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 (Spain), this last provoking an enthusiastic e-mail from John Scofield.

Visit Alastair's website at www.jazzfolio.com.

All illustrations copyright © Alastair Graham. All Rights Reserved.