The way Sebastian Rios talks about jazz feels as reminiscent of linguistics as musical theory. The 28-year-old bassist and composer for New Jazz Underground—the Juilliard-trained trio bringing its talents to Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center (SBDAC) on April 18—is intimately familiar with the genre’s syntactical history but by no means averse to peppering contemporary slang into his compositions. “Even before the Great American Songbook, there was the blues. Those rhythms are so universal. It’s like speaking English—those are our languages,” the Miami native says. “The rhythms that we inherited, they’re just so rife with material that enables artists to fully express themselves.”
From pocket performances at Art Walk in Downtown Fort Myers to powerhouse productions at Artis—Naples, our coast bobs along to the beat of a walking bass line. While local audiences lean toward the classics—Miles Davis, John Coltrane—the right hands can make reinvention just as enticing.
New Jazz Underground encapsulates this idea, putting its stamp on the future of jazz by combining foundational knowledge from mentors, like iconic jazz bassist Ron Carter and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra artistic director and composer Wynton Marsalis, with a taste for rap, R&B and rock.
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Courtesy New Jazz Underground
New Jazz Underground iterates on standard jazz with timing and texture influenced by contemporary artists like Kendrick Lamar. Mentorship from jazz legends anchors their sound in tradition.
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Courtesy New Jazz Underground
The YouTube breakout band made its Southwest Florida debut last spring with a packed-out, high-energy Jazzy Nights Music Series performance at SBDAC, Downtown Fort Myers’ hub for creative explorations, with a finger on the pulse. Sparse stage settings centered the audience’s focus on the performance; well-known musical phrasing rubbed against cheeky improvisations as bandmates conversed through their instruments—making each other laugh and tripping each other up with unexpected chord progressions. This balance of musical mastery and unpredictability—a dynamic central to the roots of jazz—was as entertaining for the audience as for the three 20-somethings on stage. “Several audience members approached me afterward, saying, ‘You’ve had great performers here, but these guys are the best,’” SBDAC founder Jim Griffith says. “I went straight to the greenroom and invited them back for [this] season.”
The Florida-native, New York-based jazz collective is cleanly aligned with the last decade’s surge in youthful energy and modern-influenced improvisation. The group combines the musical talents of Sebastian, an award-winning composer; Abdias Armenteros, a saxophonist, composer and the youngest member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; and drummer TJ Reddick. Only a few years out of undergrad, the Gen-Z trio has already made its mark on the jazz world. All three band members have shared the stage with the likes of Jon Batiste, Emmet Cohen and innovative jazz pianist ELEW (who will perform alongside New Jazz Underground at this month’s concert).
Jazz, at its core, is about conversation. “There’s only so many beats,” Sebastian says, explaining that modernizing the genre is less about inventing something new and more about how it’s produced. The structure remains familiar—players introduce a melody, return to it at the end, and in between, they improvise. But improvisation isn’t chaos; it’s a shared language, built on chord progressions and musical cues that keep the conversation flowing. “We’ll quote a classic melody, and that sparks something else,” Sebastian says. “It’s really just like talking.”
Courtesy New Jazz Underground
Bassist and composer Sebastian Rios pulls influences from the music he loved growing up in Miami, infusing aspects of rock, hip-hop, Latin and house music into his improvisational compositions.
New Jazz Underground’s breakout YouTube channel offers a glimpse into the band’s ability to grasp, master and break with convention. Punchy titles, zine-like thumbnails and riffs off contemporary rap, rock and R&B songs draw in the younger crowd; jazz standards set the baseline for modern mash-ups and inspired improvisation. “At Juilliard, it can be very competitive—you feel like you have to prove yourself,” Sebastian says. “When we’re hanging out with each other, we don’t have to do that. We like the same music, we joke around and play video games. That extends musically. When you’re comfortable enough to just play, all of a sudden the music sounds good.”
Courtesy New Jazz Underground
Drummer TJ Reddick was the last to join the now YouTube-famous trio, which was a crowd favorite when the band first performed at SBDAC in 2024.
Courtesy New Jazz Underground