Crossover jazz

Crossover jazz is a genre of music that is rooted in jazz but aims for mainstream popularity. Crossover was popular in Early 70s. Crossover jazz retains an emphasis on improvisation but attempts to make that improvisation commercially successful. A frequently cited example of crossover is the music of Eumir Deodato.

Roots of crossover jazz date to the 1940s and '50s, most prominently Duke Ellington("Caravan"), Dizzy Gillespie("Night in Tunisia"), Benny Goodman(Sing Sing Sing), Eydie Gorme(Blame it on Bossa Nova") and Nat King Cole(Papa Loves Mambo). An good pianist as well as a singer, Cole began his career strictly as an instrumentalist. From 50s to 60s, jazz musician Curtis Fuller, Horace Silver Jimmy Smith, Baby Face Willette, Brother Jack McCduff made new jazz genre "Soul jazz". Late 60s Miles Davis got "Electoric jazz" album.

In the wake of jazz fusion's decline from popularity among jazz and rock fans in the mid-1970s, jazz artists who continued to seek wider audiences began incorporating a variety of popular sounds into their music, forming a group of accessible styles that became known as crossover jazz.

Deodato got crossover hit single and album "Prelude" in 1972. And Bob James released crossoner song "Night on Bald Mountain". Influential saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. incorporated elements of pop music and Caribbean music 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. Jamaican jazz band Jazz Jamica released reggae jazz album in 1994. They fused roots reggae rhythm with jazz harmonies and extended improvisation.

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