Closely linked to contemporary classical music is contemporary improvised and composed jazz music, played for many years in basements and clubs but now attracting sizeable audiences in mainstream venues and festivals

As jazz studies are not taught at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, young Slovene jazz musicians generally study at educational centres abroad, especially in nearby Graz, or in Rotterdam, Helsinki and New York. The Society of Slovene Composers runs a section for light music and jazz which follows trends in contemporary as well as traditional jazz and tries to establish networks of promoters, festivals and clubs.

Popular Slovene jazz groups include jazz orchestras and a cappella groups, eg the RTV Slovenia Big Band, the Greentown Jazz Band, the Slovene Brass Quintet, the Toti Big Band, Fool Cool Jazz and Perpetuum Jazzile Vocal Ensemble. Also popular are experimental jazz groups such as Lolita, the Fake Orchestra and TT Jazz Institution, which include such internationally-renowned musicians as Tadej Tomšič, Vasko Atanasovski (saxophone, flute), Renato Chicco (piano), Žiga Golob (double bass), Primož Grašič (guitar), Lado Jakša (saxophone), Zlatko Kavčič (drums), Nino Mureškič (percussion), Igor Lunder (saxophone) and Samo Šalomon (guitar).

The piano duo 'Gorišek Lazar 2 pianos' combines Bojan Gorišek, the leading Slovenian pianist in the field of contemporary music and Milko Lazar, a composer, pianist, saxophonist, harpsichord player and jazz musician. The piano duo has performed music written for this formation by Milko Lazar round Europe and in New York, crossing the borders between classics and jazz music.

Jazz now features in major music festivals such as Concert Atelier, the Night of Slovene Composers, Slovene Music Days and a number of summer festivals including the Ljubljana Summer Festival, the Lent Festival and the Trnfest Festival. There are also three festivals dedicated to jazz - Ljubljana Jazz Festival, with its 40-year tradition, is today run at Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre, while two recent festivals run by private non-for-profit organisations - Jazz Cerkno Festival and Izzven Jazz Festival, Maribor - are noteworthy for their quality. The Izzven Festival is hosted by KIBLA Multimedia Centre in Maribor, a town which also boasts the popular Satchmo Jazz Club. In Ljubljana the Sax Pub, Gajo Jazz Club and some open-air venues in the centre of the city attract large audiences. The brothers Grašič intiated the Jazz Kamp Kranj in 2004, cf http://www.jazzkamp.com. Brane Rončel has prepared recordings and TV shows in Studio 14 of the RTV Slovenia Radio Studios, Ljubljana for several decades, featuring world-renowned jazz musicians.