About Us

The Ashfield Little Big Band and the Inner West Jazz Orchestra are community-based Jazz ensembles delivering quality musical education to students from Sydney’s Inner West and Lower North Shore. Created in 2005 by Musical Director Jason Isaac, the bands’ program comprises students between ages 11 and 18, who join by audition, and learn about the rich history of the Jazz genre by attending weekly rehearsals, regular workshops & masterclasses and performing in a range of venues in Australia.

Comprising the standard line-up of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, guitar, piano, bass & drums, the ensembles’ repertoire includes music from the library of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, as well as a range of Salsa, Samba, Tango, Soul & New Orleans 2nd Line classics.

The bands have performed at The Sydney Opera House, for the Ashfield Carnival of Cultures, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australian Institute of Music, at a range of local school and community events each year, and have played at many of Sydney’s well-known music venues

including the El Rocco Jazz Cellar (Sydney’s oldest Jazz Club), Lazybones Lounge, Camelot Lounge, Petersham Bowling Club, Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club, Wests Sports Club, and the Concordia Club. The band was awarded 1st place in the City of Sydney Eisteddfod, and they have undertaken annual tours to the Moruya Jazz Festival, The Manly International Jazz Festival, and the Newcastle Jazz Festival.

In 2018 the band mounted its first international tour; undertaking an 8-concert tour of Hawaii which included a support for the US Airforce of the Pacific Jazz Ensemble and a performance at the Blue Note Jazz Club.

Past members of the band have gone on to study Jazz Performance at Australia’s finest tertiary music institutions and can be found working professionally as musicians around the world.

As a community band, in addition to our director, the Band is managed by the parents of band members who form the management committee

If you or someone you know would like to be a part of The Ashfield Little Big Band, annual auditions are held each September, but you are welcome to contact us anytime to try out. An application form is available on the ContactDetails page.

Jazz music we play

The following are recent recordings of the band

• Salsa_Nights.mp3: Salsa Nights

• The_Sermon.mp3: The Sermon

Jason Isaac

has been conducting orchestras, symphonic bands, and jazz ensembles for the past 20 years. Currently working at a number of schools in Sydney, he also lectures at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and at St Andrew’s College, Sydney University. In addition, Jason works at The NSW Department of Education Arts Unit as conductor of the NSW Public Schools’ Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

Studying abroad with Victor Lewis, Jeff Hirschfield, Gregory Hutchinson and Carl Allen (Julliard); in 2009 he was accepted into the Symphony Australia Development Program where he conducted The Auckland Philharmonic, Orchestra Victoria, Adelaide Symphony and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. As part of this program, Jason studied with Lutz Koehler (Berlin), Arvo Volmer (Estonia) Marko Letonja (Slovenia) and Christopher Seaman (UK). In 2014, Jason made his conducting debut to acclaim at Chicago’s Midwest Clinic; the world’s largest music education conference; and is part of the Music Production Team for the Schools’ Spectacular.

Jason has presented professional development sessions for ABODA, the ASBOF and the NSW Department of Education and has published articles on Jazz Pedagogy and Repertoire Selection. In 2015, 2016 and 2018 he was the proud recipient of both the Secondary and Primary Schools’ ABODA Awards at the Australian School Band & Orchestra Festival. He has worked as Adjudicator and Clinician for the Australian International Music Festival and in January 2018 was engaged as a Course Associate Teacher for the ABODA Conducting Summer School.

Jason has toured extensively, both regionally and internationally and has performed in over 20 countries. He holds a BMus(Perf), and a%DipMus (Jazz Perf) from the Sydney Conservatorium, and a Masters of Teaching from the University of Sydney. He is in demand as a clinician and adjudicator throughout Australia