North East Ska Jazz Orchestra

The North East Ska Jazz Orchestra (NESJO) is a ska-jazz big band based in Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), made up of 16 musicians: three singers, a rhythm section (drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards), three trumpets, two trombones, three saxophones, and a flute.

Active since 2012, the band has released four albums with the Basque label Brixton Records and has played more than a hundred concerts across Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, and Slovakia, performing at festivals such as Pol'and'Rock, Rototom Sunsplash, Iboga Summer Festival, ReggaeBoa, and Freedom Sounds Ska Festival.

In 2024, the band was selected for Jazz IT Abroad, a program promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) and managed by SIAE to support the international promotion of Italian jazz music.

NESJO has collaborated with internationally renowned artists such as Fred Reiter (New York Ska Jazz Ensemble), David Hillyard (The Slackers, Rocksteady 7), and Mr. T-Bone (BlueBeaters, Africa Unite). A particularly successful project was the collaboration with Wicked Dub Division, which resulted in the single “Mama”, whose music video has surpassed 23 million views on YouTube.