The James Taylor Quartet & Noel McKoy - Hope & Pray - Big Life - Acid Jazz

Information on the Acid Jazz Genre

Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are often credited as forerunners of acid jazz. Acid jazz has also experienced minor influences from soul, house, acid rock, and disco.

While acid jazz often contains various types of electronic composition (sometimes including sampling or live DJ cutting and scratching), it is just as likely to be played live by musicians, who often showcase jazz interpretation as part of their performance. The compositions of groups such as Jamiroquai, Galliano, The Brand New Heavies, Los Amigos Invisibles and Incognito often feature chord structures usually associated with jazz music.

The acid jazz "movement" is also seen as a revival of jazz-funk or jazz fusion or soul jazz by leading DJs such as Norman Jay or Gilles Peterson or Patrick Forge, also known as "rare groove crate diggers" or "Cataroos".