To me Jazz is like a father with a lot of children; Trad, Big-band, Bebop, Free-form, Fusion, Acid, Smooth, etc. Smooth is like a pretty little sister who has a very different character to her big angry brothers (like Ornette Colman), but that doesn`t mean that they aren`t in the same family.

I'm not sure what you define as smooth jazz. I know Wes Montgomery recorded a lot of fully orchestrated elevator music but he still had some killer solos that took it to another level. I much prefer the smaller trio/ quartet stuff but you would be missing out to avoid anything with an orchestral backing.

Sure. Every genre has it's crap.

Smooth Jazz is to Jazz what Justin Bieber is to Heavy Metal...totally unrelated.

I'd say it's more like smooth jazz is to jazz what P.O.D. is to heavy metal.

Its an evolution of Jazz music. Kinda like how eventually the human pinkie toe wont be there because there is no use for it. Itll still be a foot, but no pinkie toe. Its still jazz, but not what we are used to.

:laughing: That`s a refreshingly unambiguous answer !
I wonder if every genre has its smooth, too. Is there smooth punk, for instance ?

Yes. Yes there is:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

just FYI, I love P.O.D.

Ew.