Jazz Composer's Orchestra

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Jazz Composer's Orchestra was a jazz group founded in 1964 to further avant-garde jazz in New York City. Carla Bley and Michael Mantler were important in its organization and style.

Its origins lay in the Jazz Composers Guild, an initiative which grew out of the series of 1964 concerts in New York, known as the "October Revolution in Jazz" and subsequent regular performance settings. After the demise of the Guild, the big band continued as the Jazz Composers' Orchestra, making its first record in April 1965. A non-profit organisation was established in 1966, the Jazz Composers Orchestra Association Inc. (JCOA).

Their 1968 double-album had soloists Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Larry Coryell, and Gato Barbieri. The double album also received several favorable reviews.^[1]

Later recordings included works by Don Cherry, Leroy Jenkins and Grachan Moncur III.

The group's last performance was in 1975. ^[2]

The activities of the group JCOA led to the creation of an important record distribution company known as New Music Distribution Services or NMDS.