Spank jazz is an underground musical genre which combines jazz idioms with elements of funk, hip hop, rock, popular and electronic music. The name of the style was coined in 2005 upon the release of the Coventry UK band Hojo's debut, and only album Glassbox. The album itself features the track Spank Jazz from which the style's name and slovenly characteristic is derived. The style of spank jazz was notably pioneered by Sunim Koria; a composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, and a founding member of Hojo, together with musician/composer Rudy Gaw and singer-songwriter Verity Pabla. A vast number of stylistic influences of spank jazz are drawn from a diverse range of artists such as Beck, Tricky, James Brown and Brian Wilson, together with the arrangements of Gil Evans (Miles Davis' collaborator) and the work of the American composer George Gershwin.
As of 2006 spank jazz remains deeply rooted in the underground music scene of Coventry, possibly to be long-lost due to the disbanding of Hojo in mid-2005. However, spank jazz remains an eclectic style of music playing a significant, albeit minor role in the evolution of contemporary jazz.
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