Last year I posted this & suprisingly, nobody responed. Now, with the recent acclaim documentuary of Ken Burns' "The History Of Jazz". I think it's only fitting that take a look back at the year jazz took over the charts (well, not really) BUT THERE WERE A LOT OF THEM. The year was 1981 & I can remember top 40 radio & AT40 w/CK, when there was jazz artists one by one hitting the top 40. Quincy Jones ("The Dude), the late, great Grover Washington, Jr., Lee "Captain Fingers" Ritenour, Stanley Clarke/George Duke, Al Jarreau, Manhattan Transfer just to name a few. Was that magic or what??? I think a lot of people in the jazz community accused them of "SELLING OUT" at that time. I don't think so!!! What do you think of that and oh! didn't I mention Steely Dan? C'mon Aj, ChuckyG, Tarzan boy, 80'smusicfreak etc. Ya'll remember that magical year. In fact, it's the 20th anniversary of that event!!!! Now how are we going to celebrate that?

: Last year I posted this & suprisingly,
: nobody responed. Now, with the recent
: acclaim documentuary of Ken Burns' "The
: History Of Jazz". I think it's only
: fitting that take a look back at the year
: jazz took over the charts (well, not really)
: BUT THERE WERE A LOT OF THEM. The year was
: 1981 & I can remember top 40 radio &
: AT40 w/CK, when there was jazz artists one
: by one hitting the top 40. Quincy Jones
: ("The Dude), the late, great Grover
: Washington, Jr., Lee "Captain
: Fingers" Ritenour, Stanley
: Clarke/George Duke, Al Jarreau, Manhattan
: Transfer just to name a few. Was that magic
: or what??? I think a lot of people in the
: jazz community accused them of "SELLING
: OUT" at that time. I don't think so!!!
: What do you think of that and oh! didn't I
: mention Steely Dan? C'mon Aj, ChuckyG,
: Tarzan boy, 80'smusicfreak etc. Ya'll
: remember that magical year. In fact, it's
: the 20th anniversary of that event!!!! Now
: how are we going to celebrate that?

1981 was indeed a great year for music here in the U.S. It ranks as my 4th favorite, after '83, '82, and '84, respectively.

Yeah, it was definitely the year for jazz crossover, too - don't forget George Benson!!! (I'll admit I missed Ken Burns' recent documentary, though.) Most of them I really liked (GB in particular), but the Manhattan Transfer made me sick, for the most part. ("Boy from New York City" ranks as one of the 10 worst songs of the entire decade, IMO.) I remember rediscovering "Sweet Baby" by Stanley Clarke/George Duke around 1989-90. I'd always loved the song when I heard it on the radio in the early '80s, but at that time, I never knew who the artist was. When I finally figured it out, I immediately ran out and bought the album. (Thankfully, it was still in print!) Keeping things in perspective, I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that it was "magic" (almost everything on Top 40 radio was great at that time, IMO), but compared to today's Top 40 music, yeah, I'll take most of those early '80s jazz hits any time!

Did those jazz artists "sell out" in the early '80s??? I have to agree w/ you - definitely not! Top 40 radio was merely reaching out to more musical genres (country being the other big beneficiary at the time) as a result of the huge void left by the fallout of disco in 1979-80. And what that gave us was the rich mix of musical genres heard on Top 40 radio starting that year, and lasting through about 1984-85. Sadly, IMO, it's been all downhill ever since, w/ the heavy fragmentation of radio, and the much lower standards we now seem to have for the music we listen to...

Incidentally, if you ever liked those old infamous K-tel compilations, they released an excellent one in 1982 titled "Feelin' Good", which collected a good chunk of those 1981 jazz crossover hits onto one album (including the aforementioned "Sweet Baby", "Is it You" by Lee Ritenour, etc.)! Of course, it's now long out-of-print, and has never been re-issued on CD, but I do have it on both vinyl LP and cassette...

Herbie Hancock had a hit with 'Rock it'

wasnt a jazz hit but it was a hit by a jazz guy