Origins and members

The NJO was the offspring of a popular weekend jazz club which had its home at 'The Green Man' pub on Blackheath SE3, where the 'house' band was the Ian Bird Quintet (initially comprising Ian Bird, tenor sax; Clive Burrows, baritone sax; Johnny Mealing

John Mealing

John Mealing is a keyboards player, composer and arranger.After leaving the Don Rendell-Ian Carr Quintet in the late-Sixties, he joined the pioneering British jazz-rock band If until they came off the road in 1972...

, piano; Tony Reeves

Tony Reeves

Anthony 'Tony' Reeves is an English bass guitarist/contrabassist, noted for his "extremely prominent and complex bass sound" and use of electronic effects...

, 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

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

-based jazz musicians, such as Harry Beckett

Harry Beckett

Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player.-Biography:A resident in the UK since 1954, Harry Beckett had an international reputation. In 1961, he played with Charles Mingus in the film All Night Long. In the 1960s he worked and recorded within the band of bass...

, Jack Bruce

Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...

, Ian Carr

Ian Carr

Ian Carr was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator.-Early years:Carr was born in Dumfries, Scotland, the elder brother of Mike Carr...

, Dave Gelly, Michael Gibbs

Michael Gibbs

Michael Gibbs is the name of:* Michael Gibbs , Newfoundland lawyer and politician* Michael Gibbs aka Mike Gibbs, jazz composer and arranger* Michael Gibbs , Dean of Cape Town and Dean of Chester...

, Dick Heckstall-Smith

Dick Heckstall-Smith

Dick Heckstall-Smith was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most important English blues-rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...

, Jon Hiseman

Jon Hiseman

Jon Hiseman is an English drummer, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher.-Career:...

, Henry Lowther

Henry Lowther (musician)

Henry Lowther is an English jazz trumpeter.Lowther's first experience was on cornet in a Salvation Army band. He studied violin briefly at the Royal Academy of Music but returned to trumpet by 1960 though he sometimes played violin professionally...

, Don Rendell

Don Rendell

Donald Percy 'Don' Rendell is an English jazz musician and arranger, specialising on tenor saxophone, but also playing soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet....

, Frank Ricotti

Frank Ricotti

Frank Ricotti is an English jazz vibraphonist and percussionist.Ricotti played in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra while a teenager, then attended Trinity College of Music...

, Paul Rutherford

Paul Rutherford

Paul Rutherford is the former backing vocalist, dancer and occasional keyboardist with 1980s pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood , one of the group's two openly gay singers....

, Barbara Thompson

Barbara Thompson

Barbara Gracey Thompson MBE is an English jazz saxophonist, flautist and composer. She studied clarinet, flute, piano and classical composition at the Royal College of Music, but the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane made her shift her interests to jazz and saxophone...

, Trevor Tomkins

Trevor Tomkins

Trevor Ramsey Tomkins is an English jazz drummer best known for his work in a number of British bands in the 1970s, including Gilgamesh.His recorded several albums with pianist Michael Garrick in the late 1960s and early 1970s...

, Michael Phillipson, Les Carter, Tom Harris, Trevor Watts

Trevor Watts

Trevor Charles Watts is an English jazz and free-improvising alto and soprano saxophonist. He is largely self-taught, having taken up the cornet at age 12 then switched to saxophone at 18. While stationed in Germany with the RAF , he encountered the drummer John Stevens and trombonist Paul...

 and Lionel Grigson

Lionel Grigson

Lionel Grigson was a British jazz pianist, cornettist and teacher. He was educated at Dartington Hall School and at King's College, Cambridge University. His father was the critic and poet Geoffrey Grigson and his first wife was the publisher Margaret Busby.In the late 1960s he led a quintet with...

. Ardley, Gibbs, Carter, Rutherford, Michael Garrick

Michael Garrick

Michael Garrick MBE was an English jazz pianist and composer, and a pioneer in mixing jazz with poetry recitations.-Biography:...

, and composer Mike Taylor

Mike Taylor (musician)

Ronald Michael 'Mike' Taylor was a British jazz composer, pianist and co-songwriter for the band Cream.Born in Ealing, West London, Taylor was brought up by his grandparents in London and Kent, and joined the RAF for his national service...

 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.

The newly-formed band finally debuted at The Green Man at Christmas, 1963 as 'The Bird/Burrows Big Band'. Following the departure (in 1964) of Ian Bird from the group, the band briefly became 'The Neoteric Jazz Orchestra' but later settled for 'The New Jazz Orchestra' (NJO).

Later in 1964, the NJO found itself leaderless (Burrows had left to go pro), largely gigless and somewhat wanting in enthusiasm. Ian Carr (who had by then joined the trumpet section) approached Les Carter (who was directing rehearsals) with the suggestion that a friend of his might bring along an arrangement for the band to play through. The' friend' turned out to be pianist and composer Neil Ardley

Neil Ardley

Neil Richard Ardley was a prominent English jazz pianist and composer, who also made a name as the author of more than 100 popular books on science and technology, and on music.-Brief biography:...

 and the arrangement was of Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

's "In a Mellow Tone

In a Mellow Tone

"In a Mellow Tone", also known as "In a Mellotone", is a 1939 jazz standard composed by Duke Ellington, with lyrics written by Milt Gabler. The song was based on the 1917 standard "Rose Room" by Art Hickman and Harry Williams...

". It was not long after this that Ardley was invited by the members to take over the leadership of the NJO - a mantle which he assumed until 1970.

Under Ardley, the NJO fluctuated personnel and instrumentation in a chameleonic fashion - following the colours of his evolving arranging and composing style. However, the (almost) original pallette of instruments and personnel was at last reunited in 1993 for a celebratory 30th anniversary gig at the Barbican Centre

Barbican Centre

The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...

, London.

Discography

• Western Reunion (Decca Records
  Decca Records
  Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
  
  , 1965)
• Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (Verve Records
  Verve Records
  Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
  
  , 1968)
• Camden '70 (live at the Camden Festival) (Dusk Fire Records, 1970)