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 Born on the Isle of Wight in 1972, I began my life in music playing drums but was quickly persuaded onto the guitar by my father's homemade instrument. From age 14 to 19 I played with blues-rock outfits Eat Your Cabbage and The Rhythm Method on the Island and began to broaden my musical horizons by playing in theatre pit orchestras.
(Shows to date include: We Will Rock You, Rent (Musical Director), West Side Story, Evita, Grease, Joseph)
A year in Chichester studying with saxophonist Bobby Wellins, Dave Morrell and Chris MacDonald was followed by three more at Leeds College of Music to study jazz with such players as Adrian Ingram and Mike Walker. This gave me a solid technical grounding and during this time I also gained performing experience playing with street band Bassa Bassa as well as my own jazz quartet. Feeling unfulfilled in my life after college I took the step of moving to Budapest, Hungary in 1997.
Although teaching English to pay the bills, I began to rekindle my musical interests and became involved with various groups including stints with local jazz-funk-triphop-dubsters Ez a Divat and ex-pat rockers Fabulon. This led to several recordings and many performances across Hungary including on the Sziget festival (Central Europe's Glastonbury).
A chance meeting with an American on a train, though, was to be the beginning of my most successful musical venture in Budapest - the Tea Thieves. The group of four from three countries was a diverse mix of musical styles to which I contributed guitar, songs and vocals. The band's weekly residency in a local bar set my song-writing juices flowing seriously for the first time.
Upon my return to the UK in 2002, I formed rock band mFISH with my brother Bruce on drums and began performing regularly with French Jazz singer Mel Stempinski. I have also studied with London based player Mike Outram.
In 2008 I started up my own Blues/Funk outfit The Jamie Howell Band - an organ trio with influences from The Meters to Hendrix featuring the considerable talents of Fabio Iacono and Tonewheel Jackson. The band is currently working with Linley Weir who is bringing her wonderful jazz, blues and soul influenced voice into the mix.
Over recent years I have also worked with The Platters, Poppe and the Seeds and Stonefoxx.
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