One of the most rewarding and often hardest things to do is take music solely for itself without attaching genres and judging it for a whole slew of trivial reasons. So before you count yourself out of this one, answer this: do you know any local easy-listening bands? Didn’t think so, and I didn’t either until I found out about the future of jazz.
Local act Jensen Sportag incorporates elements of smooth jazz, R&B, and easy listening into a dreamscape of futuristic fizzles and gallons of reverb. What ensues is a hallucinatory nod to the 80’s packaged in the comfort of soft-jazz and fluid beats. Their latest release, "Stealth of Days", is like a sensual elevator ride with Prince on painkillers. -Michael Perry