As international jazz star Jamie Cullum releases his sixth album today, he talks to Barry Leighton about his humble, but fondly remembered, beginnings in Swindon

THE pungent aroma of coffee fills the air as be-suited businessmen clutching briefcases make their choices from the breakfast buffet before sitting down to study the day’s agenda.

It is not yet 9am on a bitingly cold April morning when proceedings at the Swindon Business Breakfast suddenly perk up. A welcoming, rather wonderful sound emerges from a corner of our marquee, which has been erected next to the Designer Outlet Village.

A three-piece jazz band led by a grinning, boyish pianist is swinging cheerfully into action, warming us up and brightening the day.

It is Jamie Cullum – but what is he doing here? In a blaze of publicity, the 23-year-old Wiltshire singer-pianist has just signed a record deal worth more than £1 million – unheard of for a jazz musician.

But as Jamie explains in between numbers, he still has previous commitments to fulfill before setting off for the big time. “I’ve just done a wedding, and I’ve got another one in a couple of weeks,” he says.

Ten years later, on the eve of the release of his sixth album, Jamie recalls the event well: “Oh I remember that. It was the business breakfast – all part of the Swindon Jazz Festival.

“It was a curious time for me. I was a jobbing musician in lots of different groups – pop, rock, jazz, doing weddings and pubs. I wasn’t gunning for a deal or anything. It just happened. It was bizarre.”

Jamie, as it happens, has a lot of memories of those days in Swindon – pretty much all good. From a residency at an Old Town pizza restaurant to assorted functions, along with pub and club venues, he played countless gigs in and around the town before getting his big break, via an appearance on the Michael Parkinson show.

He also became a big Swindon Town fan though these days relies on his father John – an avid supporter and season ticket holder – to keep him up to speed with the rollercoaster-like goings-on at the County Ground.

Now married to model Sophie Dahl (they have two daughters) and having performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, his affection for the town has not dimmed.

“The place is still close to my heart. In many ways I got my break in Swindon. People saw me there, at places like Pizza Express, and that gave me the belief that I could go on to do this,” he said.

Jamie, 33 – whose outstanding new CD Momentum is released today – is speaking on the phone from a hotel in Dublin, where he will soon sink a smooth pint of Guinness before playing a TV gig.

He is happy to talk about Swindon, where his family – from Essex – moved to when he was three.

His father had been given a top job at the Swindon-based car fleet firm PHH and they briefly lived “in that high-rise block in the town centre” (the David Murray John Tower) before settling in Hullavington, near Chippenham, where Jamie grew up.

He is popularly referred to as a jazz musician – “a junior Harry Connick Junior” at one stage – but reveals that he got into jazz through rap/hip-hop artists like Snoop Dog and Dr Dre. “They used jazz samples, which I loved,” he says.

Tracing the music back to its roots it opened a brave new world for Jamie, a self-taught musician who began to explore the many facets of jazz, from trad to Herbie Hancock.

A pupil at Sheldon school in Chippenham, he got a job playing piano at a Castle Combe hotel before graduating onto the gig circuit.

The pubs, clubs and pizza houses of nearby Swindon became a regular stomping ground for Jamie, whose nascent talent was soon spotted by Ray Butt, founder of the town’s jazz festival.

“Ray saw something in me; he felt there was a spark, something different or exciting.”

A typical gig would see Jamie set up his Technics 90 electric piano at Pizza Express in Bath Road, often accompanied by saxophonist Ray and Mike Lindsay on bass.

“We’d play some music, get a bit of cash for the gig and have a pizza – they were certainly good times.

“I always had ambition as far as the music went. But I was never one to be dreaming of stardom, singing in front of the mirror holding a hair brush for a mic. “I wasn’t that guy. I Ioved the music and let’s be honest it was also a good way to impress girls.”

Before heading off for that well-earned Guinness, Jamie, whose five-piece band performs between 50 to 100 gigs a year all over the world, adds: “What I’m doing now isn’t much different from what I was doing then. “We turn up, do the gig – it’s all about the music. It sounds a bit corny, but it’s true.”