JazzChicago.net recently talked with Frank Goss, general manager of Smooth Jazz Club, Close Up 2(CU2) about the future of Smooth Jazz. CU2, located at 416 S. Clark St in the Financial District, is the ONLY smooth Jazz Club in Chicago and is billed as the only such club nationwide. CU2 opened its doors in November of 2006 and will hold its 3rd annual Smooth Jazz Festival June 18th, 19th and 20th. Please refer to website at www.closeup2jazz.com for details.
Jdub: Frank, first of all, thanks for inviting us in to discuss the "State of Smooth Jazz". It's been a few years since we last sat down to talk and there have been many changes in Smooth Jazz. What changes have occurred here at CU2?
Frank: Initially, we were creating a niche again. Historically, 20 years ago, we helped to discover smooth jazz when we opened up the first "Close Up", and WNUA (former Clear/Channel Smooth Jazz station in Chicago that recently was taken off the air) had just started. I kind of backed into it by accident. We were playing traditional jazz and many new young entertainers including saxophonist Ray Silkman became part of our house band. I discovered him playing on a street comer, and he joined other/young musicians like guitarist Micheal Ross and some other young "cats" with a lot of fire in their heart and now they all have record deals. Nevertheless, the point is, they were playing classical jazz and drifted into this synergism of classical jazz, R&B. They were pulling in new rhythms what was known as Smooth jazz was blossoming. Little did I know, a couple of years down the pike, Close Up had gotten all of this huge recognition from the Oprah of that time was Phil Donahue. I went on his show, and Black Enterprise Magazine chose us as one of the best jazz clubs in the country. This all happened in 1987, but soon after, I sold my partnership in CU2, and it changed formats and kind of disappeared.
Fast forward twenty years, the president of the company is Yon Kim and since the last interview, we revised the concept of Close Up because it became kind of "folklore" around Chicago that it was an incredibly wonderful club and there hasn't been another club like this since then. We have received a very warm reception, our traffic is building, and we're kind of the new "hot thing" in Chicago and it's spreading around the world. People are discovering CU2 and we are the only contemporary or smooth jazz club in the country.
Jdub: Why do you think that's the case? Why haven't other locales picked up on the same format?
Frank: If you get in this business without a musical background, you get a tendency to follow whatever the current trend is. What happens is, if you don't have musical background or preference of music, you start being everything to everybody. You're a jazz club on Monday, a blues club on Tuesday, you're a reggae club on Wednesday, a R&B club on Thursday, a hip hop club on Friday and you have no identity. Some people have a very limited perspective of jazz and often think of it only in terms of classical and straight ahead and stick to that perception, ignoring how jazz has grown throughout the years. From the '40s to today, jazz has ventured out into a lot of different directions, thanks to the likes of John Coltrane and Miles Davis in particular, who ventured out in different directions with Miles being in the forefront. He was constantly changing the definition to laying jazz structure under different kinds of music, creating this whole completely new concept which we consider as contemporary, smooth jazz sound. This is the synergism of how music has evolved from jazz. Now, the new jazz has moved beyond that to kind of global music where you can here contemporary jazz everywhere.
Jdub: Smooth jazz stations nationwide, as you well know, are dying. Why do you think this is happening and what can be done to reverse this trend?
Frank: Let me address the myth. Contemporary jazz has crossed over from a "niche" market to major markets. At the same time, here's the cross current. The business model of traditional radio stations is becoming obsolete.
On the surface, Clear Channel, under the last eight years of the Bush administration, has dominated radio stations nationwide and has bought up "tons and tons" of these stations and they now control the monopoly of programming. Unfortunately, they don't understand the music. So they put in charge a person who really doesn't understand contemporary jazz as the music program director, and he doesn't have a cue. What they try to do is borrow from R&B and Pop music to broaden the scope of contemporary jazz when that is really the wrong direction to go. The net effect with Clear Channel only having a profit motive, and not understanding the music, they look at revenues of events they are doing, and they are declining because their music isn't pure contemporary jazz. Consequently, the first thing they yank is the station (which happened to Chicago's WNUA recently). They think it's not working and unfortunately, that's only Clear Channel's perspective. When you go to satellite radio, they have a life and when you listen to contemporary jazz, if s contemporary jazz.
Jdub: Unfortunately, everyone doesn't subscribe to satellite radio.
Frank: Let me tell you where everybody is. People are now going to the web. YouTube, Facebook, etc. If you took at some of the hits on contemporary jazz, Miles Davis has about 600,000 hits on some of his old videos. People are still looking at that and buying the music. Secondly, they are downloading the music. Plus, you go to any four star restaurant post offices, etc., you can hear contemporary jazz. It's migrating to different outlets You are not locked into one way of getting the music. You go to restaurants, post offices, your doctor's office, contemporary jazz is what's being played.
Jdub: But hasn't that been the case throughout the years?
Frank: Not necessarily. They were playing light pop, classical jazz, but the music of preference now is primarily contemporary. Even in movies, they are often playing contemporary jazz as background music. 
My point is, it's shifted to digital and by doing this, you broaden the spectrum of how you can get your jazz. Now people are getting if off the web The flip side to that too, which shows you the dichotomy.is that one of the biggest drawing festivals that's happening around the world is Smooth Jazz Festivals. Now, almost every city has a smooth jazz festival. A lot of the entertainers, Nick Collionne, Norman Brown, and you can go on and on and on, get most of their work from festival to festival to festival.
JUub: I can testify to that because I have attended the Smooth Jazz Cruise for the past five years, and it gets bigger and better and sells out each year
Frank. That's why I'm saying to you, that's the verification. If the music was dying, there wouldn't be growth in festivals. Now everybody has smooth jazz festivals around the world. Even Japan has a smooth jazz festival. France has a smooth jazz festival. Now let me get this right. It's growing leaps and bounds. The issue with critics is they don't get it. They appoint people as music directors who don't know how to keep their audience engaged You can't keep playing Sade(vocalist) over and over again and she hasn't had a hit in 20 years. I love Sade and she was contemporary jazz, but so many people are putting out new music and you have to continue introducing new artists who are prodigies on the scene, but they aren't getting air play on the radio.
Jdub: From your perspective, do you think Clear Channel is going to change and will smooth jazz survive on the radio, particularly here in Chicago?
Frank: Let me tell you, the radio model s dead (This interview was conducted before Clear Channel killed smooth jazz radio station WNUA. Right now, everything is going digital. Technology is changing the landscape You have to change your business model. Another analogy is newspapers People don't get their news through papers anymore. They get it from the web. Papers are closing. Monumental papers are dying.
Jdub: You touched a point earlier about festivals that I would like to discuss. You have had a successful summer smooth jazz festival for the past two years. Will you be able to continue that and if so, any hint as to some of the performers this year?
Frank: I'm going to keep that under the wraps at this time because of the recession. As a result, many of the companies that previously sponsored such events no longer will continue that practice. The auto industry used to be big sponsors and they are now gone. We will continue to look at what happening to our sponsors and that will predicate how we are going to approach it this year. (Subsequent to this interview, CU2 announced a "scaled down" festival that will take place at the Club on June 18th-20th)
Jdub: Keep us in touch with your plans and we will be sure to promote it through the website and "Jazz Chicago Style"(subsequently WNUA was eliminated by Clear Channel).
Frank: Our objective is to keep it going. We are waiting to hear from our sponsors.
Jdub: What are the demographics of today's smooth jazz audience?
Frank: I think the demos are a younger group. Unlike classical jazz, people dance to smooth jazz. Dancing is back. That's huge!! At our festivals, people were dancing all over the park. This will be a marketing component of smooth jazz. From "free style "dance, "stepping" to whatever you want to do. It makes you want to get up and move your feet. That's new and big.
Jdub: Is there an age demographic or subcultural group?
Frank: I would say the age group is between 18 and 54. We are getting a lot of young people because you can't take "hip hop" to corporate. A lot of those who grew up listening to hip hop have graduated and can't take clients to hip hop clubs. They look for contemporary jazz clubs that's modern, upscale and still satisfies the need for the rhythms they have been listening to growing up, without the profanity.
Jdub: How do you respond to so called "jazz purists" who frown upon smooth jazz as not being jazz?
Frank: Let's reflect on the past to talk about that. In 1947, Charlie Parker left Dizzy Gillespie's band and migrated to New York and started playing Bebop. What did big band lovers say? "That's not music" "I don't know what kind of garbage they are playing in New York." The next thing you know, Miles and Coltrane and all the young performers started going to New York and New York became the haven for this thing called Jazz and big band
players continued to say "that's not music, that's not music". Dizzy loved it. He said the opposite "That's Music"!!! That's what music is." And here we are again. Change is part of music. The purists are forgetting about the history. When they were young, they bucked against the big bands and embraced bebop. Their parents questioned what they were listening to, yet they were going up to Harlem to listen to this "new kind of jazz."
Jdub: Frank, in closing, you want to give an overview as to where we are going with this music.?
Frank: We're in the digital age, music will continue to change and now we are in a global environment in 20 to 30 years, global jazz will be an eclectic mix of Latin, South America, African and Eastern Europe jazz. All this music will combine with the underlying jazz rift We are moving toward global jazz and it will be on all the digital channels Contemporary Jazz is adapting to this change and technology. Its not dying, it's developing into something else - and that's the misnomer I wanted to address.
Jdub: I'm sure you will be in the forefront as you have done in the past and we wish you all the success m the world. Whatever we can do to support this endeavor, let us know.
Frank: Let me say I appreciate you guys and we support you guys, and Close Up will continue to be an integral part of our overall strategy. We also now have this new record label called Organic Groove It's a manifestation of contemporary/organic jazz and that's what we are calling it. It's all in line with the growth of contemporary jazz. The old business models no longer work. Welcome to the new world.!!!!!
