The Smooth Jazz 'Hot' Parade

I thought it would be a good way of keeping you up to date on what's hot amongst the recent stuff to hit the playlist on Sky.fm Smooth Jazz. So here are the current top ten, as decreed by me and our lovely listeners, both on the forums and on the live Sunday show. This list has nothing to do with sales. It's all to do with feedback and what basically gives us a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

I can't say when the list will be updated, but here's the selection that's currently special around the end of August.

1. Gerald Albright - I Stand Accused
2. Vibes Alive - After Hours
3. Paul Hardcastle - Marimba
4. Nate Harasim - Loves Taken Over
5. Michael Lington - You & I
6. Tim Bowman - Sweet Sundays
7. Oli Silk - Chill or Be Chilled (Remix)
8. Dave Koz - Life In The Fast Lane
9. Andre Delano - More Than Words Can Say
10. Dave Stewart/Candy Dulfer - Lily Was Here

We now have a group on Facebook

There's now a Sky.fm Smooth Jazz Live Show Group at Facebook.com. You can find it here:

Sky.fm Smooth Jazz Live Show Facebook Group

We also have a facebook identity in the name of "Sky Smooth Jazz". You can hopefully use this as another way of sending messages to the studio during the live show with the Facebook chat facility. To be able to interact in this way you need to add Sky Smooth Jazz to your friends here:

Sky Smooth Jazz

Of course you can also chat with other mutual friends at the same time as well.

New Live Show Special Edition Mugs

A few of our regulars asked about the possibility of special "Sunday live show" mugs a while back. Some people also expressed a desire for some Caesar mugs too.

So I guess these ought to make everybody happy! The view shows them front and back.

Get them here

New Live show vid on Youtube

If you missed it you'll be pleased to know that Jaared's visit to the studio for the live show a couple of weeks back is now up and running on Youtube. Link follows.

Jaared on Sky.fm Smooth Jazz

Peter White in The UK

We don't get many smooth jazz artists that make it across the Atlantic to the UK, but Peter White makes it back to his homeland at least once a year and he always brings Jaared along on Sax too. So for the benefit of anyone here in the UK who doesn't already know, they'll both be here as from April 28th with several nights at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London's Soho, plus a couple of extra dates at The Stables in Milton Keynes and 1 Club in Ascot. PW will also have his brother Danny (of Matt Bianco) on keyboards.

I'll be attending the Pizza Express gig on Thursday May 1st and look forward to meeting any Sky.fm Smooth Jazz listeners who can make it along. Links to book tickets are below:

Pizza Express Jazz Club
The Stables
1 Club

Some classy wallpaper for your desktop

OK so there I was playing around with some graphics and one thing led to another and I ended up with some new Sky.fm wallpaper (I guess I should get out more).

Anyway it's a sort of gold plated on a wooden background kinda thing. Not everybody's cup of tea I know, but it's definitely my kinda thing and for me it represents the fact that we are indeed the classiest smooth jazz outfit around, so if it takes your fancy too then just click on the thumbnail below to get the full size picture.



Once loaded (and make sure your browser hasn't downsized it) then right click and select "Set as Background" to save it to your desktop. Make sure you have it set to "center" as opposed to "stretch" or "tile".

Assuming you've done it correctly it'll fit nicely on all screens up to 1280x1024.

Best of 2007

Just finished the "Best of 2007" show, where we play the finest selection from the past year. I should stress that they are the finest according to me, and not any chart or list produced from sales or radio play. So feel free to disagree with me. I ended up with a top 25 this year, as I was unable to whittle it down any further!

Best Smooth Jazz tracks of 2007

1. Rick Braun, Richard Elliot – Q It Up
2. Brian Simpson – Above The Clouds
3. Everette Harp – Juke Joint
4. Euge Groove – A Summer Nights Dream
5. Renato Falaschi – Just The Way You Are
6. Acoustic Alchemy – Carlos The King
7. Euge Groove – Religify
8. Jimmy Sommers, Paul Brown – Happy Days
9. U-Nam – Turn Your Love Around
10. Rick Braun, Richard Elliot – RNR
11. Euge Groove – Born 2 Groove
12. Everette Harp - Don’t Look Any Further
13. Brian Simpson – Whatcha Gonna Do?
14. Kim Waters – Inseparable
15. Marc Antoine – For A Smile
16. Ken Navarro – Lucky
17. Kim Waters – Got To Give It Up
18. Acoustic Alchemy – Only In My Dreams
19. Brian Simpson – The Last Kiss
20. Jaared – Your Smile
21. Paul Brown – White Sand
22. Nils – Dreamin’
23. Mark Antoine – Forever
24. Chuck Loeb – Good To Go
25. Norman Brown – Let’s Take A Ride

Miles Gilderdale Video

The video of the interview last Sunday with Miles Gilderdale from Acoustic Alchemy is now available on YouTube for anybody who missed it.

You can find it at the following link:

Miles Gilderdale - Acoustic Alchemy

Sky.fm Listeners

Many moons ago we started a Frappr map, which allows us to see where all our listeners are. It also allows everybody to post up some pictures and leave a comment or two, so I thought it might be a good idea to re-create it here (truth be told I just found out that it was possible!).

So here it is. Feel free to click around and add yourself. Most of the buttons become fairly obvious when you click them. If you click the one that says "Stats, Pics & Map Members" at the bottom you can open up the whole darn Frappr page in all its glory and have a real ball!

Oli Silk Visit Now On You Tube

For the benefit of anybody who missed it (or who wants to see it again), Oli Silks visit to the show on December 16th is now on YouTube.

Actually if I've comprehended their swanky new custom player thingy properly then you'll find both parts of it below, along with his visit with Jaared a few months earlier. I even chose a sort of Sky.fm color scheme for the whole presentation too! Just click a thumbnail on the right to view one of the other videos. Hey it works too! How cool is that?

Miles Gilderdale Interview

There was a bit of a mix up over the date for the interview with Miles from Acoustic Alchemy last week. As a result he'll be visiting the studio THIS Sunday 30th December, so please do check out the live show for that one.

Because of that change in plans I'll do the "Best Songs of 2007" the following week (January 6th).

Christmas Guests

It's looking like we're going to be lucky enough to have some talent from the world of smooth jazz passing our way on the Sunday live video show as things get a little festive.

All being well, tomorrow (the 16th) Oli Silk is going to be dropping in, and the following Sunday (the 23rd) we'll be having a visit from Miles Gilderdale of Acoustic Alchemy.

So make a date in your diary for the live show on Sky.fm Smooth Jazz, this and every Sunday 5pm London time, Midday New York and 9am in LA.

Sky.fm Smooth Jazz Mugs 'n' Stuff

Regular listeners to the live show have been enquiring about Sky.fm branded goods for some time now.

I'm pleased to say they are now available, and what's more there are even some things that are specific to the smooth jazz channel too.



If you want to bookmark the Sky.fm Store you'll find the ever expanding selection of goodies here.

Bruce Was Back in Town

It was good to see Bruce Nazarian back in London a couple of Sundays ago.

We took the opportunity to have a chat on the show and do some catch up on Rocco's CD. It turns out that the CD is one of those being considered for a Grammy nomination.

You can find out more in the video archive of that chat by clicking the link below.

Bruce Nazarian

A Visit from Jaared and Oli Silk

I was pleased to have a couple of guests on the show on Sunday. Peter White was in town this past week and had Jaared and Oli Silk on stage with him throughout. They all had a show out in Southend on Sunday afternoon but Jaared & Oli made it back to West London in time to pop in for a visit before moving on to Pizza Express in Soho.

Thanks to last minute permission from Les Cutmore at Trippin 'n' Rythym Records we were allowed to air a couple of tracks from Jaared's forthcoming CD "Addiction", which will be out in February 2008.

Wanna see that visit and hear those exclusive tracks? just click below...

Jaared and Oli Silk on Sky.fm

New Camera for the Studio

Well Summer has been and gone (jury's out on whether it was ever actually here in the UK) and as the availability of daylight diminishes I thought it was time to upgrade the studio camera to something that could deal with low light situations better.

Thankfully Logitech have recently come up with one featuring a Carl Zeiss lens and special light adjusting software that should hopefully make all the difference. I tested it out during the week and it looks good.

Below you can see a screen grab, and regular viewers will notice that it also gives a wider view of the studio so you should also be able to see an extra monitor screen that was previously out of camera shot.

The real road test is today so join us today at 12 noon US EST, 9AM Pacific, 5PM GMT.

The live show address is, as always http://www.sky.fm/liveshow/

The Biggest, the Best and...

...it appears that we're also the most up to date too.

So much new material comes our way these days. Largely due to the fact that we receive a hefty chuck of pre-release material from professional sources and record companies (a big thanks to Rob at Sky.fm who deals with it all so well at our end), not to mention the artists themselves.

All of which means that Sky.fm Smooth Jazz is now the oracle of all that's hot in the smooth jazz world.

Our live Sunday show has become the perfect showcase for all that's hot and current so be sure to listen in (or even look in if you so desire with our live video stream) each Sunday at 12 noon USA EST, 9am Pacific and 5pm UK time.

You'll find all the relevant links to launch the smooth jazz channel at www.sky.fm/smoothjazz or if you'd like to watch the show as well as listen go to www.sky.fm/liveshow and you can really be in on the action.

June 26th. A quiet day in radio

A large number of Internet Radio broadcasters, including Sky.fm and DI.fm are participating in a day of silence on Tuesday June 26th to help raise public awareness of the imminent threat to the continuation of Internet radio in the wake of recent raises in the royalty payments.

Sky's premium services will continue as normal.

You can read more about the day of silence on the DI Blog here.

You nearly had me there!

It's always nice to have friends in high places.

Today's Live show was broadcast at the same time as the Space Shuttle Atlantis was docking with the International Space Station.

I mentioned that it would be great if they were listening to the show up there. A little while later Rommie, one of our regular listeners in Germany posted the following picture on the Sky.fm forum.

Nice one Rommie. If only!

The clock is still ticking

It's touching to hear of the efforts of many Sky.fm listeners to keep things alive. Many have donated money to the legal battle to keep Internet radio on the air too.

At this time webcasters have launched a federal appeal against the new charges. I understand however, that the appeal might not be heard until July 15th. The day that is now becoming universally known as "The day the music dies".

Please visit www.savenetradio.org to keep up to date with developments. And, if you haven't already done so, to find out how you can contact your congressman to tell him your thoughts on the mater.

They're trying to switch us off!

Just in case you're not aware, the future of Internet radio is on very shaky ground at the moment. I speak in my position as Programme Controller of Sky.fm Smooth Jazz and Sky.fm Uptempo Smooth Jazz. My position as a citizen of the United Kingdom is powerless as the situation is dependent on United States legislation (UK Internet radio is already pretty much unworkable).

Ari Shohat, CEO of Sky/DI has posted this message in his own DI Blog, which explains the situation in full and tells how - if you are a US citizen - you can act to change the situation before it is too late. You can also find out more at http://www.savenetradio.org/.

Please take a moment to read up on the situation and then a moment longer to contact your congressperson. Don't assume that it'll all be OK. Two weeks from now ALL of your favorite Internet stations may no longer exist.

Peter White interview video now live on Youtube

I know that a lot of people are waiting for this one, so if that would apply to you, then the good news is that it's now up and running at youtube.com.

Peter visited us on Easter Sunday for the second time and stayed for nearly an hour and a half while we played some of his songs and answered questions put by Sky.fm listeners on the forum.

As usual the video is split into two parts, as follows:

Peter White - Part One

Peter White - Part Two

Peter's visit was his second to the Sunday live show. His previous one, for the benefit of any that missed it, is still live on the Sky.fm servers here.

Peter White was a surprise guest on Easter Sunday

It was all a bit last minute, in fact I only had it confirmed about two hours before the show went live, but we were graced with a guest appearance from Peter White on Easter Sunday. A sort of anniversary of his previous appearance which was on Easter Sunday last year.

As it was such a last minute thing, many will have missed it, so I'll have it on Youtube in a few days from now.

Meanwhile (and my apologies for the lateness) the video of the appearance of Greg Carmichael from Acoustic Alchemy back in January is now available for viewing. Part of the reason for the delay is because the actual video part is very jerky due to the bandwidth problems we were having at the time, and I was undecided about whether to use it. But I'm sure that a lot of Acoustic Alchemy fans would love to hear what was said in spite of the video quality anyway.

The video is split into two parts because of the length restrictions on Youtube. Here are the links

Greg Carmichael - Part One

Greg Carmichael - Part Two

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...