Ben Cottrell is a composer and saxophonist currently based in Manchester. He is best known as the musical director of the Beats & Pieces Big Band, which he founded in 2008 as a vehicle for his own compositions and arrangements. Since then, the band has established a reputation as one of the UK’s most exciting emerging jazz groups, a reputation that is also rapidly spreading into Europe – in March 2011, Beats & Pieces were named as the winners of the European Young Artists’ Jazz Award, one of the continent’s major jazz prizes for emerging musicians, held as part of the Burghausen International Jazz Festival in Germany.
Movers and shakers such as [Colin] Towns, Matthew Herbert, Darcy James Argue and [Ben] Cottrell demonstrate that large ensembles remain a vital force in contemporary jazz
John L Walters, The Guardian 5/08/11
Alongside Anton Hunter and Sam Andreae, Ben co-founded Efpi Records in 2009. Efpi is both an independent record label and an important umbrella organisation for the activities of an emerging generation of musicians working in jazz or improvised music. He continues to co-manage the label, which has expanded from its Manchester roots to include music from artists based across the UK and Europe. Ben is also involved in many other projects, including free improvisation groups cottrell/findlay/hunter and Token Otter (both with strong links to the Manchester based experimental label Concrete Moniker who released an album by c/f/h in 2009), and a brand new chamber jazz ensemble, the 265 Quartet, in which he plays clarinet.
In December 2010, Ben was commissioned by the indie rock band Everything Everything to work with producer David Coyle to re-imagine and re-arrange their debut album Man Alive for the band to perform with a 15 piece orchestral ensemble at two special Christmas shows, at the RNCM in Manchester and the Union Chapel in London. As well as co-writing the arrangements, Ben also acted as Musical Director, rehearsing the whole project, playing saxophones and clarinet and directing the ensemble onstage.
Everything Everything’s music has a nervous, jumpy mood, but the orchestra bestowed it with moments of flowing transcendence. Stabs of brass took the place of the electronics on the album, giving a warmth that wasn’t there before
The Times 17/12/10
Ben was extremely proud to be selected as one of the participants for the seventh edition of the prestigious ‘Take Five’ professional development scheme in 2010/11, aimed at ‘the UK’s most talented emerging creative jazz musicians’. The scheme is produced by Serious and funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, the PRS for Music Foundation, Arts Council England and the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund.
Alongside his musical activities, Ben is also an experienced and in-demand freelance sound engineer, having worked at the RNCM on their busy concert programme since he was a student. He has been FOH engineer for many visiting renowned musicians, including The Impossible Gentlemen, Ralph Towner, Tim Garland and Led Bib, and recorded everything from soloists and chamber ensembles to big bands and symphony orchestras. He recorded strings and brass for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album The Sea, which was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize, and is the in-house producer and sound engineer for Efpi Records – producing, recording, mixing and mastering releases for the Beats & Pieces Big Band and HAQ. Ben is also a saxophone tutor at the University of Manchester and Hope University in Liverpool.
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