John Kotre
John Kotre is best known in the North East of England as a jazz trumpet player with his own band The Jazz Invaders as well as anchoring the brass section of many bands on the blues, soul and funk circuit over the years, including Midnight Express, The Short Blues Line, The Wildon Brothers, The Stax Brothers, Alive and Kicking, Groovenik and he has been a long-term member of the The Fabulous Balls Brothers. He was also involved in music education, coaching and contributing original arrangements to school big bands over a period of fifteen years.He has recently given up the day job, and written the inevitable novel, City of Fullfilment by C J Kotre (on Amazon books).
With this music I have tried very hard to stick to the idea of improvising from scratch, to play with no
preconceived ideas or structures, yet produce music which is considered and logical. The style of the pieces is
largely peaceful and contemplative, hence the term improvised nocturnes. Avoiding playing familiar sequences and
licks is not as easy as it sounds, and I used various tricks to lessen the temptation, for example playing in less
familiar keys, but the main technique is to set the mood and just start. It is important to make clear just how
risky that is. One blatantly missed keystroke or poor choice of harmony and the piece is ruined. The very next note
might be a disaster. Even if
a few minutes of music emerge, is it interesting enough to keep? For the eleven pieces here, about fifty were
recorded. In some cases the final piece is the third or fourth go at an interesting improvised opening idea, which
became more organised with each attempt, but still grew out of nothing. Crucially, the pieces have not been edited
with any cuts and pastes, so where an initial idea is returned to to conclude the piece, that is me trying to
remember where I started!
The Jazz Invaders were a 5-piece group lead by John from about 1995 to 2003, featuring mostly original compositions.
The line-up at the time of the recording was trumpet (plus flugelhorn, pocket trumpet and electric trumpet) by John,
saxophones (tenor & soprano) by Chris Dee, Anthony Adams on electric and acoustic guitar, Andreas Tawn on bass and
Mark Robertson on drums. The music here was recorded in two days at the Northern Recording studios with the intention
of producing a demo album. Luckily it was recorded to digital audio tape, so the wonders of file conversion allow it
to be heard again.
This second set of recordings from 2018 features a reformed band consisting of John on trumpet, Steve Summers (tenor &
soprano saxophones), Micky Balls (guitar), Willy Angus (bass) and Neil Smith (drums and percussion). The session was
recorded at First Avenue Studios, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.This evolution of the band is still active.
I’m having lunch with a page three model