New Jazz Orchestra

The New Jazz Orchestra (NJO) was a British jazz big band active from 1963 to 1970.

The NJO was the offspring of a popular weekend jazz club, the "Jazzhouse" which had its home at The Green Man pub on Blackheath Hill (demolished to make way for Allison Close) where the "house" band was the Ian Bird Quintet (initially comprising Ian Bird, tenor sax; Clive Burrows, baritone sax; Johnny Mealing, piano; Tony Reeves, bass and Trevor Tomkins, drums - Mealing and Tomkins left to join the newly formed Rendell-Carr Quintet and were succeeded by Paul Raymond and Jon Hiseman respectively.

The ensemble featured many London-based jazz musicians, such as Harry Beckett, Jack Bruce, Ian Carr, Dave Gelly, Michael Gibbs, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Jon Hiseman, Henry Lowther, Don Rendell, Frank Ricotti, Paul Rutherford, Barbara Thompson, Trevor Tomkins, Michael Phillipson, Les Carter, Tom Harris, Trevor Watts and Lionel Grigson. Ardley, Gibbs, Carter, Rutherford, Michael Garrick, and composer Mike Taylor all contributed pieces and arrangements.

The idea for the NJO was born in the autumn of 1963 out of an enthusiastic late night conversation "about big bands and possibilities" between Clive Burrows and Les Carter (one of the clubs regular helpers and poster writer). The conversation ended with the decision to form such a band around the kernel of the Ian Bird Quintet - Burrows had the "book" (of musicians' telephone numbers) and Carter (himself a developing amateur flautist) undertook to write some arrangements to help swell the initial repertoire.

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