Cleveland Watkiss

Born in Hackney, in East London, into a Jamaican-origin family, Cleveland Watkiss has since the 1980s built a career in which jazz, soul, reggae, improvisation and British electronic scenes intersect. Trained notably at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Watkiss first made his mark as co-founder of the Jazz Warriors, a central collective in the revival of British jazz, with whom he sang on the 1987 album Out of Many People. His trajectory is later distinguished by great mobility between formats and repertoires: jazz standards, contemporary creation, improvised singing, orchestral projects and collaborations with musicians from drum and bass and jungle. This circulation between acoustic and electronic worlds is reflected in his discography, from Green Chimneys (1989) to Blessing in Disguise (1991), 23 (1996), Victory’s Happy Song (2001) and The Great Jamaican Songbook, Vol. 1 (2022). On stage, Watkiss alternates vocal solo, quartet and cross‑disciplinary projects, with a timbre approach that is very free, able to move from a flexible jazz phrasing to more percussive or meditative textures. He has also worked in musical theatre and jazz opera, notably around the works of Julian Joseph, while maintaining a regular activity of transmission and vocal teaching.