Smooth jazz is a term used to describe commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, it is clear that smooth jazz became the successor to easy listening music on radio station programming in the mid-1970s to the early 1990s.
Chuck Mangione in Brampton in 2009
Jazz fusion is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians, particularly those who had grown up listening to rock and roll.
Trumpet player Miles Davis was a key figure in the development of fusion
Guitarist Larry Coryell
John McLaughlin performs during his Mahavishnu Orchestra period
Spyro Gyra combines jazz with R&B, funk and pop.