Smooth Jazz

INSYNK. Blue Moon Jazz Cafe, 21 S. 4th St., Sunday. 7 and 9 p.m. $5 cover. Info: 215-413-2272. Jazz groups in this town take a big risk making original songs the bulk of their repertoire. Club owners prefer home-grown talent to stick to the standards, recognizable and unthreatening to finicky jazz patrons. Members of Insynk acknowledge this reality, but like a group of hard-headed kids, they will continue cranking out their jazz-fusion originals. "Anything that kind of stretches things, people are going to be uncomfortable with," said Barry Sames, the group's leader and keyboardist.

Doc Powell should be sued for false advertising. Despite the title of his newest release, the guitarist continues to fool ya, mining the smooth-jazz vein that has yielded him much popularity and beaucoup bucks. As a bone to straight-ahead jazz fans, he throws in trumpeter Roy Hargrove on the funk-laden title cut, but then it's back to the same old stuff - uninterestingly written, heavily produced, poppish songs guaranteed not to offend. (Do we really need another version of "Chariots of Fire"?

It was a classical performance that first got Bobbi Humphrey interested in playing her instrument, so it's interesting that when she did so, she went into jazz. "I was about 6 years old when I first heard the song - it was from 'Peter and the Wolf' - that really influenced my career choice," she said. "I did not know what the instrument was. When the teacher told me it was the flute, I knew I would play that someday. " She has played the flute for more than 40 years. Humphrey, who comes to town this weekend for a rare appearance - a benefit for the private Lotus Academy - is one of the earliest proponents of what is now called "smooth jazz.

The one-name smooth-jazz sensation Najee disarmed fans and would-be critics at the Keswick Theatre Thursday with an unexpected performance of John Coltrane's "Moment's Notice. " Introducing the tune - which he dedicated to his former instructors, Jimmy Heath and Frank Foster - he confided, "I haven't recorded this, so y'all don't know what I didn't do. " His teachers would have been proud. The Queens native and his five-piece band performed for almost two hours, saying, "We know you gotta go to work tomorrow, so we want to give you your money's worth.

CHUCK MANGIONE. Zanzibar Blue, Broad and Walnut streets, 9 and 11 p.m. today and tomorrow. Tickets: $25. Info: 215-732-4500. Chuck Mangione was dead. Yep, that's what folks were saying. The "Feels So Good" man had met that great haberdasher in the sky. "A lot of them thought I died in 1980 when the CD was invented," Mangione said last week. "If it wasn't on CD, people who didn't have record players never heard of me or my music. " Three of Mangione's albums have been reissued this year on CD: "Chase the Clouds Away" (1975)

If you don't know, let Mike Stern tell you. There is a difference between "contemporary jazz" and "smooth jazz. " "I really do not like labeling stuff," said Stern. "I mean, if you are comfortable playing [smooth jazz], do what you like. But most [smooth jazz] is background music. Radio programmers are pretty restricted - they play stuff that does not have much edge to it. I want to play stuff that is aggressive, that has interesting chord progressions, stuff that is involved, stuff that is exciting.

When we caught up with trumpeter Rick Braun, he was on the golf course. And he wasn't having a good time. What's your handicap, Rick? "I am severely handicapped," Braun said on his cell phone as he walked on a course in his native Allentown. He took up golf a few years ago, but Braun said he has never really excelled. "My clubs were stolen five or six years ago, and I took that as a sign from God that I should quit," he said. "But I took it up again. I really do like to play.

Just what is "smooth jazz," anyway? Three different approaches to the mini-genre were on hand at the sold-out Keswick Theatre on Saturday night. Fad to some, fab to others, Strunz & Farah, Keiko Matsui and Fattburger each presented a different take on the fertile middle ground marked out by jazz-fusion, new age, and world music. Fattburger's first tune, "Almost an Angel," proved that smooth-jazz fans can be won over with a melody, a hook, and a pun. "This is dedicated to all the good-looking people out there," said sly frontman/keyboardist Carl Evans Jr. The spirited audience responded with enthusiasm - and a few ripostes of their own, throwing Evans a tad off his well-thought-out remarks.

Tom Browne introduced a lot of America to Jamaica, Queens, in 1980. "Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)," the trumpeter's jazz/funk jam filled with playful patter, snappy hand claps and a thunderously obstinate bass line, was the aural equivalent of a Fodor's travel guide. And from this neighborhood came a generation of musicians that would bridge the gap between the jazz fusion of the late '70s and jazz pop of the mid 1980s. People like Browne, Marcus Miller, Bernard Wright, Lenny White.

Ask most true jazz musicians what they want from life, and after they tick off the basics - fulfilling gigs, nourishment, no health-care worries - they'll usually have at least one very specific request: that their work not be confused with or compared to that of the phemenonally popular saxophonist Kenny G. It's not that jazz musicians hate Kenny G personally. They've just endured too many dinner-party conversations in which the words jazz and Kenny G are placed in close proximity.

"THE TWILIGHT SAGA" has rung up another record, proving once again that nothing rings a cash register like teenage girls. "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" took in more than $30 million from midnight screenings yesterday, according to distributor Summit Entertainment. That surpassed the previous midnight record of $26.3 million set on opening day last November by its predecessor, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon. " The huge start for "Eclipse" puts the latest chapter in the vampire-romance series on track for one of the biggest opening days ever.

Philadelphia's newest radio station, signing on this morning, is NOW 97.5, a soft rock station. The station, which previously played smooth jazz, now features a younger leaning adult contemporary format with a variety of artists ranging from Madonna, Rob Thomas and Kelly Clarkson to Rod Stewart, Elton John and Phil Collins. Station owner Greater Media on Friday silenced smooth jazz after less than two years. Greater Media had picked it up in November 2006, about three months after Clear Channel dumped the format, which had been heard at 106.1 for 13 years.

Patti Austin has made a living from singing for more than 50 years, since her professional debut at age 5. At 58, she's still going, already established as the commercial jingle queen of the 1970s and '80s and one of the architects of smooth jazz with Quincy Jones. "Baby Come to Me," her memorable duet with James Ingraham, produced a No. 1 pop hit in 1982. Over the last decade, Austin has gone back to her jazz roots, singing tunes from the Great American Songbook. Her 2002 CD, For Ella, a tribute to the great Ella Fitzgerald, received a Grammy nomination.

RE "WHY can't Do Not Call extend to political robo-calls?" (Jill Porter, Nov. 10): Why can't Do Not Call extend to those contest-entry forms that businesses use solely to circumvent the spirit of the Do Not Call legislation? The unwary consumer hastily enters a contest while at a public venue, not to invite persistent telemarketing calls but with the hope of winning the grand prize, for which the odds are astronomical. By entering, the consumer is inadvertently waiving the Do Not Call prerogative.

JONATHAN Takiff wrote ("Life after Tower, Oct. 17), "If some other music chain doesn't jump in and claim the space when Tower folds its tent for good in mid-December, they'd be fools. And Center City west of Broad would have no music shops. " Wrong. There is a used-CD store on Sansom between 20th and 21st, by the comedy club. Most of their stuff is less than $10. The problem with Tower is that its prices never got lower as the discs got older. If I wanted an old REM CD, I could go to Tower and pay $18.99 or go to a used store and pay $7.99.

HERE WE GO again: Every time the color level moves a shade closer to red on the terror-alert spectrum, extremists in the Republican Party are emboldened. Verbal incontinence sets in, and they can't help calling anyone not in favor of war with no end a coward, a traitor, a terrorist. This is a tactic that, if allowed to continue, has the potential to spread fear as quickly as a terrorist attack. Voice a view counter to the mainstream, and you'll be labeled anti-American. John Smith, Philadelphia The union-jobs solution Re John M. Baer's Aug. 10 column: He gave all the outcomes of fatherless homes, most prevalent being violent crimes, but he gave no solutions.

A rare two-station "format flip" sent Sunny 104.5 and Smooth Jazz 106.1 to the radio boneyard yesterday. WJJZ-FM (106.1) - longtime home of mellow tunes from artists such as Dave Koz, David Sanborn and Spyro Gyra - became "Philly's 106.1" with a format known in the trade as rhythmic adult-contemporary. It's an uptempo mix of music aimed at adult women. Philly's 106.1 also will get comedian Whoopi Goldberg's new syndicated four-hour morning show, Wake Up With Whoopi. It starts at 5 a.m. Monday.

Careening discriminately between funk, indie rock, free jazz, and anything else their minds felt like getting into, The Bad Plus brought a style to Zanzibar Blue this weekend that isn't often heard there. At a venue that more often sticks to mainstream jazz, popular singers with jazz backgrounds, or those who veer close to the smooth jazz monde, Saturday's late set - the last of the weekend for the adventurous trio of Midwesterners - was a revelation. The grooves and antics were evident from the beginning.

In search of musical diversity on FM radio? It's hard to find it on Philadelphia's more than two dozen commercial stations. The city lacks, for example, a full-time jazz or classical outlet; WRTI-FM (90.1), a noncommercial run by Temple University, airs classical from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and jazz from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. The city's alternative-rock station was silenced earlier this year. There's one Spanish station, WEMG-AM (1310), but its signal is comparatively weak. The city's music radio stations fall into only three general categories: hip-hop/rap, rhythm-and-blues, and rock-and-roll.

Suzanne Cloud doesn't actually need "A Little Help from [her] Friends," despite the song she wrote for her third jazz album of the same name. Her robust laugh and fun-loving eyes belie a long list of accomplishments, a list so long that it negates any hint of neediness. With a doctorate in American studies from the University of Pennsylvania, Cloud has written three history books for middle and high school students. She is a professor of a new course, Race, Ethnicity and Identity in America, at Temple University.