New Jazz Underground | Hoodies Review

by Illiam Sebitz

From street performances to the Newport Jazz Festival stage, New Jazz Underground has quickly become one of the defining voices of jazz’s newest generation. Their music comfortably absorbs hip-hop, blues, hard bop, gospel, and contemporary groove while remaining grounded in the tradition that shaped it. Those qualities have deservedly attracted attention. Listening closely to Hoodies, though, reveals something even more compelling.

The album is often framed as a statement about brotherhood, culture, and identity. What stands out most is how those ideas become audible. Rather than dividing melody, harmony, rhythm, and texture into fixed instrumental jobs, saxophonist Abdias Armenteros, bassist Sebastian Rios, and drummer T.J. Reddick continually redistribute those responsibilities among themselves. The three musicians fill the space normally with motion and it succeeds because they have learned how to think collectively.

“Oney Ones One” introduces a hip-hop-inflected groove the opens into a natural contemporary swing. Rios creates motion while Armenteros reshapes short pentatonic ideas into increasingly adventurous lines that lean toward post-bop. Reddick responds by charging the character of the groove. His backbeat is augmented by cymbal color, snare commentary, and subtle shifts in density that make the trio sound larger than its instrumentation suggests. Each player seems to recognize where the music wants to go next. That sense of shared awareness becomes one of the album’s defining strengths.

Armenteros gives the trio its musical identity. Whether singing or playing saxophone, he draws from the same expressive vocabulary of blues inflections, pentatonic shapes, conversational rhythms, and melodic phrases that gradually widen in scope without abandoning their emotional center. On “how do you do (ii),” the moving between voice and saxophone feels like a continuation of the same thought. His improvisation grows naturally from the vocal melody, allowing the ensemble to move forward without losing its melodic personality.

Repeated listening, however, keeps returning to Rios. His bass does much more than anchor harmony and pulse. It grounds and organizes the conversation. On “Oney Ones One,” he absorbs the contours of Armenteros’ lines before nudging them toward the next section. During the walking passages, his full, woody sound provides stability, but it is his instinct for timing that proves most valuable. He seems to anticipate where phrases are headed, making each arrival feel inevitable rather than announced.

“Sidetracked” offers another glimpse into that role. The piece shifts between a classic 6/8 feel and a more spacious contemporary groove. Rios establishes each environment with such confidence that the changes feel like different views of the same landscape instead of separate musical ideas. As Armenteros stretches compact blues figures into longer statements, the bass quietly adopts their rhythmic logic, giving soloist and rhythm section a common pulse that extends beyond the written material.

Reddick’s contribution is subtler, but no less essential. Rather than treating the drum chair as a place to dictate time, he treats it as a place to shape momentum. Throughout “Sidetracked,” his playing continually connects bassist and soloist, adding weight when the music needs to breathe and pulling back when another voice should come forward. Even his solo feels like another chapter in the conversation because the groove never disappears underneath him.

The same instinct surfaces again during “hoodieJig (iii).” A bass figure establishes the groove before handclaps reinforce its character. The saxophone joins that same idea instead of competing with it. When the B section introduces artificial harmonics, Rios briefly exchanges rhythmic authority for color without surrendering the ensemble’s direction. Armenteros answers by lengthening his melodic ideas instead of filling the extra space, while Reddick keeps the groove grounded and breathing beneath them. Each musician simply adjusts, and the trio arrives somewhere new together.

Moments like these explain why Hoodies feels so unified. The trio draws freely from blues, gospel, hip-hop, Afro-diasporic rhythm, and post-bop, but those influences never arrive as stylistic demonstrations. They function as a shared language spoken fluently by three musicians who listen as carefully as they play.

New Jazz Underground has often been celebrated for representing jazz’s future. Hoodies makes a quieter argument. It suggests that the future of the music may depend less on discovering new styles than on discovering deeper ways of listening to one another.

By the final notes, the lasting impression is not a saxophone phrase, a bass line, or a drum fill. It is the sound of three musicians continually making room for one another, trusting that the strongest statement the ensemble can make is one that belongs to all of them.

Artist: New Jazz Underground
Album: Hoodies
Label: Artwork Records

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Release Date: May 29, 2026

About the author

Illiam Sebitz

Born and raised in a picturesque European village, my fondness for music began during my formative years, when the charismatic tones of the recorder first filled the halls of my primary school. This early fascination escalated into my lifelong pursuit of embracing the melodious charm of the flute; I have even spent time refining my skills at a music conservatoire. As a seasoned music connoisseur, I find myself captivated by the multifaceted world of music. I enjoy writing music reviews to better enable me to explore genres as diverse as world, rock, jazz, classical, folk, and film music, each offering a unique auditory journey that enriches my life and intellect.

In my spare moments, you'll likely find me meticulously crafting my latest woodworking project, sharpening my skills with flute etudes, or inventing tales of fantasy through the art of creative writing. My eclectic interests and expertise harmonize to create a symphony of passion and curiosity that resonates within every aspect of my life as a music enthusiast.