New Jazz Underground, which plays Hooch and Hive in Tampa, Florida on April 18, 2024. Credit: Photo by Peter Lueders
I was in a coffee shop the other day, and overheard someone tell their friend that, “jazz is all I listen to these days.”

All strains of the genre are enjoying a resurgence, with young people driving the charge. The Bay area is home to many of those kids, and three Floridians now based in New York bring their band, New Jazz Underground, back home this week.

Saxophonist Abdias Armenteros, bassist Sebastian Rios and drummer TJ Reddick won last year’s DCJazzPrix (the DC Jazz Festival’s annual international band competition which focuses on ensembles rather than band leaders), and do it all, from Monk, to Sonny Rollins, and even MF Doom.

“These Juilliard-trained musicians clearly know the jazz tradition, but push at the corners of hard bop and hip-hop,” NPR recently wrote about the trio. “Classy and classic.”

Tickets to see New Jazz Underground play Hooch and Hive in Tampa on Thursday, April 18 are still available and start at $15.

YouTube video
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2024.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...