Gwyneth Herbert - Professional Career

Professional Career

After leaving university, Herbert and Rutter moved to London, where they soon met a former member of Boney M, who was shortly to judge a Polish television music competition. She and Rutter were invited to enter, and Black Coffee won the competition.

After returning to London, Black Coffee continued to perform in local bars, before being introduced to Ian Shaw, a noted jazz vocalist. This led eventually to the production of a debut CD, First Songs, credited to "Gwyn and Will", of both original songs and standards, which was launched at London's Pizza Express Jazz Club in September 2003. The song "Sweet Insomnia" featured guest vocals from Jamie Cullum. The album received a significant amount of radio airplay on Jazz FM and BBC Radio 2, and was promoted by Michael Parkinson.

Soon after, Herbert was signed to the Universal Classics and Jazz label, and released her first major label album, Bittersweet and Blue. This comprised mainly standards, with several Herbert/Rutter original tracks. Herbert's version of Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", taken from this album, was featured on the soundtrack of romantic comedy Leap Year, directed by Anand Tucker and starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode.

Herbert left Universal Classics and Jazz to pursue a less commercial and more personal musical direction. Collaborating with Polar Bear's Seb Rochford in a production role, Herbert's Between Me and the Wardrobe was recorded in three days and never intended for general release. The album was initially released on Herbert's own Monkeywood label before being picked up by Blue Note Records, making Herbert their first UK signing in 30 years.Stuart Nicholson of The Observer said that on this album Herbert "lets the lyrics do the work for her. They are well thought out, moving between artfully constructed soft-focus simplicities to poignant yearning".

In early 2008, Herbert was commissioned by a collaborative project between Peter Gabriel and Bowers & Wilkins to record an acoustic album at Gabriel's Real World Studios. The result of these sessions – "Ten Lives" – was released as a digital download in July 2008, available only from the Bowers & Wilkins website as part of their Music Club.

Remixed versions of these songs were to form the basis of Herbert's album All The Ghosts, which was released by Naim Edge in July 2009 in Europe to critical acclaim;the album was released in the United States in June 2010. This album also featured two further recordings by Robert Harder, who had previously collaborated with Herbert as recording engineer of Between Me And The Wardrobe. All The Ghosts featured a cover version of David Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide".

In October 2009, Herbert returned to Harder Sound Studio to record the song "Perfect Fit" which she gave away as a free download, available exclusively from Naim Edge. It was also released as a single on 7 March 2011. The track was also one of nine tracks on her EP Clangers & Mash, released on 1 November 2010, which included remixes, by Seb Rochford of Polar Bear, of some of her previously published songs.

In January 2010, Herbert was commissioned by Snape Maltings as artist in residence to write, record and perform a new body of work based on stories of the sea. This was performed in October 2010 at Snape Maltings. An album of this music, entitled Sea Cabinet, is scheduled for release in 2013.

In March 2010 she performed a newly commissioned score for Marion Davies’ 1928 silent comedy classic The Patsy, at BFI Southbank's Birds Eye View Film Festival.

In July 2012 she performed, with BBC Radio 3 DJ Max Reinhardt and Paris-based singer China Moses, in a revue by Alex Webb which told the story of Café Society, New York’s first non-segregated nightclub. The show had a London Jazz Festival premiere at the Southbank Centre and a successful run at Kilburn's Tricycle Theatre.

In 2012, Herbert joined forces with members of the Buck Clayton Legacy Band to explore, in a series of concerts and talks, the jazz repertoire of Peggy Lee.