New Cool Collective consists of saxophonist Benjamin Herman, drummer Joost Kroon, percussionists Frank van Dok and Jos de Haas, pianist Willem Friede, bassist Leslie Lopez, trumpeter David Rockefeller and guitarist Roy Ronde. In 2014, ‘Electric Monkey Sessions’ saw the light and it’s been inspired by a great variety of exotic influences, such as the Senegalese Orchestra Baobab, psychedelic cumbia, Cape Town, Italian cinema and other renowned jazz musicians; then, in 2016, the follow-up ‘The Things You Love’ finally came out. On this record, NCC mixes their classic cocktail of soul, jazz and pop and then pours it out over Matt Bianco’s (Marco Reilly) vocal retro pop-jazz; the former is also famous for his nostalgic 80’s hits like ‘Whose Side Are You On?’ and ‘Don’t Blame It On That Girl’.
The ensemble was founded in 1993, originally as a ‘live-dance project’ by formerly-DJ Graham B, who is renowned for his contributions to the first Dutch jazzdance. It’s crystal clear that he didn’t quite limit himself to that. At this point in their career, the band has toured an unmentionable amount of times through the UK, Germany, the Benelux, Africa, Canada, Russia and Japan. Not only did they play in the coolest and smoothest of jazz clubs, they also performed at some of the biggest rock and pop festivals, like the Danish Rockskilde, Sziget in Hungary, Fuji Rock in Japan, Lowlands in The Netherlands and the Camden Mix Festival and the Aberdeen Alternative Festival in the UK.
