The band

February 14, 2008. It is that evening that the George Robert Jazz Orchestra was born at the Barnabé Theater in Servion (VD), Switzerland. That night over 500 people attended this sold-out performance while 150 additional spectators were waiting, hoping to get in. This magic evening featured US-vocalist Sandy Patton.

After such a wonderful beginning George Robert decided to officially launch the George Robert Jazz Orchestra and put together a big banad with the brightest and most talented jazz musicians of the Lake Geneva Region.
After all, George Robert’s passion for big band music dates back to his many years in New York City where he got to play with the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Jazz Orchestra as well as the Lionel Hampton Big Band. In addition George played lead alto in the Phil Woods Big Band which performed in 18 prestigious European jazz festivals in 1998. Earlier George had been playing lead alto in the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra, with fellow musicians Tood Coolman, Kevin Hayes, Steve Turre and Jon Gordon.

En 1998 George dirigea le Swiss Jazz School Big Band dans une tournée aux Etats-Unis et en 2003 il fonda et lança le Swiss Jazz Orchestra à Berne.
In order to reach its goal of becoming one of the leading jazz orchestras in Europe, George decided to launch a series of monthly concerts in Geneva and Lausanne (Wednesday in Geneva at the Alhambra Theatre and Thursday in Lausanne at the Chorus jazz club). The repertoire of the big band changes every month and very often international guest stars are invited to be featured with the GRJO. Among others : Ivan Lins, Bob Mintzer, Claudio Roditi, David Linx, Sandy Patton, Francis Coletta.
In May 2009 the GRJO will record its first album, this debut album will feature Brazilian star composer & vocalist Ivan Lins, and the repertoire will present many of his compositions and it will be arranged exclusively for the GRJO by George’s long-time friend Bob Mintzer.

The album will be released in the summer of 2009 and a special CD release party and concert will take place in Geneva with Ivan Lins and Bob Mintzer on July 20, 2009.
We are presently working on several fabulous projects which you will hear about in the media in the near future. Stay tuned !
We now invite  you to go look at the page « GRJO ASSOCIATION » and invite you to join our new association to help us maintain this greta big band tradition. Jazz music is a very special art form and it needs your help as well as ours to help keeping it alive ! We need all of you !