Our foundation began with 2 co-workers who had a dream, a vision to bring a much needed jazz genre into the Inland Northwest. Until that time 2 years ago, Smooth/Contemporary Jazz was a fleeting music that seem to drift in and out of this region, never staying, because the foundation wasn’t there. With only 1 jazz venue in town, and no Smooth Jazz radio station, the Inland Northwest was out of touch with the Smooth/Contemporary Jazz world. This we discovered created many misconceptions and negative attitudes towards this wonderful, rich genre. Many local jazz musicians had moved on to larger cities where the market for Smooth/Contemporary Jazz is huge. Instead of asking, “Why?” these 2 people said, “Why Not?” and began the task of searching for like-minded contemporary jazz lovers to so something about filling the void that existed in Spokane and beyond. Together, we would build a Society that would educate, promote, provide talent, and entertainment opportunities for those souls that hear it, love it, play it and live it. Today we are blessed to say we are growing day by day. We are a Society, a family of passionate people who have Smooth Jazz in their hearts and souls. We now have a network of great musicians. We are busy exposing the masses to this wonderful genre. It’s exciting to see new listeners come to love this music! We are hosting events, and we are drawing a very diverse crowd to our Society, and our events. The road to where we are today has had its share of bumps, but the journey and the adventure has been shall we say, Smoooooooth.

 The Mission of the Smooth Jazz Society of the Inland Northwest is to promote and educate the public regarding this outstanding, yet often underexposed and underserved jazz genre. We shall place an emphasis on providing support by building a network of culturally diverse contemporary jazz artists, creating a multicultural music arts center, build more opportunities and venues that will showcase the seasoned as well as the new Smooth/Contemporary jazz artists, especially reaching out to the talent within our local communities and our schools.

Our vision is to make Spokane the nucleus for Smooth/Contemporary Jazz within the Inland Empire, while reaching out to Idaho, Montana, Southern Washington and British Columbia. We shall strive to provide an environment that fosters the wide diversity found in the Smooth/Contemporary Jazz genre, where each culture will gain respect for contributing their passion and talent to the success of Smooth Jazz. This will not only benefit the lovers and artists of Smooth and Contemporary Jazz, it will also bring opportunities to the community by way of new jazz venues, employment for local musicians, contributing talent to existing annual events, attracting top Smooth Jazz artists to our region, and the hosting of an annual Smooth Jazz festival.

 

Jazz music celebrates life-human life. The range of it. The absurdity of it. The ignorance of it. The greatness of it. The intelligence of it. The sexuality of it. The profundity of it. And it deals with it in all of its........it deals with it.

-Wynton Marsalis