New Jazz Underground is proof that even challenging music can go viral. Formed during the pandemic in New York City by Juilliard students Abdias Armenteros (saxes), T.J. Reddick (drums), and Sebastian Rios (bass/compositions), the trio went from working out their sound in open air spaces to racking up popular videos on YouTube. Released by the venerable Artwork label, Hoodies is their debut album and first major recorded statement.
Having grown up with full access to the broad African diaspora, NJU respects traditions of all eras, rather than sticking to one groove. Thus “Pseudo latin vibe” begins with some frisky funk hop before evolving smoothly into salsa, and opener “Oney Ones One” starts as hazy funk and shifts sharply first to bebop and then to hard bop. “Ghosts,” with guest pianist Elew, translates R&B balladry into torch song, while “Sake of Love” deftly integrates neo-soul singing (by Armenteros) with postbop improvisation. For its magnum opus, NJU fields a five part suite that collects “luci and i,” “how do you do” (with affecting vocals from Armenteros), “hoodieJig,” “atonement,” and “I had to let uu go.” For this wave, the band grounds itself in the blues, though the quintology moves between swing, bop, funk, and straight blues in a way that both recognizes evolution and blurs the lines between the different iterations.
Despite the variety, NJU rarely contorts itself into radical shifts – they understand all aspects of the music with which they work, and thus easily blend the whole of African-American music into one big, beautiful ball of jazz.
