Along with two tertiary degrees in music and a degree in Pianoforte, Brett has many year’s experience as a jazz pianist, composer, band leader, teacher, accompanist and arranger. Brett studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Sydney University Music Department and soon developed an interest in contemporary jazz.

He worked with independent Sydney rock group Big Picture in the late 1970s, where he began to experiment with electronic and concrete sound production and performances and worked with a number of jazz ensembles.

Emerging from the independent music scene in Sydney in the early 1980s, credits include playing in Bop Til You Drop (R&B revival cover band), Food of Love (Light Opera), jazz ensembles, community and children’s theatre, scores for independent theatre and film productions. Recently Brett wrote the musical score for the well-received play by Darryl Emmerson, "Talking to the Future" at La Mama theatre in Melbourne in 2022.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990s Brett’s style developed further into a synthesis of jazz, electronic and ambient sounds with an emphasis on melody and blending jazz harmonies with synthetic and ‘found’ sounds.