Doherty has been performing since the late 1950s, leading jazz trios, quartets and bands. One of his earliest roles was with the Chris Lamb & The Universals
showband. He went to
London in 1960 to study
composition and
orchestration. In 1965, he
competed in the Irish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest; his Jim Doherty Trio performed "Love Me Truly" but did not win. In 1968, his Jim Doherty Quartet won the Press Prize at the
Montreux Jazz Festival for the jazz suite
Gael Blowin, based on
Irish traditional music. He has written music for theatre, radio, TV, dance, film and orchestra. He has written one play,
The Lugnaquilla Gorilla, performed at the
Abbey Theatre in 1983, and also wrote the
jazz ballet Spondance (1986). He worked with
RTÉ, composing music for many programmes including
Wanderly Wagon and
The Late Late Show. Doherty has performed with
Gerry Mulligan and
Ray Charles. they released an acclaimed album,
Tunes, in 2014. Doherty was elected to
Aosdána in 2020. ==Personal life==