NRG Ensemble was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 ensemble founded in the 1980s by saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Hal Russell

Hal Russell

Hal Russell was an American free jazz musician. He performed mainly on drums and saxophone, but occasionally on trumpet or vibraphone. Russel's fiery music was marked by significant humor, not unlike much of Dutch drummer Han Bennink's output...

.

The group's personnel was somewhat fluid, but included a core of drummer Steve Hunt, saxophonist Mars Williams

Mars Williams

Mars Williams is an American jazz and rock saxophonist. Originally a ten year classical clarinetist after being exposed to Big Band and Dixieland Jazz by his trumpet playing father, Mars migrated to the saxophone in his senior year of high school, citing influences from Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane...

, guitarist/trumpeter Brian Sandstrom, and bassist Kent Kessler

Kent Kessler

Kent Kessler is an American jazz double-bassist, best known for his work in the Chicago jazz and avant garde music scene.Kessler, born in Crawfordsville, IN, grew up on Cape Cod and began playing trombone at age ten. He and his family moved to Chicago when he was 13, and a few years later Kessler...

. Their music could be broadly described as post-bop

Post-bop

Post-bop is a term for a form of small-combo jazz music that evolved in the early-to-mid sixties. The genre's origins lie in seminal work by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...

. Russell was the primary composer, but the other musicians contributed songs as well. Their pun

Pun

The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...

ning song and album titles (Conserving NRG) reflected the humor that permeated Russell's music.

After Russell's death in 1992, the NRG Ensemble recruited saxophonist Ken Vandermark

Ken Vandermark

Ken Vandermark is an American jazz composer and saxophone and clarinet player.A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compositions, which typically balance intricate orchestration with passionate...

as a replacement, recording two more albums.