Women In Jazz presents New Regency Orchestra

New Regency Orchestra has created a storm in the last four years with its mighty twelve-piece horn section, lock-tight five-piece rhythm section and the NRO dancers bringing new energy and arrangements to the golden age of Latin jazz and salsa.

The band’s debut album came out on Mr Bongo Records in 2024 and captures some of the big band’s infectious live energy felt by audiences in clubs and festivals from We Out Here to Womad and La Linea.

One of London’s most electrifying acts, the 18-piece Afro-Cuban jazz big band, inspired by the musical melting pot of NYC in the 1950s, but with the contemporary punch and power of a whole host of London’s best Latin and jazz musicians. NRO’s repertoire reimagines some of the finest music from that golden era. From early 1950s René Hernandez and Tito Puente, through to the 1970s salsa of Rafael Labasta and Orlando Marin, produced and performed with a fresh London fire.

NRO is the brainchild of its artistic director, and the man behind Total Refreshment Centre and co-founder of Church of Sound, Lex Blondin. Through a long-held passion for jazz, Lex discovered the explosive Afro-Cuban rhythms of mid-1940s NYC via the godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz, Mario Bauzá. A time when two musical worlds collided in a fusion of creativity and energy, jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker joining forces with Cuban greats like Machito and Chano Pozo. This vibrant sound was music to dance to and found a home at The New York Palladium, a formative space of freedom and expression that was key to the scene’s development.

Although dance-focussed in their makeup, those early recordings are not often heard in modern club environments and Lex dreamt of retelling their story with a contemporary dynamism.

Enlisting the expertise of some of the capital’s finest talent, Lex and co-captain Andy Wood, of Como No fame, put together a world-class line-up of talent. With Eliane Correa as musical director and bandleader.