what, exactly, is nu-jazz

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i always assumed "nu-jazz" meant bands like jaga jazzist and cinematic orchestra, but i realise i may be mistaken because i see the term applied to more housey and chillout acts. is there a definitive definition or is it a loose term applied to anyone who incorporates jazz with electronics?

― mint condition, Thursday, 22 May 2003 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I've seen it used interchangeably with the term "broken beat". If "downtempo" is, roughly, chillout music with a hip-hop-derived rhythm, then "nu-jazz" is chillout music with a more "complex," drum and bass-derived rhythm.

I think the "jazz" element is along the lines of Lonnie Liston Smith and the mellower side of the fusion scene -- though it can certainly bleed over into lite-jazz treacle...

― Sean Thomas (sgthomas), Thursday, 22 May 2003 23:30 (twenty-two years ago)

'nu-jazz'... just hearing that delicious and inspiring phrase makes me want to drop all the things I thought were important and rush out and buy as many nu-jazz records as I can. I haven't been so excited by since I first heard of 'power trance'.

I especially like the spelling 'nu'. That's nu. It doesn't conjure up images of narcissistic, preening young men in goatees thrumming away on bongos at all. And I fully expect to hear something fresh, original, and, well, really nu. Or maybe just a lot of solos over highly familiar fusion chords. Whatever. I'm up for it!!!

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 23 May 2003 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

In fairness, "broken beat" is a pretty wack genre-name in itself... but yeah, you've gotta wonder about the folks who thought that "nu-jazz" was *preferable*. "It's just like jazz, except that everything we know about jazz we learned from 4 Hero and LTJ Bukem! So, y'know, it's better!"

― Sean Thomas (sgthomas), Friday, 23 May 2003 01:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Argh, I think I may have already said this, but I was expecting more from the concept of 'brokenbeat' than more spineless jazz fusion. I really thought there was going to be some breaking up of the beat - whatever that entailed...

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 23 May 2003 03:08 (twenty-two years ago)

2-step for the straight no chaser crowd.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 23 May 2003 03:15 (twenty-two years ago)

jazzanova

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 23 May 2003 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

2-step for the straight no chaser crowd.

It really has nothing to do with 2step at all... however, a lot to do with the straight no chaser crowd. i'd say that jazzanova, truby trio, all the compost axis of artists etc fit in this category and it doesn't have to follow a specific rhythmic blueprint. i generally tend to see it used (and on odd occasions, just for reasons of being understood, use it on occasion myself) as a blanket term for anything that the aforementioned straight no chaser people might like!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Friday, 23 May 2003 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)

well, all the broken beat stuff does crib the 2 step sound, which is why i used to be into it. it seems to try too hard to achieve the sort of syncopation, i feel. nevertheless, people like landslide and maddslinky seem to bridge the gap between the garage community and west london bizness, they get stuff out on sirkus which gets sold in uptown for example. zed bias has like, 50 different aliases which he does this stuff under. i guess this only goes as far as the brokenbeat sound though, which only occupies a 10th of the nu jzz term for me. i mean like, generlaly jazzanova dont really go this route, apart from that 'burnin' remix which is pretty cool.

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 23 May 2003 10:21 (twenty-two years ago)

disagree... broken beat has very little to do with 2step garage in evolutionary terms. the whole intricacy/syncopation is a different aesthetic to garage... bear in mind that a lot of the broken beat lot were d&b producers (seiji, dego etc for example) and evolved at the same time as garage and I don't think you can really say that it cribs anything - it's a parallel development... however the maddslinky stuff really does crossover well, only problem being that landslide doesn't... garage crowds find him incredibly boring from what i've seen!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Friday, 23 May 2003 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

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