NOJO is an innovative 16-piece jazz orchestra that performs the original compositions of its co-leaders, pianist Paul Neufeld and guitarist Michael Occhipinti. The band's influences include Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Henry Threadgill, Bill Frisell, the music of West Africa, Kenny Wheeler, and many others. NOJO draws on these influences to create a sound all its own, to the delight of critics and jazz fans alike. Both in peformance and on record, NOJO covers a broad stylistic range with an energy and intensity that few jazz ensembles can match. The band's live performances at festivals and clubs have been described as a "happy sort of chaos." NOJO is a group where each member of the ensemble is featured in the writing, and multiple soloists improvise in contexts that are challenging and complimentary.
In the four years since its inception, NOJO has been a creative asset to the Canadian jazz scene. NOJO has been featured on TV Ontario's Studio Two, in an hour-long special for CBC Radio's JazzBeat, and in an one-hour film performing with Don Byron on Bravo! and TFO.
NOJO is based in Toronto, and features some of Canada's best improvising musicians. Featured soloists such as Pat LaBarbara and Mike Murley on tenor saxophone and Kevin
Turcotte on trumpet are themselves JUNO award winners. Other soloists, such as Ernie Tollar on woodwinds or Stephen Donald on trombone are members of the experimental and world music communities. The diversity of the musicians that make up NOJO compliments the stylistic range of the co-leaders' compositions.
