Chris Standring could be the posterchild for ‘jazz(y)’, even though his music is definitely steeped in Smooth Jazz. Above and beyond that, his music is totally SMOOTHE JAZZ, and any one of the songs that he writes, and plays could very well be the ‘theme song’ here at smoothejazz.com. He was a part of a group known as SolarSystem (Rodney Lee on keyboards, Chris Standring on guitar, and Dino Soldo on sax), focusing on “soulful, jazz-fusion-funk”. Is there such a thing? He did session work for a number of years and with a number of well-known artists, including Bebe and Cee Winans, and Jody Watley.
In 1999, Velvet appeared, his very own debut album, which launched the Smooth Jazz hit “Cool Shades”. His second offering was “Hip Sway” – the album, as well as another Smooth Jazz hit of the same name. I think that I may have helped to push that one to the top since I phone our local deejay every day on my lunch hour and requested it. I think she finally realized that I wasn’t going to let up after my number became as familiar as the back of her hand (did the same with “Soldier of Love” by Sade, but – another tale for another day). The hits keep coming, and in 2008, “Love and Paragraphs” made its way to the top, and into my heart – another personal favorite of mine from Chris Standring.
And . . . the deejay is still talking, instead of putting the music where his mouth is. Here we go!
Jazz, jazz, and sometimes, nothing but “Smoothe” jazz!
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Smoothe 