New Cool Collective

New Cool Collective, founded in 1993, includes some of the coolest musicians on the Dutch music scene. Their music can be described as a fresh and exciting mix of highly danceable soul and jazz, spiced with Latin flavours.
Benjamin Herman, New Cool Collective's bandleader and lead saxophonist, became a well known musician in the European jazz circuit. He has won many prizes, including a scholarship to study at the Manhattan School of Music in New York.

A visit to New York's club 'Giant Steps' inspired Benjamin to start organising parties in Amsterdam. 'Soul Kitchen' was the first club to pick up the idea of hosting a (jazz) band and a DJ on the same night. It was not long before these gigs became a popular event and the band had to find another -bigger- location to continue welcoming the increasing number of guests.
Although the new location 'Naar Boven' was more like a live-music establishment rather than a dance club, the crowds loved the combination of funky jazz music and groovy Latin records, creating the chance to develop New Cool Collective's unique sound, with its great grooving rhythm section, as it is now.

These regular gigs at 'Naar Boven' led to performances at major festivals and parties in the Netherlands, including the North Sea Jazz Festival (The Hague), at 'Club 802 parties' in 'Paradiso' (Amsterdam), the Jazz Bop and Beach Bop parties on the beach at Bloemendaal as well as several concerts featuring Roy Hargrove.

An exciting recent development is the New Cool Collective Big Band, the 19-piece line-up, which first appeared every other Monday at the Meander Café in Amsterdam. Their first album Big Mondays became a huge success and playing this swinging mix of especially for New Cool Collective arranged tunes, they always found an enthusiastic crowd on the dance floor.

February 1998 saw the release of their second album "More!" which was followed by a tour that included Camden's famous Jazz Café in London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In 1999 New Cool Collective released their third album "BIG!" (featuring Georgie Fame), for which they received an Edison (the Dutch Grammy). Highlights of the subsequent U.K. tour were Camden's Mix Festival and the Aberdeen Alternative Festival.

Since 2000, the band has performed at North Sea Capetown Festival (South Africa), Messin' Around 4th Birthday - London and the Latin Massive Event - Bristol (U.K.) as well as touring to festivals in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
In 2001 the band received the Heineken Crossover Award and signed with Sony Music. Their fourth album 'Bring it on" has been released in September 2002. This album was nominated for the Edison Jazz Award 2003 (Dutch Grammy Award).

In 2005 New cool Collective released the album 'Trippin''. With the new repertoire and on-stage enhancements (such as the 19-piece line up), the New Cool Collective has started up again. In the summer of 2005 they played at several European pop festivals including Roskilde, Lowlands and the Hungarian Sgizet Festival. Last February the British Freestyle label released their 12'' version of Perry.

2006 was a busy year for the 8-piece outfit as well, as they did a tour in Canada, were part of a documentary about guitarist Jan Akkerman, while their tour list included performances in the Ukraine, at North Sea Jazz, Noorderslag and the London Jazz Festival.

After their victorious album Trippin' the NCC released a new album in April 2007 (Dox Records). It's the first LIVE album, recorded during a series of sold-out concerts of New Cool Collective's 19-piece (!) Big Band!!
The New Cool Collective continues to be a band that wins over the club scene as easily as they impress the Jazz audience - nationally and internationally alike.

A group of traveling musicians who are close friends as well. This is how the members of New Cool Collective describe their band. The guys that once brought jazz to the dance floor have just released their seventh album: Out of Office. A record with a whole new groove: the sound, though still jazzy and danceable, has become deeper and darker.

This journey has been a metaphorical one through many different music styles, but in this case it was a literal one as well: 'On the road to concerts we were listening to loads of music: Pharoah Sanders, Mongo Santamaria, Jackie Mittoo. Joris Liebrechts, our driver, 'forced' us to listen to his collection as well. Music that we would probably not bring along ourselves, but which was incredibly inspiring: from Mars Volta to The Hives. Rock bands distinguishing themselves through a lack of boundaries and the fact that anything seems possible in their music. All these records, combined with the many endless traffic jams, have had a huge impact on this album."

And where does the journey end? 'Nowhere for the moment. We will continue till we're eighty. We now know exactly what we want and who we are. We can't wait to go on tour." The men keep on traveling, and with pit stops like this record, their trips are definitely worthwhile.