CALL HIM POP. Call him jazz. Call him, if you must, a smooth operator. But whatever you do, don’t call the music that trumpeter Chris Botti makes smooth jazz. “We’re not smooth jazz,” Botti says, ...

Greg Carmichael of contemporary smooth jazz band Acoustic Alchemy once said, “For a lot of people, instrumental jazz music is just sound that plays in the background.” But on the ABS-CBN night of the ...

Michael Franks’ music career predates the rise of both hip-hop and smooth jazz. But he has long been embraced by both worlds, much to the surprise of the veteran singer and writer of such enduring ...