Acid jazz is a musical idiom that mixes components of jazz, funk and hip-hop, especially looped beats. It developed in Britain over the 1980s and 1990s and might be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance : jazz-funk musicians like Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are frequently credited as forerunners of acid jazz. Acid jazz in addition has experienced minor influences from soul music, house music, acid rock, and disco. While acid jazz regularly contains various kinds of electronic composition, it is just as certain to be played live by musicians, who frequently showcase jazz interpretation as a part of their performance.

The compositions of groups like Jamiroquai, The brand spanking new Heavies, Los Amigos Invisibles and Incognito often feature chord structures often connected with jazz music. The acid jazz "movement" is also regarded as a revival of jazz-funk or jazz fusion or soul jazz by leading DJs like Norman Jay or Gilles Peterson or Patrick Forge, sometimes called "rare groove crate diggers" or "Cataroos".