Saturday morning I found myself on the road minutes after the area had taken the brunt of the weekend storms.  An SUV was directly in front of me, headed northbound as I was, and in the far right lane of four-lane Crawford Avenue.

The lane the SUV was driving in had several large puddles but nothing that looked too deep.  Along the unflooded stretches of the road were clumps of mud. I watched as the driver of the SUV charted a zigzag course right in front of me, trying to avoid the puddles and mud for the length of the entire block.  I wasn’t about to try and pass them as they swerved periodically into my lane.

Then it occurred to me.  Isn’t one reason why you get an SUV so you can glide right through–and over–obstacles without so much as a second thought?  Hey, I’ve seen the commercials and you have, too. They’re doing things like ascending sand dunes and fording streams, for crying out loud–things I wouldn’t even dream of doing in my sedan.  And, as for being afraid of a little mud, I was just at a car dealership the other day where they had an SUV which was actually caked in mud from top to bottom on display in their showroom.

I’m not one of those who hates SUVs.  Most of the time the person behind the wheel can be much more annoying.  This was obviously a case where the driver had lost sight of the “S” and “U” aspect of their vehicle, whereas I, in my plain old “V,” was the one who should have been swerving like mad around the hazards in the road.

The April issue of JazzTimes magazine features a lively discussion on how jazz artists ought to dress when they’re up on stage.  It got me thinking, and then it occurred to me:  over the past 23 years that Smooth Jazz has been around, a transformation has taken place in the way performers in our genre dress.

When it comes to earning style points, Smooth Jazz artists have taken a quantum leap in two decades.  I don’t know how many of you remember this, but in the early days nearly everyone had the same look:  garage-band-but-sadly-lacking-the-hipness-of-grunge.  Worn-out denims and a jazz festival t-shirt were a common ensemble.  At the time it didn’t seem particularly inappropriate because artists were being booked into places such as the Cubby Bear, Jazz Bulls and China Club in those days—venues that were bars or converted industrial space.

As Smooth Jazz began to blossom in the middle ‘90s and concerts moved into larger, more elegant venues, artists instinctively reacted to this move up in class by becoming more style conscious.  Led by African-American artists who seemed to be the first to recognize there should be a certain visual vibe to the whole Smooth Jazz concert experience, the fashion bar was raised significantly.

These days, it’s rare to witness a performer who hasn’t dressed for the occasion.  From the sartorially resplendent Nick Colionne to the dapper Dave Koz & Friends Christmas group (including Brenda Russell, who always looks as though she’s ready to walk the red carpet at the Oscars), Smooth Jazz artists get it—there is value to looking good.  But they’re only continuing a tradition.  If you go back far enough to remember that the likes of Miles Davis and Billie Holiday were as influential with their fashion as with their music, you’ll realize live performance in jazz music has never been about just the music.