New Blood.

The 1970s had been a sluggish decade for jazz, producing few "name" performers and notable only for experiments in jazz-rock "fusion." Jazz in the early 1980s offered more of the same, with pop-minded artists such as Spyro Gyra, Pat Metheny, The Crusaders, Al Jarreau, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Chuck Mangione, Angela Bofill, George Winston, David San-born, and Grover Washington Jr. dominating jazz sales and airplay. That trend changed abruptly at middecade as record buyers and jazz enthusiasts began discovering new jazz artists and returning to old favorites. Stanley Jordan and George Howard made a splash in 1985, as did Sade, who attracted a large jazz following with her cool, exotic vocals. Perhaps the most popular jazz performer of the late 1980s was Kenny G, whose albums Duotones (1987) and Silhouette (1989) were exemplars of the "fusion" sound. The most welcome trend was the resurgence on the...