About Jo

Born and raised in the North East of England, Jo Harrop started out her music career, singing in a choir as part of an ‘Elizabethan’ themed night, in the majestic Lumley Castle hotel, that overlooked her hometown of Chester-le-street in Durham. Surrounded by the likes of Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Anita O’day and Nina Simone records, she grew up with a catalogue of standards in her head from an early age. Her love of biographical books, with inspiring stories of singers, such as Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf, would begin to shape the artist she is today. She later moved to Nottingham, to study art and dance, but uninspired by her course, began her travels to Thailand, and Europe, soon after returning she went on to form a band with some friends, and began to develop one of her childhood passions for song writing and singing. Jo began recording to cassette tapes on a four track, in a guitar players bedroom, and singing on sessions for local DJ’s.

In January 2000, the passion for following her singing career grew, and took Jo further south, to London, cassette tape in hand, where she met up with her first manager, Sue Carling, and embarked on a two year recording project with Mike Stevens, and Richard Cardwell. The first ‘pop’ album, “Soul Electricity” was recorded in Canalot Studios in West London. Jo was meeting and working with some fantastic musicians, and playing legendary venues such as the Kashmir Club, The Rock Garden and The Bedford.

Although “Soul Electricity” did not lead Jo into a major recording deal, she was finding her voice, and her own style. Drawing closer to her jazz roots, Jo met the talented guitar player and composer, Leo Abrahams, who wrote a slightly jazz and folk tinged album especially for her voice. “In Your Own Sweet Time”, it was a record that made people start to sit up and listen to what Jo Harrop was all about. She discovered a new depth to her voice and started to hone in on that jazz and soul sound she had listened to for so many years growing up.

Alongside her song writing she began singing covers and backing vocals for many recording artists and pop stars, as well as working with the Jazz ensemble, Souljhazz, to further her experience as a singer, and to support her ever growing recording career.

Jo’s song about her niece, written with an old friend from Nottingham, “Little Laughter”, was re-recorded and adapted for a smooth jazz band, Acoustic Alchemy’s fourteenth album, and became the bands first song based track to ever make it on an album.

At this time Jo was starting to play venues such as The Jazz Café in Camden, supporting The Blind Boys Of Alabama, and her music was being played on Courtney Pines Jazz Crusade on Radio 2. All seemed to be going so well, but after a series of heartbreaks, lost months, and an ultimate career standstill, things started to lose direction career wise, and frustration set in. Jo found herself not knowing which direction to take next.

Just in time, in the summer of 2005, after a severe case of flu and tonsillitis, and weeks in bed at her family home in Durham, a chance meeting with a her now husband JC Caddy, on a Saturday night TV show, where she was backing singing, became a passionate love affair, and sparked inspiration into her and new creativity, and her joy of writing and recording was back again.

Jo teamed up with new songwriters, and soon, there was a fantastic new album in the making, co-written and produced by Ian Barter, who she would later record a song with for the David Lynch style chocolate pudding TV advert for brand GU in 2010. This album took a slightly new turn, a soulful album, entitled, “Coming Home” which featured the award winning song “Give It Away”, but saw Jo coming out as a stronger, more confident songwriter than ever before, and a real buzz started to commence.

Following the soul album, three EP’s were born, keyboardist and writer Jamie Norton and Jo went on to write the Nina Simone inspired, “Hold On”. Then she and Tom Howe co-wrote and produced “This Doesn’t Work Anymore” and finally, a country, blues EP written by Ben Galagher of Little Mothers, entitled, “Feels Like Love”.

A young and talented musician and producer Hannah Vasanth, heard Jo’s ‘chocolate toned’ voice, and asked her to vocal a track, “Like Water For Chocolate”, a track that was two years later to become part of their own project 'Stereofixx' a fresh new girl-duo, breakbeat project, written and produced by Hannah, and fronted by Jo.

Film composer Harry Escott, also invited Jo to record for one of his songs, “Depot” created for a US tv series, “United States Of Tara”.

A recent introduction to The Animals and Blockheads organ and keyboard player, Mick Galagher led to Jo beginning to record “Jazz Animal”, which is a stunning album of songs by The Animals, arranged and recorded as jazz songs, by Dylan Howe and his band. This project still ongoing and previews of the music are on the website.

Today Jo is working with some of London’s finest and hippest musicians, and is currently writing and recording with her ace guitar player, Greg Soussan, and talented pianist, Paul Edis where she sometimes ventures back towards her childhood grounds to play one of the finest venues in the North East ' The Cherry Tree'.

Other albums are on the horizon, recorded with the Joey Nelson orchestra and produced by Nigel Lowis. Also a reunion with Ian Barter will see a jazz/folk/country album in 2011.
Meanwhile, Jo Harrop continues to sing regularly at venues such as Home House, The Savoy, Sam's Brasserie and other fine establishments, with her collective of sensational accompanists, Alex Bennett, Carl Hudson, Neville Malcolm, Greg Soussan and Robin Banerjee.