Brendan Power

When I first arrived in London from New Zealand in early 1992 I had no gigs, and my limited funds dwindled rapidly in that expensive city! To try and bring in some cash I entered a few music talent contests, and won enough from prizes to survive for a bit longer. They also helped with meeting people in the London music scene. One of the other entrants in one contest was a well-known East End singer, who invited me to sit in for a couple of tunes with his band at a weekend gig. My guest spot went over well, and as I was leaving the stage the keyboard player told me to wait to talk to him after the set.

He turned out to be the respected UK jazz pianist Geoff Castle, who promptly invited me to join his band in the Famous Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Festival later that year. My first UK gig, and a good one at that! Our friendship quickly grew and we recorded a bunch of our original tunes towards the end of the year, along with young jazz fusion musicians Steve Taylor (drums) and Rufus Philpott (bass). The tracks were never released, but after Geoff’s sudden death in February 2020 I went back and listened to them again. They stand up well despite the years in between, so I've put them up here for others to enjoy.

The tunes marked with asterisks are Geoff's originals, and the rest are my compositions or arrangements. Mine are available for download, but if you want to hear and download Geoff's tunes I encourage you to visit his website, where he has them recorded with many top names in the British jazz scene.

RIP Geoff Castle – you live on in your wonderful music.