New Jazz Underground

A trio of brilliant young Floridians transplanted to NYC, New Jazz Underground is forging an expansive 21st century sound steeped in post-bop idioms, hip-hop, house, Afrobeat and Afro-Cuban rhythms. 

The group has found an avid audience online, where its YouTube videos regularly garner hundreds of thousands of views. Critics are also hailing the band, which won the 2023 DCJazzPrix, the DC Jazz Festival’s annual international band competition.

The twentysomething triumvirate features powerhouse Miami-reared Abdias Armenteros on tenor and soprano sax, the youngest member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Bassist Sebastian Rios, also a Miami native, is a 2024 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award Winner. And Jacksonville-raised drummer TJ Reddick has quickly become a standout on a scene brimming with stellar young traps players, working constantly in top New York clubs.

After meeting as students at Juilliard, the trio began playing in New York City parks during lockdown in 2020. Word spread via their YouTube channel, where ambitious original works like “Harlem to Havana,” “cook/swing/work/relax” and their tribute to the late rapper “MF Doom Suite” captured the NJU's reverence for tradition and commitment to forging a highly personal sound.

Their newest EP, they can hate but we still swingin.., features pianist Eric “ELEW” Lewis.