Tea Break
A series where musicians and others stop by for an imaginary Tea Break to talk about their music and projects.
Deirdre Cartwright
It was raining. In many ways it came as a relief after the days of hot weather, but it had come as a surprise. The Café le Rêve was busy with customers either taking shelter or putting off going back out into the rain. Natalie was serving - it dawned on me that she didn't instruct customers to 'Enjoy' but offered her native 'Bon Appetit'.
Ferdinand, the owner, was at the coffee machine, and Joe, the chef was taking a quick break at the small table at the back by the kitchen door. He waved. Thankfully, Natalie had put a 'reserved' sign for me in the opposite back booth.
"Have you got an appointment, Ian?" called Joe. Joe is also a fine jazz pianist and his trio has a local evening residency.
"Yes, guitarist Deirdre Cartwright. Deirdre has a new album out."
"Is that Deirdre from Alison Rayner's 'ARQ'? I remember her from a band, The Guest Stars, she is really good. Actually, Ian, you must watch a forty-five minute video documentary on YouTube about the band - it is introduced by Deirdre and Alison and has great footage of the band from 1985 (here). It starts with them going to a gig in the snow with all their gear and you immediately appreciate how the scene was at the time. When Deirdre comes, you must introduce me."
"I will. Deirdre is coming to talk about her latest band and recording, ORGANIK"
"Great name! Do you think she will sponsor my organic burger recipe?"
As if on cue, Natalie came over with an order for two burgers, Joe disappeared to the kitchen and Deirdre came into the café. Natalie spotted her and put on some music from Deirdre's album as a welcome:
Hi Deirdre, Thank you for coming in all this rain. We’ve got a booth at the back of the café so come and get dry. Can I get you a tea, coffee or something?
Hi Ian, black coffee please.
The other members of ARQ must envy you with a guitar in weather like this – Alison carrying her double bass, Buster with a drum kit, Steve with a keyboard, and depending how many saxes Diane is taking?
Well I do have to bring my amp and some pedals when I play with ARQ as well as my Epiphone Casino guitar. Steve meanwhile usually plays the acoustic piano at the gig so I think he usually gets off quite lightly – though Steve did have to play an out of tune piano at a recent gig ... ooh not nice!
ARQ is so successful and you must know each other so well over what is a long time, personally and with playing. Do you remember how you first got together with Alison?
Alison and I met in 1976 when she had only been playing bass for two weeks. I considered myself a ‘lead guitarist’ as was the trend in those days. Alison remembers I wanted to play very loud and very fast – it’s a miracle that we ended up playing together in so many groups over the past 50 years. We both shared a love of jazz even then, though it was more fusion jazz - Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report, Chick Corea.
Those were heady days! Not to mention when you were presenting the BBC TV’s series ‘Rockschool’ - I believe that Herbie Hancock presented the American version. What was the idea behind that and do you have good memories of the programme?
Ah yes, the series explored the history of rock music and gave instruction in popular performance techniques. Back in 1983 I was spotted busking in Covent Garden with Ruthie Smith and Julia Doyle from The Guest Stars by the producer of the show, Chris Lent. I think he was impressed by my playing but as we were playing jazz standards he needed to know if I could play and illustrate other styles. It took the BBC two weeks to track me down and having gone in for an informal chat with my guitar, Chris offered me the guitar presenter role that day. I think it was the fact that I had played with Painted Lady in a heavy rock band, as well as my love for blues, soul and reggae – but no jazz!
There might not have been 'jazz' specifically but jazz has many influences. I guess many people now see you mainly as a member of ARQ, but of course you play with other groups too?
Yes, that's right. I led my own group for many years and released 5 albums, mostly of my original material. We played international festivals and many UK gigs but leading a band is pretty exhausting. When Alison formed ARQ in 2012 I was very pleased to be part of her group and of course we continued to programme many gigs with Blow the Fuse club from the Vortex at that point.
And now, after how many years? you have released a new album – ‘ORGANIK’? I smiled when I saw ‘Stereo’ on the album cover. I believe that ORGANIK is also the name of the Trio. Where did the name come from?
Well, I started to play some duo gigs with Pete Whittaker, it was the first time I had regularly played with jazz organ and we just gelled - our playing and love of the 1950s/60s guitar organ sound. Then I played a gig with Gary Hammond who was in my band for many years until he moved out of London. I wondered what it would be like to have an organ trio with congas/percussion instead of drums? The trio played a couple of gigs and it just worked. It was ‘ORGANIK’ because Pete, Gary and I worked so effortlessly as a trio.
I think the album is a nice balanced mix of standards and new tunes and immediately enjoyable. You released Mango Bango as the first single. Let’s take a listen …
That is such a happy track and Pete Whittaker’s Hammond organ and Gary Hammond’s (no relation!) percussion fit so well. Does that track take you back to your times with the Latin music of the The Guest Stars?
The Guest Stars always had the congas and percussion of Linda da Mango. and we were influenced by Latin and African music. I think when The Guest Stars stopped touring I wanted to continue with that sound and in my first groups I often used percussion as well as drums.
I like the way the album opens with your version of Eleanor Rigby, I think well known tunes like Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise and On Green Dolphin Street too, draw listeners in to an album so they can appreciate the improvisations and also experience the new music. Was choosing tunes for the album a challenge?
To be honest Ian, it was quite an easy choice. I just thought what tunes do I love from my repertoire, and what tunes work with this line-up? I mulled it over for a few days and I knew these were the tunes I wanted to put on the album,
How about another coffee, Deirdre. and they have some nice cakes here – what can I tempt you to?
I don’t usually eat cakes Ian, but as there’s such a tempting display, I’ll have a scone with jam and cream and a cup of tea to go with that. Thank you.
Natalie ...... Can I introduce Deirdre? She is a great guitar player - actually she is not only an award winner but she's also a Fellow of RSL - that's the Rockschool education programme - sorry, I'm embarrassing her. Please can we have some more drinks, a tea, scone, jam and cream for Deirdre and another coffee and some carrot cake for me?
Hi Deirdre. Bien sûr, of course, Ian, its on its way. Perhaps you can play some of Deirdre's music while I get it?
How about a live version of Love For Sale? I know it's not on the album, but it's a great tune.
I’m sure people don’t realise how much work goes into releasing an album. How do you decide on CDs, downloads and vinyl? It can be quite expensive. Saxophonist Sam Braysher asked people through his newsletter whether people still wanted CDs – and they did, but I know some musicians limit the number of CDs they produced now.
Well, a lot of my audience do still buy CDs but for those people who don’t have a CD player or a record player - not that I was able to produce a vinyl album this time - I’m selling cassettes! Don’t look so surprised ! – it’s a cassette tape with a download code written on it so people can go to my Bandcamp website and download the album from there. They also then have a blank cassette if they want to record their own mix tape (ha! ha!).
Let’s listen to another track – how about One For Polly, again that’s another happy track – so who is Polly?
Polly’s my partner and an amazing person with a background in the music business in the 1990s. She played in the Popinjays, an indy pop band, promoted 5 bands a night at the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town, she was a vinyl DJ to big events in London and Dublin, working for the 'Mean Fiddle' on the Reading and Leeds festivals. And then she gave it all up to train as a photographer, like her Dad who had just passed away. Her first job was working as chief photographer at the Ham & High. She did that for 20 years until they changed hands a couple of years ago and focused more on their digital content. She won’t like me telling you all this as she’s a very modest person but we make each other laugh so much and I think that’s partly because we can draw on all our years of working in this mad music business.
I love that track! I think if people just heard that they would want to listen to more. Ah, here's Natalie. Thank you, Natalie. Thinking about Guest Stars, if you could have brought back another past musician to play with the trio, who would you have invited?
Possibly a sax player. Louise Elliot or Ed Jones. I’ve played with both of them and I love their sound. However, I’m very happy as a guitarist to have the chance to play as many tunes as I like. I love melody and playing the songs like I’m a singer - which I’m not! I play with horn players and singers in other bands and I love working in those formats but I won’t be asking any sax players or singers to join this trio so I can keep on enjoying that space.
I think you are going to be busy in the coming months, Deirdre - do you have ORGANIK gigs lined up? and what are your plans for the rest of the year?
I love leading ORGANIK and I’m planning to do some touring next year. First though, ORGANIK has an album launch at the Pizza Express in Soho on Wednesday 15th July. There’ll be a special appearance from the Rockschool team, the original musicians from the second series. They’ll be helping me celebrate a big birthday of mine that night! I’m also playing some gigs with 'PICNIC' at the end of the year, that's the group I lead that features Annie Whitehead. I’ll also be playing with 'ARQ' and more 'Blow the Fuse' jazz club nights - recently Alison and I played a gig with the American guitarist Steven Kirby, a Professor at Berklee, and drummer Rod Youngs. Such a great evening.
However as I mentioned previously, Alison Rayner and I met 50 years ago and so we’re having a 50 year celebration on Sunday 25th October at Ronnie Scott’s. It’s a Sunday lunchtime and will feature many musicians who have been part of that incredible journey with us including The Guest Stars, Annie Whitehead and ARQ. That’ll be some lunchtime party down in Soho. I hope you’ll join us for the album launch at Pizza Express on July 15th or maybe see you later in the year at Ronnie Scott’s Ian.
It looks like the rain has stopped, Deirdre, and I know you have to go, but it has been great talking to you and about what I think is a really enjoyable album. I’m sure it will do really well as soon as people get to hear it. Joe the chef here remembers The Guest Stars - he is a fine pianist and he asked to be introduced, but he is clearly tied up in the kitchen. Here's his card in case you'd like to get in touch. Thank you for stopping by, Deirdre, and don’t forget your umbrella!
Thank you Ian. I love this album and I hope some of your readers will too.
The album ORGANIK is released on the 10th July and is available here, and Deirdre Cartwright's website is here.
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2026.7