Contemporary jazz almost comes across to some as a curse word.Even to some who are on a bill tagged as a hot contemporary jazz show. Don't believe it? Ask keyboardist-trombonist Brian Culbertson and vocalists Lalah Hathaway and Rahsaan Patterson, all scheduled to perform at just such a concert Friday night at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center:
> CULBERTSON: "Out there in the world, this contemporary or smooth jazz music, I mean, has a negative connotation," concedes Culbertson. "And I think it has to do with the fact that there is a lot of crappy music out there in the contemporary jazz category. Some it is really good music. But a larger percentage of it is ringtone-type stuff. Elevator music. Awful music.
"What I do is a mixture of old school funk, a little Earth, Wind & Fire-esque, with a new sound to it," says Culbertson, whose latest CD, "Bringing Back the Funk," includes legendary bassists Bootsy Collins and Larry Graham, as well as R&B singer Musiq. "It's a wide range of things. I know in this business you almost have to be in a genre; people need to know immediately what you are. They need a box. And I was put into contemporary jazz. Ummm, OK."
> HATHAWAY: "I see myself as a musician," Hathaway says. "After that, I kind of let other people tell me what they think they're hearing. They say I'm a soul singer, pop singer, gospel singer, jazz singer —- you know, it's all about the experience of the listener. "
"Maybe if I was talking to someone from another country I would call myself a soul singer," adds Hathaway, whose latest album is titled, interestingly enough, "Self Portrait." "Because if you say to someone from Finland, 'soul music,' they imagine a lot of different things. They know Chaka Khan and Billy Preston and Hall & Oates. They know who [her late father] Donny Hathaway is. They have a much broader spectrum than people —- or I should say some people —- here do; because there's so much divisiveness in the arts here. So much of an emphasis on how music is marketed. . . . I don't see myself as a part of contemporary jazz at all. To me, contemporary jazz is what Herbie Hancock is doing; what Marcus Miller is doing. What is usually being marketed as contemporary jazz doesn't even stand up next to artists like that."
> PATTERSON: "Contemporary jazz is smooth jazz is elevator music, basically," says Patterson, who not only has a new album out now, titled "Wines & Spirits," but has just released his first Christmas album, "The Ultimate Gift." "And while we all appreciate being played and heard on elevators, grocery stores, radio, wherever —- because it allows us to be heard —- I don't consider myself a smooth jazz singer. Or a jazz singer. Or an R&B singer. I just sing how I sing.
"I mean, it's safe to say that some of the arrangements of some of my songs could be perceived as falling in line with smooth or contemporary jazz —- like 'Spend the Night,' " he offers, referencing a track on his self-titled 1997 album. "But the song is not really smooth jazz. People just need labels . . . And I guess in the end, it's just a matter of taste, and that people like what they hear. And call it 'good.' And purchase it. And tell others about it."
THE 411: Brian Culbertson & the Funk Experience with Lalah Hathaway and Rahsaan Patterson, Sept. 19 at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, 395 Piedmont Ave. 8 p.m. Tickets are $46 and $56 at the civic center box office and Ticketmaster, 404-249-6400 or www.ticketmaster.com.
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