Sirius/XM Watercolors

[mikedow]

I recently received an offer from Sirius/XM to take the service for six months, so I have an opportunity to listen to Watercolors for the first time in over a year. I’m very impressed with the improvement in the service.

They’re no longer what might be described as “Smooth AC.” In over a week of listening, I haven’t heard Anita Baker, Luther Vandross or other pop artists at all. A year or so ago, Watercolors also including Boz Scaggs, James Taylor and Hall & Oates in power rotation. In place of that I heard “Winelight” by Grover Washington, Jr. The website still describes that channel as Smooth/Contemporary Jazz, but I haven’t heard them use the term “smooth” on air.

On the other hand, the station still lacks discipline and its imaging is all over the road. One of the announcers stop the music for over a minute to explain that some artist (I didn’t care enough to find out) would soon be performing at B.B. King’s in New York City. Apparently these stations don’t have Program Directors to keep this sort of self-indulgence from happening. Most of the imaging is fine, but I did hear, “Wrap yourself in luxury…Watercolors.” With position statements such as that, there’s no hope of bringing down their median age. In fact, I have no idea why Sirius/XM insists of giving its channels names. Why not drop Watercolors and call it “Contemporary Jazz, Sirius/XM 66?”

I had Sirius/XM installed with the car and signed up for three years of service. At the end of the three-year term, Sirus/XM offered me an additional year for $79. After that, the corporation expected me to pay $149, so I dropped the service. I accepted a special offer of five months for $25. The service is a good value at that price, but there isn’t enough value to pay anywhere near the full price. What was cutting edge a decade ago is no longer viable when you can plug in your iPhone and get endless variety.

Mike

 

[star100]

I've been a subscriber to Watercolors for 6 years. It was always more jazz centered compared to the old Sirius station and the FM stations.

I never recall hearing much or any Hall & Oates or even much Luther on Watercolors. I have heard a few jazzy records that feature James Taylor on vocals. I have not heard any popular songs from James Taylor on Watercolors. It's very similar with Boz Scaggs. They play the newer acoustic version of Lowdown and covers like Speak Low and What's New. I wouldn't mind if they played something like Heart of Mine, but I've never heard that played.

It's the best option in my cars, but I have to admit I enjoy the even deeper variety at smoothjazz.com more.

Lily and Tony are great announcers, but I hate the promotions for other channels all the time. I agree about the imaging. It skews toward an older audience. They need to take some ideas from their sister station, Chill. The less recorded imaging the better. Keep it short and simple. Let the announcers define the station.

Overall, I think the new music appearing on the channel is better than the last several years. There are fewer covers (less dreaded funk, moldy disco, or sleepy soul covers) and some of the tracks sounds closer to the late 80s-90s songs. I could do without some of the new jazzy vocals. I'd rather hear mellow alternative vocals. I also wish for more fusion or 90s jazz. While some of the newer songs they play are louder, I'd like to hear some upbeat 90s jazz. And they do ignore some great 90s jazz tracks from artists like The Rippingtons and Acoustic Alchemy. Those groups have some great upbeat records that would fit well with the newer music.

I'd replace some of the 70s-80s George Benson, Grover Washington Jr type stuff with newer. Why are they playing Bellavia from Chuck Mangione? It reminds me of an elevator music station.

I'd also mix in more chill music and even Chill vocals. Nina Simone remixes would work well. There is a lot of jazzy chill that SiriusXM Chill ignores. In fact, an entire hour or two of Chill music per week would be great. Something like the Chill with Mindi Abair show.

 

[Nock]

They’re no longer what might be described as “Smooth AC.” In over a week of listening, I haven’t heard Anita Baker, Luther Vandross or other pop artists at all. A year or so ago, Watercolors also including Boz Scaggs, James Taylor and Hall & Oates in power rotation. In place of that I heard “Winelight” by Grover Washington, Jr. The website still describes that channel as Smooth/Contemporary Jazz, but I haven’t heard them use the term “smooth” on air.

\

Been a 10 year listener of Watercolors and must have missed these tunes. They were one of the first to not use 'Smooth" and call it C Jazz. At least the XM version which is what was used when the 2 merged.

Nock

Nock

 

[Interstate 78]

A year or so ago, Watercolors also including Boz Scaggs, James Taylor and Hall & Oates in power rotation.

I honestly think you are mistaken. I have listened to Watercolors almost every day for about 8 years and NEVER heard James Taylor nor Hall & Oates. Never. Boz Scaggs, yes, but he's quite jazzy of late with his recent offerings, so that's fine with me. They don't even play Luther. I one time asked the music director about that and she said Luther is too mainstream. So Watercolors actually has a very strict definition of contemporary jazz which I highly respect. I honestly think you were listening to something else if you heard Hall & Oates. Jazz Cafe on the former Sirius when it was separate from XM used to play lots of those type of mainstream artists. Maybe you're thinking of that? When XM and Sirius merged, Watercolors took over and Jazz Cafe went away.

 

[got2bfunky]

Watercolors is actually one of the more listenable smooth jazz stations anywhere. They avoided the trap that the terrestrial stations fell into by not trying to crossover too many mainstream artists into their playlist with songs that you could hear on any soft AC station. I guess it is today's contemporary jazz by current standards, although Sirius' Planet Jazz that was on way before the merger happened was truly what my definition of contemporary jazz was and more listenable for long stretches of time. RadioIO Real Jazz on the Internet or through the TuneIn radio app is my top source for today's contemporary jazz that mixes in classics in just the right proportion to provide a very good listening experience. Dr. Mike Mathany's imaging doesn't match up to Watercolors but his playlist is not overly repetitive and definitely more engaging over the long haul.

 

[JoshB]

Watercolors is great compared to what is on the radio now, which isn't saying much unfortunately. My biggest issue with Watercolors (and satellite radio in general) is that they will not get away from their "safe" playlist. They seem to play the same artists over and over again and I rarely here any new artist or any deep classics, with the same sound and it starts sounding predicatable. I still have to rely on the Internet for that. When they start playing tracks like Alexander Zonjic - Memphis Underground or Dave Koz/Phil Perry - Tender Is The Night (which I just discovered going through old CD samplers ;D) then I'll be impressed.