Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra with Bob Brookmeyer and George Garzone

The Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra (AIJO) is a full big band based in Boston that has recently performed with Bob Brookmeyer, George Garzone, Joe Lovano and Frank Tiberi at venues such as the Berklee Performance Center, The Zeitgeist Gallery and the Western Front Club. The ensemble performs originals and arrangements of Ayn Inserto, who is highly influenced by Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider and Jim McNeely. The jazz orchestra recently finished a recording with Bob Brookmeyer and George Garzone. Ms. Inserto thrives to make her music swing with a modern twist and her orchestra will not fail to produce a thrilling performance.

Ayn Inserto is a groundbreaking composer who is emerging as one of the preeminent voices of her generation. She received her Masters of Music degree in Jazz Composition from the New England Conservatory in May 2001. She is a winner of the 2003 ASCAP Young Jazz Composers' Award and has received various honors which include the Concord Pavilion Associates Marian McPartland Award, the Pacific Coast Jazz Festival Most Outstanding small jazz ensemble, and the 1999 Best Original Composition award at the Billy Higgins Jazz Festival. She currently studies jazz composition with Bob Brookmeyer as his protege. Her music has been performed at the Berklee Performance Center, 1999 IAJE Convention, California State University of Hayward Jazz Festivals, Reno Jazz Festival, Billy Higgins Jazz Festival, New England Conservatory of Music, Montreux Jazz Festival and the Umbria Jazz Festival.

Ayn has been commissioned by Foxboro High School, Harvard Jazz Band, Marin Catholic High School and Fairfield High School, and recently by George Garzone to arrange his music featuring him as a soloist with jazz orchestra.

Saxophonist George Garzone is a member of The Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Bob Gullotti, that performs regularly in the Boston area and has toured Portugal. The group has released three albums. A veteran jazzman, Garzone has appeared on over 20 recordings. He began on the tenor when he was six, played in a family band and attended music school in Boston. In addition Garzone has guested in many situations, touring Europe with Jamaaladeen Tacuma and performing with Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano, Jack DeJohnette, Rachel Z, Tom Harrell, Dave Liebman, and John Patitucci, among others.

Garzone is well-known as a sought-after jazz educator, teaching at the Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music, New York University and the New School University Jazz and Contemporary Program. He has pioneered the triadic chromatic approach and his students have included Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis, Teadross Avery, Luciana Souza, Mark Turner, Donny McCaslin, Doug Yates and Danilo Pérez, to name a few.

In 1995 he recorded a fine tribute to Stan Getz on NYC called Alone; Four's and Two's followed a year later with compatriot Joe Lovano which earned him four stars in Downbeat magazine, and in 1999 Garzone returned with Moodiology. Fringe in New York was released in summer 2000. He is a member of the Grammy-winning Joe Lovano Nonet, and performed and recorded with this group at the Village Vanguard in September 2002. He also recently performed at the Berklee Performance Center with legendary trombonist, Bob Brookmeyer.

Bob Brookmeyer has long been the top valve trombonist in jazz and a very advanced arranger whose writing is influenced by modern classical music. He started out as a pianist in dance bands but was on valve trombone with Stan Getz (1953). He gained fame as a member of the Gerry Mulligan quartet (1954-1957), was part of the unusual Jimmy Giuffre Three of 1957-1958 (which consisted of Giuffre's reeds, Brookmeyer's valve trombone, and Jim Hall's guitar), and then re-joined Mulligan as arranger and occasional player with his Concert Jazz Band. Brookmeyer, who was a strong enough pianist to hold his own on a two-piano date with Bill Evans, occasionally switched to piano with Mulligan. He co-led a part-time quintet with Clark Terry (1961-1966), was an original member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestra (1965-1967), and became a busy studio musician. Brookmeyer was fairly inactive during much of the 1970s, but made a comeback in the late '70s with some very advanced arrangements for the Mel Lewis band (of which he became musical director for a time). Brookmeyer moved to Europe, where he continually writes and occasionally records on his distinctive valve trombone, issuing Old Friends in 1998. New Works Celebration appeared a year later, and in 2000 Brookmeyer issued Together.