As the founder and bandleader of The Jazz Defenders — a dynamic, Bristol-born group blending modern soul and jazz — George has spearheaded one of the UK’s most exciting and distinctive acts.  Their three albums, international radio support, and sold-out shows across the UK and Europe have earned them widespread acclaim and chart-topping success. But long before The Jazz Defenders took to the stage, George’s musical journey was already well underway.

 

A lifelong musician, he began on drums at the age of four, immersing himself in every school band and orchestra he could find, before switching to piano at nine. At eighteen, after graduating from Exeter College with a triple distinction National Diploma in Popular Music, he was offered the piano chair with The Pete Allen Jazz Band and toured extensively across the UK and Europe for over two years — appearing on the same bill as some of the most celebrated names in traditional British jazz including Kenny Ball, Acker Bilk and Chris Barber.

​

In 2009, George was invited to Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions in Los Angeles, where he initially worked in the sample department building virtual choir instruments for the film Angels and Demons. Impressed by his intuition and work ethic, the team quickly promoted him to programming cues for several other major projects including Public Enemies, The Boat That Rocked, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, eventually assisting Zimmer directly with technical engineering and cue editing.

​

Returning to London, George began working with highly acclaimed orchestrator and composer Julian Kershaw, who brought him onto a project with Nigel Kennedy, transcribing and arranging a suite of Duke Ellington pieces for Kennedy’s Orchestra of Life. Once again, George’s relentless work ethic and adaptability earned him greater responsibility and he was soon entrusted with orchestrating the majority of the works and eventually managing the project entirely. This led to further orchestration work with Kershaw on the film Season of the Witch and also to engineering three string arrangements for U2. Impressed with George’s musical ear and attention to detail, Kennedy then commissioned George to orchestrate several more projects in the years that followed, including a major 2015 reimagining of his flagship piece — Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

​

After moving to Bristol in 2012, George quickly became a prolific figure on the national scene, contributing keyboards, string arrangements and production to over 400 commercially released tracks and remixes — many of which he co-wrote — across jazz, funk, soul, dance and hip-hop. Many of these collaborations featured on acclaimed albums and were released through respected labels including Tru Thoughts, Freestyle, Sony, Jalapeno, Haggis Records, ITI Records, and ATA Records. His string arrangements have featured in projects for Tristan McKay, Adam Isaac, Jay James, Damian Hirst, The Jazz Defenders, and on Lack of Afro’s Hello Baby — named one of BBC 6 Music’s Top 20 Albums of 2016.

 

In 2017, George was headhunted by The Haggis Horns, the members of which have toured and recorded with the likes of Jamiroquai, John Legend & The Roots, Amy Winehouse, Corrine Bailey Rae, Take That, Mark Ronson, Martha Reeves, Elbow and Robbie Williams. After joining the widely respected funk & soul band as their full-time keyboard player, George contributed extensively to their next two albums One of These Days (2017) and Stand Up For Love (2020). Also in 2017 he joined the highly acclaimed 16-piece jazz/hip-hop ensemble Abstract Orchestra, known for its large-scale reworkings of classic hip-hop albums. George performed on their Madvillain Vol.1 & Vol.2 releases and toured extensively with the group, including a standout tour and two studio albums with Detroit hip-hop legends Slum Village in 2019. Around this time, he also co-wrote and performed on the first two albums by Leeds-based soul-jazz outfit The Lewis Express — a tribute to the sound of piano legend Ramsey Lewis — released on ATA Records.

​

George has carved out a bold and soulful voice as both composer and bandleader for his band The Jazz Defenders, leading them to become one of the UK’s most dynamic modern jazz groups — with three albums to date, thousands of radio plays worldwide, and sold-out tours across the UK and Europe, including headline shows at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London and Duc Des Lombards in Paris. Since releasing their debut album Scheming on Haggis Records in 2019 and their sophomore album King Phoenix in 2022, the band has dropped a string of acclaimed singles across 2021–2023, including fan favourites Perfectly Imperfect and Rolling on a High, both featuring London MC and rapper Doc Brown. The Jazz Defenders’ latest album, Memory in Motion (April 2024), marked another creative milestone for the band and was supported by an extensive tour of over 30 shows across the UK and Europe. The album, along with their first album Scheming, both reached the top ten in the USA jazz charts. 

 

In late 2024, George launched a new collaboration with powerhouse soul singer Hannah Williams and The Jazz Defenders, producing the emotive single Hold On To People, which later featured as the opening track on an episode of ITV’s Love Island. To mark its release, George arranged and co-produced a sold-out show with Hannah Williams & The Affirmations and The Jazz Defenders, complete with string ensemble and hosted by Doc Brown at St George’s Hall in Bristol — a concert that drew widespread critical acclaim and further cemented his reputation for genre-blurring creativity and orchestral finesse.

​

Also in 2024 George was invited to Karma Studios in Thailand to write and record with UK funk legends Brother Strut, who subsequently recruited him as their full-time keys player.

​

Throughout his career, George has flourished as a captivating performer, arranger, composer and producer, contributing to commercial scores, orchestral commissions, and hundreds of studio releases. His extraordinary versatility — spanning jazz, soul, hip-hop, funk, dance, electronic, pop, film and classical — continues to define a career as musically rich as it is impressively diverse. Now based in London, George continues to expand his creative output across multiple genres, working with a broad network of collaborators both in the UK and internationally.