The New York Second is a Netherlands-based jazz group established in 2015. It features the compositions of bandleader and pianist Harald Walkate and has released six albums to date, the first fivebeing: Bay of Poets (2017), Emergo (2020), Music at Night (2022), After the Hours, the Minutes (2023); and Room for Other People (2024).
Its latest album, Café Madrid was released February 2026.
The group has performed in different settings ranging from trio to octet. On the new album it plays in quartet setting.
The group’s albums and performances have featured some of the Netherlands’ best-known musicians, including Teus Nobel, Jasper van Damme, Tom Beek, Mark-Alban Lotz, Thomas Pol, Jesse Schilderink, Vincent Veneman and Suzan Veneman. On the most recent two albums, the group is joined by the internationally renowned vibraphonist Rob Waring.
The music of The New York Second can be classified as contemporary jazz, but takes on influences from soul, Latin and classical. Critics have typified the music as “atmospheric”, “poetic” and “cinematic”.
photo: Stijn Kuiper
In August 2022, the prominent Dutch jazz magazine Jazzism featured Harald and The New York Second in an article that covered a wide range of subjects, from Harald’s double life to how a taxi driver in Florida inspired one of the pieces on Music at Night.
Click on the pictures or read the text in pdf for the full story.
Albums
Video
Inspiration
These jazz tracks helped inspire our compositions: to us they are everything that is also often said about our own music – contemporary jazz that is “atmospheric”, “poetic” and “cinematic”. And inspirational!