Nu jazz (also spelled nü jazz or called jazztronica or future jazz) is a type of music that mixes jazz with electronic music. This style combines jazz sounds with other types of music, such as funk, electronic music, and free improvisation.

Nu jazz usually goes further into electronic music than its similar cousin, acid jazz. Nu jazz music can be very creative and can sound very different from one song to another. It moves away from the blues roots that acid jazz still keeps, instead focusing more on electronic sounds and soft, flowing jazz tones. "The main focus of nu jazz is the music itself, not how skilled the musicians are," writes Sunday People.

History

Nu jazz started with the use of electronic instruments in the 1970s. Artists such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Ornette Coleman helped shape the genre. Herbie Hancock’s work in the early 1980s, especially his collaboration with Bill Laswell on the album Future Shock, was very important in defining nu jazz by using sounds from electronic music and hip-hop. By the late 1980s, many hip-hop musicians tried out jazz-rap, including groups like Gang Starr, The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, and Nas. At the same time, in the 1980s, house musicians took ideas from jazz, especially post-bop and jazz-funk.

In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, downtempo artists such as Jazztronik, St Germain, Trüby Trio, DJ Takemura, Perry Hemus, and Jazzanova focused more on jazz. During the same time, producers of intelligent dance music, including Squarepusher and Spring Heel Jack, and later London Elektricity and Landslide, also showed interest in nu jazz. Techno musicians like Carl Craig and his Innerzone Orchestra project were interested in the genre. Artists from hardcore and breakcore scenes, such as Alec Empire, Nic Endo, and Venetian Snares, experimented with a louder and more intense version of nu jazz. A decade later, some dubstep producers, like Boxcutter, explored electronic jazz.

Pianist Bugge Wesseltoft and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær kept traditional jazz styles while creating improvisations in the nu jazz style. The Cinematic Orchestra combined traditional jazz with electronic music in their work. St Germain, a well-known figure in nu jazz, sold 1.5 million copies of his album Tourist.