New Jazz Underground

New Jazz Underground (NJU), an American trio, have been described as “an innovative and ultra creative collective striving to establish themselves as a defining voice for the genre of jazz and beyond”. Their music signals a merging of traditional sensibilities in jazz with the modern influence of swing, hip-hop, house/afro-beat, and Afro-Cuban music. Listeners were introduced to the trio’s undeniably fresh sound through viral videos of the band performing in their living room. Millions viewed videos such as: “they can hate but we still swingin’”, “f**k/s**t/c**t/jazz”, “sad boy jazz”, as well as many others featuring the band’s exuberant chemistry, effortless musicality, and raw ambition in sound.

Abdias Armenteros (saxophonist/composer), Sebastian Rios (bassist/composer), TJ Reddick (drummer) have each been lauded as some of jazz’s most promising young artists in their own right. After meeting while students at The Juilliard School, the trio began playing in the parks of NYC during lockdown in 2020. They shortly began posting to their Youtube channel that has since grown to over 85k+ subscribers. Releases such as MF Doom Suite, Harlem to Havana, and cook/swing/work/relax fully demonstrate the trio’s reverence towards jazz’s icons, yet still contend in a vision to establish their own voice in the expression of new sounds that transcend genre lines. The group most recently was featured on NPR Music for their release Cook/Swing/Work/Relax.

NJU has a keen interest in helping students, not much younger than themselves, to develop a deeper understanding of jazz music and the elements surrounding the creative process. Armenteros, Rios, and Reddick each have their own student studios as well as years of experience teaching students from middle school through college in topics such as Jazz history, theory, and application. Rios developed the program, “Creative Video in Modern Music” to teach intermediate to advanced jazz students to produce their own music, and have a better understanding of the modern media landscape. Dynamic and powerful performers, New Jazz Underground possess far-reaching talents that are re-energizing the contemporary music world from the inside out. They dedicate themselves to the music continually and serve as a burgeoning benchmark for the future of jazz to come.

New Jazz Underground Website
(Ticket Includes 5% City of Santa Cruz Admission Tax)