The 2006 season moved away from the cool jazz style presented in the 2005 season and focused on the African influence in jazz. The featured ensemble was the twenty-five-piece neophonic orchestra - an expanded jazz orchestra with extensively doubled reeds (saxophonists also playing clarinet, bass clarinet, piccolo, flute and alto flute), French horns, tuba, latin and symphonic percussion and a single violin. The marriage of classical music and jazz introduced at the end of the IJO's 25th Ottawa International Jazz Festival performance was expanded upon with presentations of music that incorporated themes by Beethoven, Grieg, Paganini and Tchaikovsky.

The season began with a two-part celebration of Black History Month bringing together forty artists from Ottawa, Toronto and Montréal. Voices in a Strange Land celebrated songs of the African American/Canadian experience with a fine collection of vocal talent. Suite Freedom recalled jazz of the civil rights movement with seminal works by Charles Mingus and the Canadian premieres of John Coltrane's five-movement Africa/Brass and Duke Ellington's six-movement “Liberian Suite.”

The season ended with a performance by the neophonic orchestra at the 26th Ottawa International Jazz Festival. Those lucky enough to attend this show were treated to a preview of some of the music from future IJO programmes. This concert was the first for the IJO since become officially established in March 2006 and set the stage for an exciting future for the orchestra.