During the orchestra's long history since 1965, most of the rising generation of jazz musicians have passed through its ranks, often becoming established jazz stars whilst still playing with NYJO. One of NYJO's aims is to share the talents of these exciting young players with as wide an audience as possible.

Under its founding Musical Director, Bill Ashton MBE, NYJO has performed many hundreds of concerts all over Britain, from Ronnie Scott's Club, The Barbican, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Usher Hall Edinburgh, The Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, to theatres, clubs and schools. It has made numerous television and radio programmes, recorded around 40 albums, and visited most European Countries as well as USA, Australia and New Zealand.

The available repertoire is enormous and covers a wide variety of styles, so that diverse occasions can be catered for & non-jazz audiences as well as aficionados can enjoy a NYJO concert.

At the other end of the scale, NYJO is recognized as a world-class jazz orchestra, and regularly tops the bill at festivals. As John Dankworth says "Forget the word Youth, this is one of the best bands you will ever hear" and if proof were needed, in July 2002 NYJO was voted Best Big Band for the 4th time in the British Jazz Awards by both the critics and the general public.