Mike Cotton (musician)

Michael Edward Cotton (born 12 August 1939) is an English jazz and R&B trumpeter, flugelhornist, harmonicist, vocalist and bandleader born in Tottenham, North London.^[1] He is best known for leading his band under the names The Mike Cotton Jazzmen and The Mike Cotton Sound.^[1] Cotton currently plays with the Stars of British Jazz.^[2]

Career

Mike Cotton formed The Mike Cotton Jazzmen in the early 1950s during the "Trad jazz" boom.^[1] From 1962 he changed the group's name to The Mike Cotton Sound, and their musical direction to a more pop-based style,^[1] achieving a UK chart hit single "Swing That Hammer" that year.^[1] They appeared in a performance in the 1962 film The Wild and the Willing.^[3]

Member

When their bass player, Jim Rodford, joined his cousin Rod Argent in his new band Argent^[1] in 1969, Cotton changed the band's name to the more modern-sounding Satisfaction, and the band recorded one album under that name in 1970 before splitting up.^[1] He retained the brass section, and this line-up, working again under the name Mike Cotton Sound, joined The Kinks,^[1] first on their 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies, and then appearing with them both in the studio and in concert until the mid-1970s, after which Cotton returned to playing jazz.^[2]

Select discography

Albums

• The Mike Cotton Sound (Columbia)

With Andy Cooper

• Andy Cooper's Euro Top 8 (TIM AG)

Singles

• "Swing That Hammer" (1963) -
  UK #36^[5]