The Gary Urwin Jazz Orchestra - Flying Colors (2024)

We’re an eighteen-piece “big band” jazz group based in Los Angeles. The band is comprised of players with whom leader Gary Urwin has been associated over the years as an arranger and trumpet player. Gary’s role is to arrange or compose all the music we do, and to lead the band when we perform or record.

With the active support of Business Manager and co-producer Pat Longo, we began work on our first CD (“Perspectives”), which debuted on Sea Breeze Records in 2000. Word of mouth spread quickly, and the band’s activities grew into enthusiastically-received live appearances, a follow-up Sea Breeze CD (“Living in the Moment”) in 2003 reflecting the band’s development and growth, and our latest CD on Summit Records, “Kindred Spirits.”

The band is committed to using familiar tools in a fresh way to stretch the idiom, while always swinging and remaining true to the jazz roots of the music.

The band has been referred to as “A veritable who’s who among the Los Angeles area’s most accomplished studio and big-band artists.” It enjoys the talents of well known Los Angeles jazz personalities Pete Christlieb, Wayne Bergeron, Bobby Shew, Carl Saunders, Rick Baptist, Kim Richmond, Dan Higgins, Charlie Loper, Alex Iles, Pete De Siena, Ron King, Christian Jacob, Trey Henry, Ralph Razze and many others. Other jazz artists for whom Gary has written include Bill Watrous, Arturo Sandoval and Mike Vax.

We hope you enjoy what we do!