Tagged nu jazz

"Modern" has always been one of my least favorite genre prefixes. With the myriad of stylistic tags at artists' disposal, it seems like an odd choice to fixate on the recency of a piece of music as a means of describing its sound. As is demonstrated by any number of revivalist movements operating in the current music landscape, "modern" music isn't always a guarantee of fresh, forward-thinking ideas, and in my experience, the tag is often used to posture standard genre fare delivered with a newer sheen as something new and revelatory. Of course, there's an exception to every rule, and when it comes to this particular pet peeve of mine, I've never been happier to have a band prove me wrong as wrong as COAST do with their phenomenal self-titled debut. Every aspect of COAST embodies what "modern" jazz should represent. Over the course of the album's six brilliant tracks, the quartet executes jazz's greatest traits with precision and agility. In short, COAST offers everything jazz fans love about the genre, except this time, it's simply performed at a better, higher level.