8 Tracks: Viral jazz, fantasy metal and a springtime roséwave jam

8 Tracks is your antidote to the algorithm. Each week, NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich, with the help of his colleagues, makes connections between sounds across time.

A couple years ago, WRTI's Nate Chinen wrote about "viral jazz" — think DOMi & JD Beck, Jacob Collier and Louis Cole. It's less a sound and more an aesthetic, Chinen argues, but captures the inherent cool of jazz on platforms suited to the Most Online. But even more than that, these musicians understand that the audience functions as collaborators of sorts, offering feedback in real time.

I recently stumbled; on a riverwalk, ; in a studio with pianist ELEW, . ( just turned 20 over the weekend, by the way; its brilliance can still be heard everywhere, especially among young jazz musicians.) YouTube is how most folks first found New Jazz Underground, but there's little of the flash or bombast that you might find with similar acts — these Juilliard-trained musicians clearly know the jazz tradition, but push at the corners of hard bop and hip-hop. Classy and classic.