New Cool Collective
High-octane big band jazz fused with afrobeat and soul. It is a wall of brass and percussion designed to turn any room into a sweaty, sophisticated dance floor.
High-octane big band jazz fused with afrobeat and soul. It is a wall of brass and percussion designed to turn any room into a sweaty, sophisticated dance floor.
Imagine a 19-piece orchestra that traded their tuxedos for vintage shirts and moved into a late-night club. This is jazz that refuses to sit still, leaning heavily into the rhythmic DNA of afrobeat, boogaloo, and hard-bop. The sound is massive, driven by a relentless percussion section and a horn line that hits with the precision of a freight train. It feels less like a concert and more like a high-energy celebration where the boundaries between the stage and the dance floor evaporate.
What makes them truly distinctive is their ability to scale. Whether performing as a tight eight-piece octet or a sprawling big band, they maintain a gritty, analog warmth that avoids the sterile perfection of modern jazz recordings. They treat the big band format like a giant groove machine, layering complex polyrhythms under soaring saxophone solos and punchy brass arrangements. It is sophisticated music that never loses its primal, rhythmic urge to move.
Start with 'Electric Monkey Sessions' for a gritty, studio-focused introduction to their groove, or dive into 'Big' to hear the full power of their 19-piece lineup. If you want something that captures their cinematic side, 'Chin Chin' offers a stylish, noir-inflected take on their signature sound. This is the perfect soundtrack for when you need a shot of pure, unadulterated musical adrenaline.
New Cool Collective is a Dutch musical ensemble founded in 1993, core members are Benjamin Herman (sax), Joost Kroon (drums), Frank van Dok (percussion), Willem Friede (keyboard / arranger), Jos de Haas (percussion), Leslie Lopez (bass) and David Rockefeller (trumpet). They also perform in a 19-piece big band line-up; the New Cool Collective Big Band consists of two alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones, one baritone saxophone, four trumpets, three trombones, one bass trombone, guitar, Fender Rhodes, percussion, congas, drums and vocals. In 2000 they won the Edison Jazz Award, the most prestigious music award of the Netherlands. In 2013 the band won a Golden Calf award on the Dutch Film Festival for the music they made for the Dutch movie Toegetakeld door de liefde, in which they also have a cameo as a fictional band. The music of that movie is recorded on their album Chin Chin. Following Guus Meeuwis Groots Met Een Zachte G 2013 concert where New Cool Collective performed with Guus, they went on to collaborate on 2014's Hollandse Meesters (cover-versions of Dutch evergreens). New Cool Collective and Guus Meeuwis performed a one-off concert at the Rijksmuseum on October 17, 2014 to celebrate the new album. They also collaborated with Mark Reilly from Matt Bianco on 2015's The Things You Love-EP. Both were followed with parts 1 and 2 of Electric Monkey Sessions. In 2018 the band received another Edison Award for their album New Cool Collective Big Band ft. Thierno Koité, featuring Senegalese saxophone player Thierno Koité from Orchestra Baobab.
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