Nu Jazz

Jazz music community with review and forums

Nu jazz grew out of the combined influences of Jon Hassel’s Kiranic trumpet playing and ‘fourth world’ rhythms, Miles Davis’ soft tone and use of ambience on “In a Silent Way”, and the early 90s intersection of jazz and electronica, particularly trip-hop, dub and down-tempo. Some early Nu Jazz artists include Nils Petter Molvaer and Bugge Wesseltoft. Over time, other influences were introduced to the Nu Jazz sound.

For a time, the jangling ambient guitar sound of post-rock was a big influence on Nu Jazz, but that has mostly faded now. Meanwhile, bands like Jagga Jazzist and Snarky Puppy have re-discovered the lush orchestrations of sophisticated easy listening and exotica arrangers such as Henry Mancini and Les Baxter. Yet another influence, one that has emerged from the sound of the popular Portico Quartet and others, is the use of repeating minimalist phrases. This use of short repeating melodic phrases not only comes from minimalist composers such as Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, but also from Zeuhl artists and a long history of European art rock. An influence from ambient music is also part of the Nu Jazz genre, this can be found in the early music of Nils Petter Molvaer, as well as others. Nick Bartsch is a popular Nu Jazz artist who often combines the repeating figures of minimalism with a dub reggae style ambiance.

All of the above mentioned influences may appear on a Nu Jazz album, but not necessarily all. As Nu Jazz continues to develop, the most constant factors tend be a relaxed 'cool' approach, an influence from modern electronica and an appreciation for ironic kitsch and retro sounds. Some early precedents for Nu Jazz can found in the Terry Riley influenced ambient sections on Soft Machine's IIIrd album, Brian Eno's use of Brand X's funk/fusion backing tracks in building his late 70s ambient art rock albums, and Miles Davis' lengthy "He Loved Him Madly" from his "Get Up With It" album.

Although there are musical differences between Nu Jazz and Contemporary Jazz, from a pop-culture standpoint, the more obvious difference between the two is Nu Jazz’s self-aware ’hipster’ stance, compared to Contemporary Jazz’s more emotionally earnest approach.

nu jazz top albums

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ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO (E.S.T.) Live in Hamburg Album Cover Live in Hamburg
ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO (E.S.T.)
4.94 | 8 ratings
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BUGGE WESSELTOFT New Conception of Jazz: FiLM iNG Album Cover New Conception of Jazz: FiLM iNG
BUGGE WESSELTOFT
4.82 | 5 ratings
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SNARKY PUPPY We Like It Here Album Cover We Like It Here
SNARKY PUPPY
4.75 | 4 ratings
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NIK BÄRTSCH Holon Album Cover Holon
NIK BÄRTSCH
4.62 | 12 ratings
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JAGA JAZZIST Jaga Jazzist Live with Britten Sinfonia Album Cover Jaga Jazzist Live with Britten Sinfonia
JAGA JAZZIST
4.86 | 2 ratings
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BUGGE WESSELTOFT New Conception of Jazz: Moving Album Cover New Conception of Jazz: Moving
BUGGE WESSELTOFT
4.57 | 6 ratings
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SNARKY PUPPY Tell Your Friends Album Cover Tell Your Friends
SNARKY PUPPY
4.67 | 3 ratings
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NIECHĘĆ Śmierć w miękkim futerku (Death In A Soft Fur Coat) Album Cover Śmierć w miękkim futerku (Death In A Soft Fur Coat)
NIECHĘĆ
4.57 | 5 ratings
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NIK BÄRTSCH Llyria Album Cover Llyria
NIK BÄRTSCH
4.41 | 11 ratings
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PHRONESIS We Are All Album Cover We Are All
PHRONESIS
4.46 | 5 ratings
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ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO (E.S.T.) Live in London Album Cover Live in London
ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO (E.S.T.)
4.50 | 3 ratings
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JAGA JAZZIST A Livingroom Hush Album Cover A Livingroom Hush
JAGA JAZZIST
4.32 | 23 ratings
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This list is in progress since the site is new. We invite all logged in members to use the "quick rating" widget (stars bellow album covers) or post full reviews to increase the weight of your rating in the global average value (see FAQ for more details). Enjoy JMA!

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nu jazz New Releases

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PRIM
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AETHER
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Pressure
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nu jazz Music Reviews

AETHER Aether

Album · 2023 · Nu Jazz
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snobb
"Aether" is this Italian quartet's self-titled debut album. The band themselves state that their influences are King Crimson, ambient music and Nordic guitar jazz. Heavily based on synth/Rhodes sound, for my ears they sound more closer to mid-late 70s English prog band Camel. After the 70s, Camel lost the brilliant songwriting of their earlier music and switched towards a more synth-based sound.

Aether takes from Nordic guitar jazz its ambient sound, but leaves aside strong folkish component and icy cool aesthetics. The album's sound is warm and soft, almost polished and resonates pretty well with Italian prog bands of the 70s. Some added rockish guitar soloing doesn't generate a lot of fire and obviously is more of a decorative origin. On the more rock-like pieces, like "Pressure", "Moving Away" or "Crimson Fondant", Aether sounds like one of the many bands from the mid-late 70s.

Invoking some strong elements from a few different musical scenes, the band does inherit some known problems coming from the past as well. The lack of memorable compositions combined with a very comfortable sound can be a problem for some listeners coming from a rock background. Ambient elements, extracted from Nordic jazz don't work all that well separated from strong regional aesthetics and jazz improvisation as well as partially different techniques.

Impressive debut, taking more risks and searching for more expression of one's own face possibly will be an improvement.

BRANDEE YOUNGER Brand New Life

Album · 2023 · Nu Jazz
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snobb
There are not many known harpists in jazz - bop-rooted Dorothy Ashby in the 60s, strongly spiritual jazz-influenced Alice Coltrane in the 70s and ECM fans will probably know Finnish Iro Haarla as well. Classically trained New-Yorikan Brandee Younger is the new jazz harp star.

Just released, Brandee's seventh studio album, "Brand New Life" is a true gem. She plays five Dorothy Ashby compositions and two originals, along with other songs. With participation of 9th Wonder and Pete Rock on Drum Programming and r'n'b singer Meshell Ndegeocello, one might expect that this album contains danceable rhythms based in r'n'b, but this expectation would be a wrong one.

Brandee leads a post-bop rooted band playing contemporary melodic music, sort of a hip pop jazz with r'n'b, hip-hop and classic elements. The opener, Ashby's "You're A Girl For One Man Only" represents Brandee's harp contemporary sound at its best. The title track is a velvety dreamy r'n'b with Mumu Fresh vocals. Pete Rock's electronic beats-based "Livin' and Lovin' in My Own Way" is a romantic hip-hop piece, Michel Legrand's evergreen "The Windmills of Your Mind" sounds more modern with 9th Wonder added beats, but it still builds the absolutely realistic atmosphere of the French classic movie. And yes - Dorothy Ashby's "Dust" sounds here as sophisticated reggae! Only the closer - Steve Wonder's "If It’s Magic" sounds probably a bit bland.

Produced by modern jazz wizard drummer Makaya McCraven (who plays on the album as well), "Brand New Life" is an excellent stylish contemporary music release, just shhh! - don't tell them it's jazz.

MAKAYA MCCRAVEN In These Times

Album · 2022 · Nu Jazz
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Mssr_Renard
I already knew that Makaya is a gifted drummer and composer from his previous albums, but this album really blows me away.

Makaya and his band play a perfect mix of light fusion, post-bop, nu jazz with flourishes of instrumental hip-hop and spiritual jazz.

Makaya is a versatile drummer playing beats that sound like hip-hop beats but he knows his way around swinging bop-drumming aswell.

On the musical side every composition is constructed like classical music or popmusic. There are solos but not much improvisation.

Somehow the music reminds me a bit of music from the nineties, when LTJ Bukem and 4Hero explored the realms of acoustic music. The stringsection wich is used often in the songs also have a nostalgic feel.

In all this is a very modern and uptodate sounding album, with influences from seventies fusion upto nineties hiphop, acid jazz and modern-day nujazz. A real treat to people how really enjoy these subgenres.

STEPHAN THELEN Fractal Guitar 3

Album · 2022 · Nu Jazz
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js
“Fractal Guitar 3” is of course Stephan Thelan’s third installment in his fractal guitar series. The overall sound of ‘3’ is similar to the first two, but there are changes as well. Whereas early Fractal installments leaned heavily on extended guitar solos, on 3 the emphasis now is more on composition and arrangement. There are still plenty of hot guitarists on hand here, but the solos are shorter and are used to add meaning to the arrangements. Whether these arrangements were pre-composed or created on a computer program after the fact would not make any difference to what our ears are hearing. If this music was playing in the background you might would only notice a cool groove topped with interesting guitars and electronics, but give the music a closer listen and you will hear how each track tends to morph and grow as it goes along. There is a sort of overall similarity to every track, making the whole album flow like one tone poem, but once again, extra attention reveals the individual nature of each song. The main thing each track holds in common is layered poly-rhythms that can recall music from Africa and Indonesia, as well as minimalist composers such as Steve Reich or Terry Riley.

Track 1 has the most guitar solos and also features a bubbling synth sequencer going through the sort of filter modulation that is essential to a good rave jam. 2 is one of the quieter tracks and drops the rhythm towards the end for some floating ambience. 3 uses a lot of drop breaks and has some insistent double time electronic interjections. On 4 we get layered sustained guitars as a sort of choir and some string parts taken from a string quartet that Thelan wrote. 5 ends with a long ambient break as if the album is ready to fade into the ether, but wait, there’s more. The final track is a bonus re-mix of track 1 with more focus on Elvind Aarset’s guitar parts.

The guitar work on here is outstanding, if you like the long sustained tones of Robert Fripp, Steve Vai, Phil Manzenera or Terje Rypdal then you will enjoy all the textures the Fractal crew conjures up, but probably the best feature on this album is the production. The sound of this album is near perfect within the digital electronic niche in which it resides. Every little riff, echo, guitar melody or keyboard interjection is arranged perfectly.

JON HASSELL The Living City (Live at the Winter Garden 17 September 1989)

Boxset / Compilation · 2023 · Nu Jazz
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snobb
Very first weeks of a new year bring us an exceptional release. Two grand artists of electronic music of the 80s - American conceptualist trumpeter/keyboardist, Jon Hassell and Brit early ambient key figure, Brian Eno meet on a perfectly recorded in 1989 live album! Both artists already collaborated on the well-known "Fourth World" album, released in 1980, which gave the name for Hassell's future musical style of eclectic crossover combining electronics, jazz improvisation and non-Western rhythms.

The album's material contains a 68-minute Jon Hassell's group live performance from World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York City, recorded in September 1989 (just few months before exactly same group recorded "City: Works Of Fiction" studio album). Eno had designed an audio-visual installation in the 10-story glass-vaulted pavilion, inspired by the hunting, ceremony, animals, and weather sounds of the Ba-Ya-Ka pygmy tribe from Cameroon gathered by Louis Sarno, and mixed the band playing live with multimedia installation sonics.

This recorded material hadn't been released until 2014, when it got serious studio remixing/reworking. Still it's first release as bonus material with "City: Works Of Fiction (Expanded Edition)" reissue passed almost unnoticed. In February 2023 it comes as separate vinyl album, and it's a great chance to find a new listener.

The music presented on "The Living City" from the very first minutes recalls Miles fusion albums from mid-70s. The main difference is Miles long pieces are mostly based on improvisation, Hassell's music is more structured and organized, and sounds like a composition against Miles jamming. Hassell's prepared trumpet sounds very much as analog keyboards, and heavy studio wizardry gives to the whole music a less organic, but more contemporary sound. On some pieces Daniel Scwartz plays physical groovy funky bass, which adds a lot of life to the mix, and perfectly balances quite emotionless by it's nature electronic sounds.

Recorded during a live gig, this music sounds more alive, and more inspired then Hassell's renown studio works. Well recorded, it represents perfectly the missing link between Miles Davis mid-70s fusion and Nils Petter Molvær nu jazz from mid-90s. Highly recommended.

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Artists with Nu Jazz release(s)

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

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Albums with 30 ratings and more
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CHARLES MINGUS
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