He spent his early life in Ilford, Essex. He studied Piano, Violin and composition at the Royal College of Music, first as a junior exhibitor and later full-time. Having developed an early interest in jazz music he left college and started working as a bass player, piano accompanist and jazz violinist to Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, an association that took him around the globe many times. During this phase of his career he was also much in demand as a session musician.