Deirdre Cartwright & Alison Rayner celebrate 50 years of music.

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Guitarist Deirdre Cartwright and bassist Alison Rayner celebrate fifty years of music-making together with a special lunchtime concert at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club on Sunday 25 October 2026.

We have received the following press release;

Deirdre Cartwright & Alison Rayner
50 YEARS OF MUSIC

Sunday 25 October 2026
Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London

Guitarist Deirdre Cartwright and bassist Alison Rayner celebrate fifty years of music-making together with a special lunchtime concert at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club on Sunday 25 October, bringing together friends and long-standing collaborators from across five decades of British jazz.

Cartwright and Rayner first met in a shed in Peckham, London in the summer of 1976 and have remained musical collaborators ever since. Their shared history encompasses numerous groups and projects including Jam Today, Sisterhood of Spit, The Guest Stars, The Emma Peel Fan Club, The Electric Landladies, the Deirdre Cartwright Group and Alison Rayner Quintet (ARQ), as well as Blow the Fuse, which they co-founded in 1989.

Combining music and conversation, 50 Years of Music will look back over their musical journey through original compositions, favourite repertoire and stories from their careers. Joining them will be friends and collaborators representing different chapters of that history, including members of The Guest Stars Ruthie Smith, Josefina Cupido and Linda Da Mango, together with Annie Whitehead, Diane McLoughlin, Steve Lodder and Buster Birch.

Alongside their work together, both musicians have established distinguished individual careers. Cartwright first came to national prominence as a presenter on the BBC’s groundbreaking television series Rockschool in 1983. A leading jazz guitarist, composer and educator, she has performed and recorded extensively with her own groups and with ARQ and was Principal Guitar Consultant for Rockschool graded music exams, taught worldwide. In 2019, she won the public vote for Best Guitarist at the British Jazz Awards. Rayner has established herself as one of the UK’s most respected bassists and composers. She received an Ivor Novello Composer Award for ‘There Is A Crack In Everything’ from her album Short Stories, while her Alison Rayner Quintet (ARQ) won both the Parliamentary Jazz Award and British Jazz Award for Best Small Group in 2018. The quintet’s fourth album, SEMA4, was named Jazz Recording of the Year at the 2025 Presto Music Awards and is nominated for a Parliamentary Award.

Their contribution to British jazz extends beyond their work as performers and composers. Through Blow the Fuse, Cartwright and Rayner have promoted live jazz and supported generations of musicians, with a particular commitment to creating opportunities for women. Their work as educators and mentors has run alongside a partnership that has continued through five decades of performing, recording and touring.

50 Years of Music celebrates the music, friendships and creative partnerships that began in Peckham in 1976 and continue fifty years later at Ronnie Scott’s.

Blow The Fuse: https://www.blowthefuse.com/

Deirdre Cartwright: https://www.deirdrecartwright.com/

Alison Rayner: http://www.alisonrayner.com/

ECN Music: https://ecnmusic.com/