NEW-JAZZ-UNDERGROUND-HOODIES-album-2026
Listening to jazz requires a predisposition. It's not technical preparation, it's something more subtle: the willingness to give up control of the tempo, to trust the person playing.
Those who can't do it end up saying that “the songs are all the same”. It's the most common comment. It is also the comment of those who listen to the surface without going inside.
“Hoodies” by New Jazz Underground works exactly on this border.
Abdias Armenteros (sax, vocals), Sebastian Rios (bass) and TJ Reddick (drums) built their reputations on the street, literally, before racking up millions of views on YouTube and then landing at the Newport Jazz Festival. The album is their first official album, but they don't need this recording to introduce themselves: it cements a reputation that preceded them.
The chordless trio has long been a privileged laboratory of the most adventurous jazz. Removing the piano or guitar forces the other instruments to redefine their roles, to fill unusual spaces.
NJU doesn't limit themselves to this, they bring in the format of hip hop, soul, Afro-Cuban rhythms, raw vocal blues.
The result is 53 minutes of contemporary sound.
The title is not neutral. A hoodie in America is never just an item of clothing: it is a social marker, a history that precedes the wearer. NJU build a record on it that talks about youth, survival, what it means to make music with a target on your back. They don't declare it with slogans, they make it felt in the rhythmic tension, in Armenteros' voice which at times presses against the sax as if the two instruments were in disagreement.
The tracklist draws a precise narrative arc. It's not a random set list, and you can feel the fluidity of someone who has played these pieces hundreds of times without them becoming routine.
Distrust towards jazz exists. It's legitimate, often it's laziness, sometimes it's a wound left by bad listening at the wrong time.
“Hoodies” doesn't set out to convince anyone. But to those who are willing to pay attention to the nuances where the music moves with a precision that does not exclude warmth. Indeed, it makes it its center of gravity.
SCORE: 8.00
TO LISTEN NOW
Ghosts – luci and i (i) – Sake of love
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
Nothing. It works and you can listen to it!
