains an emphasis on improvisation but attempts to make that improvisation commercially successful by couching it in a variety of marketable formats.
