Nori is a genre-bending band featuring Akina Adderley on vocals (granddaughter of jazz legend Nat Adderley), Erik Telford on trumpet, Nick Litterski on keys, Aaron Allen on upright bass, and Andy Beaudoin on drums. Festival Peak describes Nori as “a five-person gift from Austin, TX.”
While Nori has been performing for well over a decade, the Grammy Awards just recently created an Alternative Jazz category in 2023, a category that speaks to Nori’s diverse musical style – “a genre-blending, envelope-pushing hybrid that mixes jazz (improvisation, interaction, harmony, rhythm, arrangements, composition, and style) with other genres.”
Enriching an aesthetic deeply rooted in American jazz and folk music, the ensemble playfully weaves together a myriad of global influences giving rise to a seamless synthesis of sound. These musical explorations expertly balance the narrative of the lyrics with wide-open improvisations, echoing the transcendent tones of Nina Simone, Bill Frisell, John Coltrane, and Joni Mitchell.
