Jarman grew up in Cardiff and his career began in the 1960s as a poet and composer, writing for Heather Jones [cy].

[1] He was a member of Y Bara Menyn [cy] with Jones and Meic Stevens before establishing himself as a solo artist.

He introduced genres such as reggae into Welsh music and released many albums as a solo artist and with his band as Geraint Jarman a'r Cynganneddwyr (Geraint Jarman and the Poets, referring to the cynghanedd techniques of formal Welsh poetry), his first album (Gobaith Mawr y Ganrif) released in 1976 by Sain.

[1][2] In the late 1970s he was championed by John Peel who introduced him to a wider audience through his BBC Radio 1 show.

[4] Jarman co-produced the S4C television show Fideo 9, which gave important exposure to a later generation of Welsh bands.