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Maybe predictable ain't all that bad...

Ethan,
Let me preface this mini-rant with it's just an opinion for which I reserve the right to be totally full of "it".

I can understand you wanting to move to something less predictable than "smooth jazz", but the genre remains a very popular one because it appeals to a lot of people. Maybe those people like it because it is predictable, but even more likely I'd say they like it because it does not affect their sensibilities. Think about this for a bit (and for the $.02 it's worth) when Paul Desmond wrote Take Five, it was recorded for posterity on Brubeck's "Time Out" album. For the next 45 years, that song sounded "right" to a lot of people only in its Time Out incarnation that is, the original is the one that just sounds best to the masses even though it has become one of the more oft recorded tunes of all times. When people went to hear Brubeck, they wanted to hear Desmond play Take Five the way it was on the album, and guess what? He pretty much stayed true that version because that's what people paid to hear. At some time in each tune's history, it was creative before it became worn. I think the "trick" to smooth jazz is being creative the first time on the recording, no matter how many takes it needs to get that way… In other words, if you like smooth jazz create some new and interesting smooth jazz that may just have enough of a hook to become iconified, and then if you are fortunate enough to get recognized for it exploit the heck out of it and play for the masses. If you make people happy to hear your music, they'll be much more likely to accept new things as long as they don't have to jump a chasm to get to it. You say you're not ready to jump into the full up world of improvised jazz, yet you are smart enough to know that it takes time, experience and training. Just remember that 90 percent of the listening audience doesn't know Phil Woods, yet most of them like the solo on "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel. Even that solo has become an icon in that no matter who plays the solo, everyone wants it to sound just the way Phil "created" it. If you were to play it, it would be Ethan playing "the Phil Woods solo." If you do something that has a spark of creativity, realize that maybe they don't come along terribly often for many people. I am just saying don't forsake something you do well for something new, because you can do both. Who knows, you may be the one that turns "smooth jazz" into the kind of jazz that a lot of the cats on this forum may grow to like? Could happen…?