Jake Hatter

I started classical trumpet at the age of seven with local teacher Paul Garner who taught me until I was 21, around the age of 17, just before I went to university to study music, I became more interested in 20th century classical music, world music and jazz. I have been studying jazz both independently and with various teachers since then. At the age of 11 I started learning the guitar and drum kit, initially these were supposed to be a low pressure hobby away from the more serious classical training I was getting on trumpet but they soon became instruments which I found myself practicing seriously along side my trumpet playing. Due to an overuse injury which started when I was around 15 years old in my hands and wrists I stopped playing guitar when I was 18 but continued with trumpet and drum kit. When I was 16 I formed a brass section with some peers, I managed to get us some work with a local ska band wishing to expand their line up for bigger shows, this lead to being offered the chance to deputise on guitar and then when the full time drum chair became available I joined full time on kit playing around 100 gigs per year with them at weddings, pubs, clubs and festivals until February 2020. When I was 18 I also started deputising on both trumpet and drums with another ska band Big 10 and then full time drumming for the ska band 'Jason & the Skagonauts'. While at university I was 1st trumpet in my lecturer Sue Miller's Cuban Big Band, after university she invited me to guest as a soloist with the band 'Charange Del Norte'. I was part of the university World Music Ensemble where we mainly played klezmer, and 'The Scratch Ensemble' which played 20th century works and student compositions including 'In C' by Terry Riley, 'The Sabotage Songs' by Nick Williams and, 'Mikrophonie' by Karlheinz Stockhausen. At this time I also performed my own compositions including an installation at the 'Iluminate' festival, a septa-phonic piece about room acoustics, performed at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre. While at university I ran my own 7-piece klezmer band which performed a number of gigs and shows including one of my module performance exams for which I was awarded a first. I have performed a number of amateur musicals and shows including 42nd Street (at the Edinburg Fringe Festival), Chicago, Grease, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Curtains, Sweeney Todd. In 2019 I performed on the pro-panto 'Sleeping Beauty' for a two month run at the Rhodes Theatre in Bishop Stortford. I started working as a musician for the agency The Blue Lion Band in 2017, since then I have been booked to play trumpet and drums on countless weddings and corporate functions. I am also now the chart librarian/lead horn for Cambridge and a 'Lead Musician' which means I am tasked with running the gig on the day and supplying and running all the sound and lighting equipment. I also run my own wedding/private function band with my partner: 'The Dial Back Dixie Band' where we offer a range of musical options but specialising in Postmodern Jukebox stylised covers. I work on recording sessions both on site and remotely for various artists and producers both as a drummer and a trumpeter - I also do some mixing and production work for a limited number of clients each year.