The Quartet Jazz Standards Podcast

A drummer who has spent years supporting the band decides to step out front with a chromatic harmonica, and everything changes: the pressure, the focus, and the way you think about melody. Geoff sits down with drummer and harmonica player Pat Levett in West London to trace his path from cathedral choir discipline and self-taught drums to becoming a new voice on an instrument that rewards nuance an...

A message lands on Ray Gelato's Instagram: the producers of ‘The Voice’ want him on the show. He assumes it is a scam, ignores it, then suddenly finds himself in rehearsals, stood on tape marks at ITV, and facing the most frightening performance set-up of his life. Geoff sits down with Ray at his home in West London to get the full story, from the moment Kelly Rowland turns her chair to what...

You can tell a lot about a musician by the jobs they keep getting called for, and renowned bassist and musical author Phil Mulford has built a career that spans session bass, West End theatre pits, TV work, pop touring, jazz fusion, and film recording. Geoff meets Phil in his South London studio and starts right at the beginning: picking up bass at school because it was the only instrument left, t...

Perfect pitch, bebop, and the hard reality of a badly formatted big band chart all collide in this week’s episode. Geoff chats with the brilliant Alex Clarke, a young UK alto saxophonist (and multi-instrumentalist) who already sounds like she has lived inside the music for decades. Geoff welcomes Alex into his South London home and gets straight into the choices that shaped her career from Cheshir...

Geoff is in Croydon, South London to meet the accomplished British bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and musical director of the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra, Pete Long. One record can reroute a whole life, and for Pete it was Glenn Miller’s version of the Joe Garland hit ‘In the Mood’ (1939). Pete follows the sound from swing into the deeper waters of Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie, where bi...

Geoff is backstage at Hadleigh Jazz Club in Suffolk, England with the celebrated jazz singer, guitarist and bandleader Denny Ilett. Denny begins the conversation talking about growing up on a council estate with his trumpet-playing dad, a house full of Louis Armstrong and big band records, and the moment guitar finally cuts through via T-Bone Walker and then Jimi Hendrix. If you care about jazz gu...

Geoff is in Camden, North London to meet with the legendary jazz pianist, singer/songwriter, producer, author and renowned interviewer Ben Sidran. A $3 school-dance gig. A teenage obsession with Horace Silver. A lifetime of paging through the fake book and letting songs teach you who you are. The conversation quickly turns into what jazz does best: stories, swing, and the kind of hard-won clarity...

Geoff sits down with the wonderful jazz pianist, composer and arranger Tim Lapthorn to trace how his ear led him from pop songs and a battered copy of the Real Book to a deep, personal approach to jazz harmony and improvisation. We talk about everything from recording at Abbey Road, a session with Ron Carter and returning after a long pause, and the chord choices that make a standard suddenly soun...

A Hammond organ isn’t just an instrument, it’s a moving machine, and you can hear it breathe the moment you sit next to it. Geoff heads to North London to meet the wonderful jazz organist Pete Whittaker in his “organ room” and get properly nerdy about what makes a Hammond C3 feel so alive under the fingers, from the whirr of the tone wheels to the choices that shape a great jazz organ sound. We di...

John Etheridge has one of those musical lives that only makes sense when you hear it out loud: a British jazz guitar legend and composer who starts with Hank Marvin’s look, gets knocked sideways by Django Reinhardt, then hunts for a sound that can hold both jazz harmony and rock electricity at the same time. Geoff meets John at his place in Hampstead, North London, and they talk through the moment...

From the first minute of Geoff’s chat with drummer, percussionist, and educator Marc Cecil, we get into the craft behind Latin percussion and the small details that make a groove feel like Brazil rather than a generic “Latin” approximation. Mark traces his musical origin story from seeing Paul McCartney in a small UK theatre as a kid to practising obsessively at school, then landing at Middlesex o...

Geoff sits down with Swedish jazz guitar virtuoso Ulf Wakenius in a back room at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London and traces the real chain of events that took him from Scandinavian gigs to recording with Ray Brown and spending 10 years beside Oscar Peterson. Ulf describes the moments that quietly changed everything: touring Europe with Ray Brown, landing in CBS Studios in New York, and reali...

Paul McCartney in the room on your first tune at Ronnie Scott’s would rattle anyone, but pianist and composer Tom Cawley somehow turned moments like that into fuel! Geoff sits down with Tom for a warm, very honest catch-up that traces Tom’s path into the London jazz scene, from a school big band in Lincoln to the Royal Academy of Music, and the sudden realisation of just how much listening, harmon...

We're at the Royal Academy of Music in London with the internationally renowned jazz educator, trumpeter and conductor Nick Smart. Geoff talks to Nick about what it takes to run a top jazz course, why small intakes are designed around real working ensembles, and how the best training stays rooted in playing, listening, and learning tunes properly rather than hiding behind theory talk. Jazz st...

Tokyo is the backdrop for a relaxed but deep jazz guitar conversation between host Geoff and Los Angeles-based, world-renowned guitarist and educator Larry Koonse, hours before they play at the Blue Note. We talk about how a life in jazz actually gets built: early listening at home, finding the music through friends, and learning from mentors who shape your sound for decades. Larry explains why ja...

In this episode, Geoff catches up with the super-talented saxophonist, guitarist, composer and arranger Harry Greene - a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music who is already making a big name for himself on the London jazz scene. We are in a back room at The Stables Theatre in Milton Keynes and it is abundantly clear that Harry has a serious work ethic and a wide-angle taste. He takes us r...

Geoff sits down with American Grammy-winning pianist, composer, arranger and former Jazz Messenger Geoffrey Keezer who is in London for a series of concerts. He begins by describing playing jazz clubs as a teenager, playing piano for Art Blakey at age 18 and touring alongside Benny Golson and Ray Brown while still in his 20s. He shares how he came up through Aebersold play-alongs, the early Real B...

Geoff has travelled to Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London’s Soho district to meet with the legendary Brazilian jazz guitarist Romero Lubambo. In a candid interview between his run of shows with Dianne Reeves, Romero contemplates what changes when there’s no band behind you: you become the time, the bass, the harmony, the dynamics, and the safety net, all while keeping the song clear and the singer...

Geoff is in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire to meet with the renowned British jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader Tim Garland for a wide-ranging conversation on how a real musical voice is built over decades…not weeks. We start with the spark: ECM Records vinyl, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and the late Ralph Towner, plus the pull of funk and rhythm that hits you in the chest. Tim breaks down how...

Geoff closes the year with a Christmas ‘session’ that blends memory, humour, and unapologetic swing, featuring the brilliant Ian Shaw and the incomparable Trudy Kerr. From the first count-in you can feel the band's pocket and the playful way we shape tradition: ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’ settles into a medium swing, ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ nods to Horace Silver, ‘Hark! The Herald Angels...

Geoff is in the coastal town of Deal in Kent to meet with the wonderful jazz singer and lyricist Norma Winstone. A childhood steeped in radio, a cinema crush on Lena Horne, and a record collection that swung from Ella and Louis to Sinatra’s ‘Only The Lonely’—Norma charts how a voice finds its own gravity. We talk about the hinge moments that redirected the road: pub sit‑ins that led to John Taylor...

Geoff is back in Bedford, England to sit down with the highly-acclaimed American singer, songwriter and keyboardist Charlie Wood. A voice steeped in Memphis and refined in London, Charlie Wood’s conversation moves from Beale Street grind to big-band elegance. We start with origins: a home filled with Charlie Parker records, classical lessons, and the kind of eclectic listening that makes Johnny Ca...

This week Geoff is in Bedford, England to meet with one of the most highly regarded British jazz singers Jacqui Dankworth MBE – daughter of singer Cleo Laine and musician John Dankworth. A song can carry a family. This episode begins with Stephen Sondheim and a daughter finding strength after losing her mother, the incomparable Cleo Laine. From the first quiet days after the memorial to the bright...

Geoff is in Ruislip, West London at the home of the legendary jazz bassist Dave Green. A soft case in an aircraft hold, a school-grade rental at a major festival, and the quiet conviction that your sound should survive all of it—Dave takes us through a bassist's life built on time, touch, and taste. From tea chest beginnings with next‑door neighbour Charlie Watts, to month-long residencies at...

Geoff is in the Hertfordshire town of Watford to chat with the wonderful British jazz vibraphone player Anthony Kerr…digging into practice, reading, and why space shapes sound. A trumpet felt like the wrong clothes. Drums were closer. Then Anthony hit a vibraphone at the Belfast School of Music and everything snapped into place. That moment of fit carries through this conversation as we trace his...