Jazz has always played a large part in Alyson's life. Her father was a professional jazz drummer and her maternal grandmother played saxophone with, amongst others, the BBC Radio Big Band. As a small child Alyson would listen to Barbra Streisand, Mel Torme and Sarah Vaughan records while her friends would be playing pop music. Her love of performing took her to stage school and a successful career first as a child actress, including a part in the original Christopher Reeve Superman film, and then as a young adult touring in stage productions of Grease and The Rocky Horror Show. She then turned to her love of jazz, touring with Glen's brother Herb in the Herb Miller Big Band, before forming her own quartet and gigging regularly around London. After a break to raise her family, Alyson came back on the circuit in the early 2000s, and has been appearing at top jazz venues including The Pizza Express, Dean Street, Soho; The 606 Club; The Bull's Head, Barnes; and The Octave Jazz Bar, Covent Garden.

For function work Alyson can appear just with a pianist, or add more musicians right up to a sextet as featured on her demo tracks. Our normal quoted price is for a trio of Alyson plus piano and bass, performing for two hours spread over a three hour stay. As well as drawing on the great “standards” of the 30s, 40s and 50s for her repertoire, Alyson has added some more recent numbers which lend themselves to her style. A feature of the band is also their ability to rework old favourites in new, fresh arrangements, in this sense echoing the approach of artists such as Diana Krall and Stacey Kent.