Born in 1945, Alastair first heard jazz at boarding
school sometime in the late 50's, and his appetite
for the music grew rapidly. By the time he left
school in 1963 to travel the world, he had discovered
such treasures as Mingus Ah Um, Blues and the Abstract
Truth and Miles at Carnegie Hall (1961). His travels
brought him to Capetown where he lived for three
years and discovered Art, Wine, and Gil Evans.
Returning to London in 1967 to attend Art School,
he failed as a painter but found work in animation.
Whilst working as a producer with TVC in 1976, (the
studio that had recently produced "Yellow Submarine"),
and inspired by bands such as Weather Report and
Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" Sextet live
at Ronnie Scott's, he decided to become a freelance
illustrator.
Over the years Alastair has illustrated books for
Walker Books (UK) and Random House (USA) whilst
continuing to design and storyboard animated films.
In 1991 his first solo book, Full Moon Soup was
published, and two years later worked for Disney
on their Chinese feature "Mulan." More
recently he devised and designed a 30-minute TV
special "Katya and the Nutcracker" which
was broadcast just after Christmas 2001.
2002 saw the publication of Impressions, and the
first exhibitions of the collection were hung in
Cheltenham (UK) and Vitoria/San Sebastian (Spain),
North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherland)...
Visit Alastair's website at www.jazzfolio.com
All illustrations copyright © Alastair Graham.
All Rights Reserved