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If you would consider one artist to be the pioneer of smooth jazz, who would it be? And please don't say Kenny G, as every smooth jazz fan knows he wasn't the first smooth jazz musician (he rooted his influence to Grover Washington Jr.).
My pick would be George Benson, with songs such as Breezin and Affirmation.
You didn't list him in the poll: Wes Montgomery. Arguably, many of his Verve recordings could be considered the seeds of the genre. So could Miles Davis's In a Silent Way (1968). But he's not in the poll, either. So could the Modern Jazz Quartet, but they're not in the poll, either.
As far as mass marketing smooth jazz, I'll go with Bob James, Grover Washington, George Benson, and others (not listed here) who were involved with Creed Taylor's CTI label and the KUDU label. I do like and have a number of CTI releases by the above artists and also Hubert Laws, Hank Crawford, Milt Jackson, Esther Philips, the list goes and goes and goes. As many mom and pop record stores (and later used lp stores) I frequented back then (early 70's) most stores carried the entire CTI and Kudu catalog. Now this is just my experience. On a side note, some of the early CTI labels would offer posters for sale IIRC regarding certain CTI label album covers, I believe they were 16" by 20". I never bought any but friends of mine did.
In regards to Davis, Montgomery, and MJQ, well, IMO you're talking the elite. Wes Montgomery died so young yet released SO much cool stuff on Pacific Jazz, Verve, Riverside (also several lp's with his brothers on the Riverside label) Miles Davis? MJQ? Huge figures in jazz music-huge.
George Benson or Wes Montgomery I guess. In that I think both were accepted jazz musicians who early on did crossover/populist works. Interestingly "The Greatest Love of All" was originally recorded by Benson. I always thought of it as a Whitney Houston song.
Although possibly a case could be made that smooth-jazz is a descendant of certain jazz-influenced forms of "light music" or jazzy variants on "easy listening." In which case Henry Mancini or even Jackie Gleason might be the start.
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