Tip! By the 1960s, the popularity of big bands had waned considerably. The heyday of the 30s and 40s big bands had been superseded in the 1950s by smaller modern and traditional jazz units, skif e and, ultimately, rock and roll, and the prominence they once enjoyed were a fading memory. Although there were still several very ne big bands playing and recording during this time, the economics of the big band in the age of the pop group always put it at a disadvantage. There was, of course, the leading Euro-American ensemble, the Clarke Boland Big Band, and there was still a surprising number of British big bands recording and performing in the 60s and early 70s. Bands such as the Tubby Hayes Orchestra, the John Warren Big Band, the Alan Cohen Big Band, The John Dankworth Orchestra and the various large ensembles led by Mike Gibbs and Mike Westbrook all attest to the big band still being used as a vehicle for composers, players and arrangers to explore ideas, even in an age when the economics of it seemed unviable. Among the most forward thinking and distinctive of all the British big bands of the mid to late-60s was the New Jazz Orchestra (NJO) under the direction of Neil Ardley. 

The NJO was active for less than ten years and recorded only two albums, one of which, their second, Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe (Verve SVLP 9236, 1969), is regarded by some as one of the nest British jazz album of the period. At one time or another, the NJO featured many of the British ‘new wave’ of young jazz musicians and composers who were redening British jazz, sitting alongside more seasoned players. Members variously included Mike Gibbs, Dave Gelly, Ian Carr, Jack Bruce, Henry Lowther, Frank Ricotti, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Harry Beckett, Jon Hiseman, Don Rendell, Paul Rutherford, Barbara Thompson, Michael Garrick, Trevor Tomkins, Michael Phillipson, Les Carter, Tom Harris, Trevor Watts and Lionel Grigson. As well as this impressive assembly of musicians, composers such as Mike Gibbs, Michael Garrick and Mike Taylor also contributed compositions and arrangements.