Swedish band covers all bases

It’s a common complaint in the jazz world that the audience is graying, and a visit to many jazz venues tends to confirm the gripe. But the perception is distinctly different for those who check out rooms that don’t ordinarily cater to jazz and acts that don’t fall squarely within the traditional mainstream.

The appearance of the Swedish band Koop at the pop-oriented El Rey Theatre on Thursday touched both those points. Led by keyboardist Oscar Simonsson and effects master Magnus Zingmark, the sextet offered a remarkably inclusive take on jazz -- keeping the mainstream clearly in focus while enhancing the view with the bold sounds and colors of 21st century life.

The talented duo has released a recording, “Waltz for Koop,” with a somewhat similar perspective. But the live performance, enhanced by the solid playing of vibist Mattias Stahl, bassist Martin Hoper and drummer Ola Bothzen, afforded a far better version of the manner in which Simonsson and Zingmark have transformed jazz into a dish palatable to a youthful audience without losing any of its original nutritional values.

Alternating sections of pure, straight-ahead improvising with heavy, sequenced dance tracks, the performance peaked with the singing of 20-year-old Yukimi Nagano. Traces of Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee, liberally seasoned with slippery slides reminiscent of alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, surfaced in her renderings of the group’s single, “Summer Sun,” and the Pharoah Sanders-Leon Thomas classic “The Creator Has a Master Plan.” The enthusiastic response of the overflow crowd suggested that, like Koop itself, Nagano is an artist with an important future.