Swingin’ Christmas with Houston Jazz Orchestra

The Houston Jazz Orchestra (HJO) was started and organized as a Texas non-profit corporation in 1989. It has been in continuous existence during the past 35 years, with occasional periods of inactivity. In October 2016, the HJO qualified for exemption as a 501(c)(3) organization. The HJO vision is to be accessible to students who are studying and learning to play jazz music by filling the void left by the demise of the legacy professional touring orchestras. In the decades of the 1970s and 80s, many professional big band orchestras regularly tour and performed. The orchestras of leaders Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, and Maynard Ferguson had touring schedules with heavy emphasis on performing at colleges and high schools, in addition to the traditional venues of clubs, theaters, and jazz festivals. These performances fostered the burgeoning jazz education movement by targeting young audiences with performances and masterclasses in high schools and colleges. Moreover, these orchestras recruited talented musicians form colleges with jazz programs most notably University of North Texas, Berklee College of Music, Eastman School of Music, and University of Miami. With the deaths of Kenton, Herman, and Rich in the 1980s and the subsequent death of Ferguson in 2006, few professional jazz orchestras performed publicly, although jazz education is now more prolific than ever in school systems and colleges. There are few opportunities for students to hear, see, and interact with a professional orchestra performing the music they study in school. By performing regularly at a public venue and scheduling clinics through our educational outreach program at area schools, the HJO fills this void. Houston’s top professional jazz musicians make up the 17-piece orchestra. The HJO performed monthly at the House of Blues form 2015 through 2023. Starting in 2024, the HJO performs monthly in The Woodlands at the Dosey Doe Big Barn.