Gwyneth Herbert is a British singer-songwriter and jazz vocalist who works across contemporary jazz, folk, jazz and vocal jazz. Born in 1981, she begins her career in Durham while at university, where she forms a jazz/folk duo with guitarist Will Rutter. The pair plays widely in north-east England and also busks and finds gigs in Edinburgh, Paris and Amsterdam.

After moving to London, Herbert and Rutter record First Songs for a label based at Pizza Express on Dean Street in Soho, a venue closely associated with the city’s jazz scene. The record leads to a deal with Universal, where she is presented as a jazz crossover artist. She releases her first solo album, Bittersweet and Blue, which includes original songs alongside jazz standards and pop covers.

During the touring that follows, Herbert develops her own writing more fully and forms a songwriting partnership with pianist Tom Cawley of Curios. She later leaves Universal Classics and Jazz to pursue a more personal direction. Working with Polar Bear drummer and producer Seb Rochford, she records Between Me and the Wardrobe, an album of entirely original material that is recorded in three days and first appears on her own Monkeywood label before Blue Note Records picks it up in 2007.

In 2008, Herbert records an acoustic album, Ten Lives, at Real World Studios as part of a commission linked to Peter Gabriel and Bowers & Wilkins. It is issued as a digital download and made available through the Bowers & Wilkins Music Club. All the Ghosts follows on the Naim Edge label and includes remixed versions of material from those sessions alongside new tracks. Her work is noted for moving beyond standard jazz interpretations toward original songwriting and character-based songs.