Geoff Castle Biography
Pianist and composer Geoff Castle has played with top names on the British jazz scene since 1970. He was born in North London in 1949. His father was a photographer, his mother a social worker. Both parents were musical and he started piano lessons at the age of 8. He joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in 1967 with whom he toured nationally and visited France and Bulgaria. After leaving NYJO in 1970 he joined Graham Collier's septet which starred at the 1971 Montreux festival winning two prizes. Geoff has featured in both acoustic and electric jazz and he joined Ian Carr's Nucleus in 1974 playing electric piano and Moog. He played with this band for eight years and appeared on six albums and many European tours. The band played at the first Jazz Yatra in Bombay in 1977. His compositional credits with Nucleus are Rachel's Tune from Snakehips Etcetera, Mysteries from In Flagrante Delicto and Solar Wind from Out of the Long Dark.
During the 1980s he recorded more original material with Strange Fruit and Paz. He was commissioned to compose a suite for Camden Jazz Week 1981 that featured on BBC radio and Channel 4 TV. In 1983 he visited New Zealand where he worked with tenor saxophonist Brian Smith and recorded "Southern Excursion" which was voted NZ jazz album of the year. He was musical director for the NZ film "Should I Be Good?" and played on several other soundtracks. On returning to England he composed the incidental music for BBC TV’s eight part "Nippon" series. Soundtracks he has played on include "The Man Who Fell to Earth", "The Return of the Jedi", and "Space 1999".
In 1995 Geoff was arranger and musical director for the South African percussionist Julian Bahula album "Wind of Change". Geoff Castle decided to invest in a home digital studio based on Tascam DA88 machines and Logic Audio on PC. In 1995 he launched his CD label Turret Records with an album featuring his 10 piece Expanded band. A live album by Latin Fusion group Paz "Dancing in the Park" followed this. The band's next album "Samba Samba" featured veteran vocalist and percussionist Frank Holder in a mix of songs and instrumentals written by Geoff Castle and Dick Crouch.
He has played regularly at Ronnie Scott's with the Stan Robinson Quartet and accompanied visiting artists including US jazzmen George Coleman, Jimmy Giuffre, James Moody and Art Farmer.
The Geoff Castle Trio appeared at the Edinburgh festival in 2006 receiving good reviews Currently Geoff is performing with folk fusion band Carmina