The Best of 2006

Here is my annual list of the best smooth jazz tracks from this year, as played on the live show December 31st 2006.

I should point out that these are my personal choices and not compiled from any sales figures, listener stats or the suchlike. And with that in mind I make no apologies if you think that anyone is overrated or underrated, missing or otherwise. It is however typical of the playlist here on Sky.fm Smooth Jazz, so if you like the output here and you are looking for some smooth jazz for your personal collection, then these guys might be a good place to start...


1. Rocco Ventrella – Soulful Strut
2. Peter White – What Does It Take
3. Shilts – Look What’s Happened
4. Michael Lington – It’s Too Late
5. Peter White – Déjà Vu
6. Rocco Ventrella – Alleria
7. Pieces Of A Dream – Sailing
8. Fourplay – Cinnamon Sugar
9. Oli Silk – Eve’s Song
10. Shilts - Say Something
11. Bob Baldwin – Never Can Say Goodbye
12. Steve Oliver – Tradewinds
13. David Benoit – Neat With A Twist
14. Rocco Ventrella – Feel Like Making Love
15. Adrian Conington – Neon Nights
16. Igor – Brazilian Nights
17. Chris Standring - I Can’t Help Myself
18. Jazzmasters – World In Action
19. Boney James – Hypnotic
20. George Benson/Al Jarreau – Morning
21. Rippingtons – Costa Del Sol
22. Peter White – One On One
23. Nick Colionne – You Were There For Me
24. Fourplay – Sunday Morning
25. Adrian Conington - Open To Persuasion

Oli Silk Video

You can now see the archive of the interview with Oli Silk, that took place on the Sunday live show December 10th. We did have a bit of a laugh. Hope that you enjoy it!

Oli Silk Interview

Rocco Ventrella Video

At last, the video (or should I say videos) of Rocco's Visit on December 3rd. He came to the studio with Bruce Nazarian who also produced and played on the forthcoming CD. You can hear quite a few of the tracks on these vids. At the time of writing they are still being played exclusively on Sky.fm Smooth Jazz! The appearance is split into two parts. Just click either link below to visit Youtube.com and play the video...

Part 1

Part 2

World firsts!

We were honoured today to be the first radio station in the world to feature a couple of tracks from Rocco Ventrella's forthcoming CD. They are now part of our playlist and even better news, Rocco will be live in the studio himself with even more material on next Sunday's show (December 3rd)

Free Download

Many thanks to Rene ("Smoothnews" on the Sky Forum) for alerting me to the following.

Artizen Music are offering a free download of the Paul Brown remix of Shilts "Look What's Happening" for a limited period. Wanna copy? Then visit http://www.shiltsmedia.com/ . The download link is on the lefthand side.

Oh er, I wouldn't hang around on that one if I were you. Limited time only.

Getting Up To Date

OK to catch up with things. I visited New York along with the family back in October, and whilst there took the opportunity to broadcast the Sunday live show from the Sky.fm offices in Manhattan. The video of that show (which also features Sky founder Ari Shohat) has found it's way onto Youtube.com here. It's in two parts, so if you've never caught the live show before, now's the chance.

If that leaves you gagging for more, there's an archive video from the London studio when Peter White visited back in Easter of 2006 to be found here. Thats a Windows Media Player file BTW.

The most recent development at Sky from a smooth jazz point of view is the launch of our new uptempo smooth jazz channel (the link is on the right), which is proving to be a great success. My aim with this stream is to create a breakfast show/morning drive kind of vibe. Enjoy it with your morning coffee or to get you motivated for a day at the office. It's smooth jazz on caffeine! Don't be surprised if it gets you dancing.

Well Here Goes....

I thought it was about time to enter the world of blogs. As there's usually a bit of gossip to be had the Sky.fm Smooth Jazz world.

Ironically, some of the latest news and events have already happened, so my first observation in blogdom is that it's a shame that you can't backdate your entries. Ho hum.

So hang in there for a short recap on what's been happening recently...