John Eacott (born 19 December 1960) is a British jazz trumpeter and composer.

Life

Beginnings, early influences

John Eacott was born in

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

, United Kingdom. His father Kenneth Eacott was a pianist, arranger and composer. His mother Joy Pocock was a dancer and drummer in the family band, in which John started playing trumpet aged seven. In the mid 1970s the family moved to

Hayling Island Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, east of Portsmouth. History An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island, later developed into a Roman temple in the 1st cent ...

where a lifelong love for the sea, sailing and navigation took hold. It was here where he was introduced to free jazz, leading him to meet

Mark Lockheart Mark Lockheart (born 31 March 1961) is a British jazz tenor saxophonist who was a member of the Loose Tubes big band during the 1980s. Career After the demise of Loose Tubes, Lockheart formed jazz/folk quartet Perfect Houseplants with Huw Warr ...

. In the 1980s John Eacott got a '

Psion Organiser Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computers developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I (launched in 1984) and Organiser II (launched in 1986) had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover prot ...

' and started to experiment with computer programming.

Working Life (1982 – present)

On graduating from

Sussex University The University of Sussex is a public research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the South Downs National Park, and provide ...

, England, in 1982 BA Music, Eacott's career as a musician started with anarchic jazzers

Loose Tubes Loose Tubes were a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to be the focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz. It was the main launchpad for the ...

(trumpet, composer), post-industrial metal bashers

Test Dept Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" materia ...

(trumpet, arranger, composer),

Roman Holliday Roman Holliday were a British band active in the 1980s. They are best known in the UK for their hit single "Don't Try to Stop It", which reached number 14 on the UK Singles Chart in the summer of 1983. A follow-up, "Motormania", peaked at numb ...

, acid jazz group Vibraphonic, and as a trumpeter with a diverse array of artists including

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

Goldie Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is an English music producer, DJ, and actor. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musi ...

Stereo MCs Stereo MC's are an English hip hop and electronic dance group that formed in Clapham, London, in 1985. They had an international top 20 hit with their single " Connected" and a UK top 20 hit with " Step It Up". After releasing eight albums for I ...

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Georgie Fame Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the only B ...

Terry Edwards Terry Edwards (born 10 August 1960) is an English musician who plays trumpet, flugelhorn, saxophones, guitar and keyboards. Biography Edwards gained a degree in music from the University of East Anglia in 1982, where he was also a founding mem ...

and the Scapegoats. He performed with Loose Tube (30 Years Anniversary concerts), and regularly plays with Sarah-Jane Morris, the hKippers, his own Cranky Trio and other bands. Since the 1990s he has composed works for theatre including the worldwide touring production of ''Gormenghast'','. In 2012 he composed music for the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

(RSC) production of ''The Taming of the Shrew'', in 2014 Turgenev's ''Fortune's Fool'' at

the Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...

, London and most recently Charles Dickens' ''Great Expectations'' in 2016, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds; all plays directed by

Lucy Bailey Lucy Bailey is a prolific British theatre director, known for productions such as ''Baby Doll'' at Britain's Royal National Theatre, National Theatre and a notorious ''Titus Andronicus'', The Guardian review said, 'There is no getting away from o ...

. Film scores include the

Miramax Miramax, LLC, formerly known as Miramax Films, is an American independent film and television production and distribution company owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount Global. Based in Los Angeles, California, it was founded on December 19, ...

feature ''Three Steps to Heaven'' (1995), ''Escape to Life'' with Vanessa Redgrave (2000) and worked as arranger with Dave Stewart and Mick Jagger on the soundtrack of '' Alfie'' starring Jude Law (2004). In the autumn of 1998 John Eacott performed his first live generative composition in London, UK. He developed his generative composition in two Sound Art exhibitions at Morley Gallery, London, 'Strange Attraction' in 1999 and 'Another Strange Attraction' in 2000 which featured amongst others the interactive sound designer Dominic Robson and sound sculptor

Max Eastley Max Eastley (born 1 December 1944, Torquay, Devon, England) is a British visual and sound artist. He is part of the Cape Farewell Climate Change project. He studied painting and graphic art at Newton Abbot Art School and then went on to gain a BA ...

. In 2001 Eacott made a generative music album 'Morpheus' together with Nick Collins, Frederik Oloffson and others using SuperCollider audio programming environment. These compositions formed part of a number of projects that contributed to his PhD 'Contents May Vary: the behaviour and play of generative music artefacts' (2007) awarded by the University of Westminster. Since the completion of his PhD, Eacott has focused on making accessible live performances using

algorithmic composition Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music. Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpo ...

as part of the organisation ''Informal''. ''Floodtide'', which premiered at

Trinity Buoy Wharf Trinity Buoy Wharf is the site of a lighthouse, by the confluence of the River Thames and Bow Creek on the Leamouth Peninsula, Poplar. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The lighthouse no longer functions, but is the home of ...

, Docklands in June 2008, is a musical performance generated by

tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

flow.
Floodtide
' works by submerging a sensor into tidal water, the data from which is transformed by custom computer software, into

notation In linguistics and semiotics, a notation system is a system of graphics or symbols, Character_(symbol), characters and abbreviated Expression (language), expressions, used (for example) in Artistic disciplines, artistic and scientific disciplines ...

read live from computer screens by musicians.'' Floodtide'' has been performed numerous times, most notably at

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is an arts centre in London, England. It is adjacent to the separately owned National Theatre and BFI Southbank. It comprises the three main performance spaces – the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Purcell R ...

's ''See Further-Festival of Science and Arts'' in 2010 and the Mayor's Thames Festival in 2009. A permanent tidal sensor (provided by Nortek) is installed at Trinity Buoy Wharf which gives a constant reading of Thames tidal data on the Floodtide website. Musicians anywhere in the world can play the music generated at any time.

is also the home for a Floodtide sound sculpture (2014) by Andrew Baldwin, that continuously plays live local tidal readings. In 2015 John Eacott took the Floodtide project on a five months tour on Jacomina, a 46 ft sailing yacht, performing the piece in ports in Europe and UK with local musicians. Eacott's work ''Hour Angle'' works in a similar way to ''Floodtide'', yet its notation is generated by calculating the movement of the sun. ''Hour Angle'' performances include the summer solstice of 2010 at

Royal Observatory Greenwich Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or Royalty (disambiguation), royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Ill ...

. He has taught at London College of Communication's and Middlesex University; he worked as Principal Lecturer in Music at University of Westminster between 1993 and 2011.

Selected works

Algorithmic works

* 2015 ''Floodtide Navigate'' five months European & UK tour by sailing yacht, site specific performances with local musicians * 2008 – ongoing ''Floodtide'' – music generated live from tidal flow. * 2008 ''Hour Angle'' – music generated live from the

declination In astronomy, declination (abbreviated dec; symbol ''δ'') is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system, the other being hour angle. The declination angle is measured north (positive) or ...

and

hour angle In astronomy and celestial navigation, the hour angle is the dihedral angle between the '' meridian plane'' (containing Earth's axis and the zenith) and the '' hour circle'' (containing Earth's axis and a given point of interest). It may be ...

of the sun. * 2003 ''Intelligent Street'' – a work where users can affect soundscape by sending text messages. * 2002 ''Diffusion'' – a package of generative jingles for radio station Resonance FM. * 2001 ''Emotions'' – nominated for BAFTA in 2002. * 2001 ''Morpheus'' – an album of generative tunes published by mushi mushi.

Theatre

*2016 West Yorkshire Playhouse Theatre production of ''Great Expectations'' *2014

The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...

Theatre production of Fortune's Fool *2012

production of ''

Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a Frame story, framing device, often referred to as the Induction (play), inducti ...

''. *2002

production of ''

Timon of Athens ''The Life of Tymon of Athens'', often shortened to ''Timon of Athens'', is a play written by William Shakespeare and likely also Thomas Middleton in about 1606. It was published in the ''First Folio'' in 1623. Timon of Athens (person), Timon ...

'' (arrangements.) *1992 ''

Gormenghast Gormenghast may refer to: * ''Gormenghast'' (series), a trilogy of novels by Mervyn Peake ** ''Gormenghast'' (novel), second in the series * ''Gormenghast'' (opera), an opera based on the books * ''Gormenghast'' (TV serial), a BBC adaptatio ...

'' for the David Glass Ensemble

Film scores

*''2003 Alfie'' starring

Jude Law David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972) is an English actor. He began his career in theatre before landing small roles in various British television productions and feature films. Law gained international recognition for his role in An ...

the jazz club (arrangements.) *''2000 Escape to Life'' with

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress. In her career spanning over six decades, she has garnered List of awards and nominations received by Vanessa Redgrave, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony A ...

"John Eacott", ''german-films.de''
/ref> *''1997 A Bit of Scarlet'' *''1995 3 Steps to Heaven'' *''1992 Caught Looking'' *''1991 North of Vortex''

Television soundtracks

*''1997 In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great''

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

documentary series

References

External links

"Composer's website"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eacott, John 1960 births Living people Musicians from Reading, Berkshire Alumni of the University of Sussex British composers English jazz trumpeters Loose Tubes members