Jez has been playing at Paraiso since it began in 2002, starting with the caixa. His knowledge and love of the music, culture and community of Samba has grown and continues to grow thanks to all he has learnt through Mestre Esteves, Henrique and the whole community of Paraiso. Having played in the bateria for 10 years, he became a director in 2012 and has been teaching as part of the workshops ever since.

Jez studied at the Royal Academy of Music graduating in 2001, and since then has been a musician and teacher based in London. He has performed with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, orchestra of the Royal Opera House, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra and English National Opera; on musicals in London including The Lion King, Wicked, Legally Blonde, Hair, The Lord of The Rings, The Bodyguard and Stephen Ward; toured the US with Imogen Heap, Japan with the LSO and the UK with Tim Minchin and The Heritage Orchestra; played on TV with Gareth Malone, on film with Kevin Spacey, and on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury with Tony Christie; recorded albums with Foy Vance, Brian Eno, Leo Abrahams, Rosabella Gregory and Daniel Mulhern and played live with Ramshackle Crow, Gareth Lockrane‘s Big Band, Andrew Poppy’s Sustaining Ensemble, John Etheridge‘s Zappatistas and Peter Weigold‘s Notes Inégales.

Jez is active as a workshop leader and teacher in a variety of forms and has worked with Orchestra education departments such as LSO Discovery and ENO Baylis, devised creative composition workshops, frameworks and written music in partnership with schools, and has taught and directed samba groups on the street, in schools and at the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music. As well as teaching at Paraiso he teaches at the Tech Music Schools and runs BlocoLCM at London College of Music.