On jazz

'Now don't try to kid me man-cub I made a deal with you, what I desire is man's great fire so I can be like you.'

The bear opened its mouth and out from it came the most wonderful music. I was 7 when I fell in love with jazz. Baloo the bear and King Louis the orangutan of the Jungle Book were my jazz heroes. The songs were always the same, but the blare of the trumpets and the thump of the double bass had a terrific effect on a young mind. I grew up on jazz, while others were swooning over boy bands and all things shiny and new, I was interested in the dead people and some who were still alive. Maybe I got old too quickly. Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday spoke to me during times of love and loss while painting a picture of a previous era gone by through the sway and swing of their music. Martin Taylor and Joao Gilberto taught me that the guitar played solo can produce the rhythm of a whole band. From the subtle nuances to the crazy riffs, jazz to me embodies the irregularities, the improvisations and the moods of life – ‘it don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing’.