“Burgeoning guitar talent” - Jazzwise Magazine

Mike De Souza grew up in Hertfordshire (UK), where he first picked up the guitar at the age of 12, marking the start of a life-long obsession with music. Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in 2014, he has completed multiple UK jazz tours and performed internationally at venues and festivals including the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Jazz Juniors (Krakow), Jazzwerkstatt (Graz) and Radar Festival (Varna). He regularly performs at many of the UK’s leading jazz venues, including Ronnie Scott’s and the Vortex Jazz Club. He was also a finalist in the 2021 Jarek Śmietana Jazz Guitar Competition in Krakow.

Since moving to London in 2012, he has worked with internationally recognised musicians including Byron Wallen, and has featured on numerous recordings as a sideman, including Fictions, Reflector and I Hear Gold (Twospeak), Beware of the Bear (Phil Meadows) and Music for Bosch People (Alex Paxton).

In 2017, he co-released the album Pond Life as part of the group Big Bad Wolf, which was ranked 3rd in Jazzwise Magazine’s Top 10 Albums of the Year and received widespread critical acclaim: “The title track affirms how inventively the quartet juggle tone colour, constantly renewing sub-themes, and subtly shifting grooves” – John Fordham, The Guardian.

As a bandleader, Mike has released several recordings including the EP Road Fork (2018), his debut album Slow Burn(2019) and Chrysalis, released in 2023 on the Barcelona-based label Fresh Sound New Talent. Chrysalis received 4-star reviews across the jazz press, with All About Jazz noting: “The range of moods and soundscapes created is striking. De Souza’s playing is always absorbing and engaging.”

Mike currently leads a quintet performing music from his 2025 EP Schism, as well as his other releases. The band features some of the most distinctive improvisers on the UK jazz scene: Tom Barford (saxophone), Rick Simpson (piano/synth), Huw V Williams (bass) and Jay Davis (drums).

Alongside his performing career, Mike is an active educator and has held the role of Senior Lecturer in Jazz Guitar at Leeds Conservatoire since 2020.