She began seriously singing jazz in New York during the 1980s studying with Barry Harris at his jazz workshop for a year. During this time she performed with Mike Stern, Bob Moses and Harvie Swartz and appeared with all the above plus Jaco Pastorius in her final New York concert. She returned to England and formed a band with Mervyn Africa and Brian Abrahams. After two years she formed a band with Steve Lodder (piano) and Andy Cleyndert (bass) and John Piper (drums) which stayed together until 1995. Since then she has played with Nikki Iles and John Donaldson and for several years with Bob Stuckey (piano), Tony Barnard (guitar) and Geoff Gascoyne on bass who played on her CD Playing For Time. Her latest pianist is the young Tim Lapthorn, who has recently released his album Natural Language on Basho Records. The band plays a mixture of jazz standards and originals in different rhythms from salsas to tangos, ballads to swing. The programme varies according to venue with standards played at a swing tempo or with a more contemporary feel.

Her first album New Born Blue was released by 33 Records to widespread acclaim in 1994. The album looked at the arrival of children as well as recordings of three well-known standards. Gina Harkell has performed at various festivals:

• The City of London Festival in 1989

• The Newcastle Jazz Festival in 1994 with Johnathan Gee and Tony Coe broadcast on all northern England radio stations

• The Canterbury Festival in 1994

• The International Jazz Festival in Siberia at Novosibirsk in 1996 which was televised

• Welsh Jazz Society tour in 2000

• St. Petersburg Jazz Festival and JFC Club 2005

Her concert at the Vortex Cafe in London in 1995 was filmed by BBC World and featured worldwide and she has also been on Woman's Hour and Kaleidoscope on Radio 4. She has sung all over Britain since the 1990s. Reviewers have complimented both her style of singing and her tone of voice. Her album Playing For Time released in July 1999 by 33 Records again explored themes beyond the usual romantic subject matter of jazz along with some well-known favourites. In 1996 she was a winner of the Woman's Hour Poetry Competition. In 2004 she recorded her third CD The Bird In Me with young pianist Tim Lapthorn, Tony Coe, Anthony Kerr and Henry Lowther. This was released in May 2005.