It’s official. Jazz turns women on.

Researchers have found that women find complex forms of music, such as jazz, sexy.

When women were asked to choose between composers of different types of music for a night of passion, they preferred composers that produced complex tunes over those that made simpler songs.

The study, conducted by the University of Sussex and published in the Royal Societal Journal, also found that syncopated rhythms proved more of a turn-on for women than simple chord progressions and subtle melodies.

That means smooth jazz artists like Brian Culbertson with his sensual songs like “It’s On Tonight’ and “Hookin’ Up” may have to take a backseat to music by the likes of Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman.

The study, which involved 1,500 women at an average age of 28, was led by Dr. Benjamin Charlton, and extends on Charles Darwin’s own research, which suggested that music evolved via sexual selection. “Musical notes and rhythm… were first acquired by the male and female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex,” Darwin wrote in his 1871 book The Descent of Man.

This study goes a step further, and proves that different types of music can have a drastic effect on sexual behavior.

“The ability to create complex music could be indicative of advanced cognitive abilities. Consequently, women may acquire genetic benefits for offspring by selecting musicians able to create more complex music as sexual partners,” Dr. Charlton said in concluding his study.

But, before any jazz musicians get too excited there’s a pretty big caveat. The study looked specifically at how the menstrual cycle alters women’s sexual preferences, which means the women surveyed only preferred the composers of complex music as short-term sexual partners and only when their conception risk is highest – Usually around three days in any given month. Sorry guys. But at least it goes some way to explaining where all the jazz groupies went…