Your Guide to the Local Jazz Scene
SNZ, whose most recent studio album titled Beasts Of Burgundy debuted at #4 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart, have released eight studio records throughout their career including their pivotal album Hot (1996). Lauded for taking their signature style of anti-establishment sound to commercial radio, Hot was the band’s sophomore album and was certified Platinum in 1997.
SNZ began their musical journey in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the mid 1990s, as a musician’s escape from the cookie-cutter world of modern rock radio at the time. Mathus, along with drummer/percussionist Chris Phillips, formed the band as a casual musical foray among friends and family in the area. It wasn’t long before the band’s quirky mix of jazz chords, folk music, and punk rock leanings spread out of the region and attracted a national audience.
Since reactivating in mid-2016, SNZ have been performing to packed houses across the country and around the world. As Mathus has said since the band’s re-launch, “it’s not a reunion, it’s a revival.”