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Laurence Cottle

Born in Swansea, into a musical and theatrical family, Cottle was one of three brothers who helped their father (a pianist) in his variety act. “We were all encouraged to play the piano,” he continues, “and also to take up a second musical instrument.” Cottle chose the trombone, while the eldest brother took up the trumpet and the middle brother the clarinet. With little music in school, he remembers going to a private trombone teacher, “where I did all the grades.” At the same time, his father realised that his growing family had the necessary instrumentation to set up a trad jazz band, and so throughout his early teens Cottle toured Wales and the West Midlands, gaining valuable “playing” experience.    

“When I was 16,” says Cottle, “my father decided that he wanted to switch the band to being a dance band rather than a ‘trad’ band, and that’s when I first picked up the bass.” His first bass was a Kay that he put through an old Selmer valve amp. “I soon got tired of that,” he comments, “so I bought a Fender Jazz that I fed through an Ancron unit. That was a lovely instrument – I played that for a long time.” Surprisingly, Cottle never had any formal lessons on the bass guitar and eventually moved up to London in the late 70s to see if he could hack it with the best of them. “I was lucky, because my saxophonist brother Richard was living in London, and he had just completed a world tour with Stevie Wonder, apart from doing some work with Mick Jagger and David Bowie.” 


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Album Review

Sarah L King: Fire Horse

Read "Fire Horse" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Starting her musical path with coaching from Mike King, one of the UK's leading contemporary vocal coaches, Sarah L King (no relation), surfaced as a solo jazz vocalist, releasing an EP of standards and several singles. Her passage was helped by a family heritage consisting of an accomplished jazz trumpeter father and an orchestral conductor grandmother. An early career as a writer and director of short films provided the right impetus to be a compelling musical narrator. King's ...

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Album Review

Ross Lorraine: Heart of Mine: songs of Ross Lorraine

Read "Heart of Mine: songs of Ross Lorraine" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


Heart of Mine is well named, as composer and keyboardist Ross Lorraine's compositions are at the heart of this album. But Lorraine takes something of a back seat when it comes to performing, leaving instrumental duties to some of the British jazz scene's leading players, and vocal duties to six of the scene's most talented singers; Claire Martin sings lead on three tracks, is part of the trio of backing vocalists, plays percussion and co-produced the album alongside Lorraine and ...

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Album Review

Bill Bruford's Earthworks: Earthworks Complete

Read "Earthworks Complete" reviewed by John Kelman


Since retiring as a professional musician in 2009, progressive/art rock turned jazz drummer Bill Bruford has successfully managed to maintained a place in the public eye. Beyond his engaging, informative and successful Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (Jawbone Press, 2009), the drummer/percussionist has more recently released a second, equally captivating book, Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer (University of Michigan Press, 2018).Initially stemming from the success of his autobiography but since assuming a life of its own (and no ...

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Album Review

Georgia Mancio: Live At ReVoice!

Read "Live At ReVoice!" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


The name at the top of the cover of Live At ReVoice! is that of Georgia Mancio, the London-based vocalist who appears on every one of the 12 tracks. A quick glance lower down the cover adds a dozen more names--a list of Mancio's accompanists that reads like a veritable “Who's Who" of the UK jazz scene. A baker's dozen of talented performers, twelve beautifully performed songs, captured with exceptional sound quality. Mancio has organised the ReVoice! festival ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Fire Horse

ECN Music
2024

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Earthworks Complete

Summerfold Records
2019

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Heavenly Bodies –...

Summerfold UK
2019

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Straight Ahead To The...

Dash Hoffman Records
2019

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Live At ReVoice!

Roomspin Records
2015

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Black Dog

From: Fire Horse
By Laurence Cottle

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