Pete was very young when he was born. He feels that this did not affect his willingness to play jazz over the next twenty years. He readily admitted that his ten and a half-inch shoe size was established long before the advent of words like ‘augmented’ or ‘altered’. Pete is also ashamed to admit to owning a ukulele banjo when he was a teenager and to also having learned every George Formby song that contained even the smallest hint of double entendres. Evidently, though, it was the allure and charm of the 7th chords that attracted Pete. It was an obvious transition to go directly from G. Formby’s works to the works Egberto Gismonti and Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, and John Scofield. These influences are still relevant to him today. Let’s go back a bit: Pete was a big-haired guy in the 70s and 80s and felt obligated to be a part of guitar-wielding bands. He was a bit smart and joined a band that avoided the 3-chord trick. They preferred the unnecessary musical complications displayed most outrageously by Yes and Genesis. Pete was a member of the suffolk-based group Kashmir. He recorded many songs and took part in several international tours through East Anglia. Pete was then offered a spot at Leeds Jazz College in 1981. The place was offered to him on the understanding that jazz meant good-time stomping in pubs, getting paid fivers and drinking as much beer during gigs (he had previously joined a stompers group in Bury St Edmunds after the death of Kashmir). He realized he was being duped when he arrived at college. The hipsters were listening To The Brecker Brothers. Pete decided to rebel and assumed the persona George Orwell. He wore a dark brown coat, wrote poetry instead of attending music classes, and he was dressed in a dark brown habitual coat. Amazingly, Pete was able to hear Steely Dan’s “Aja”, Pat Metheny’s “American Garage” and Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira”. This was the turning point for Pete’s musical appreciation. He graduated from Leeds Jazz College with a respectable grade and then moved to Paris to start a wonderful career that was unencumbered by George Formby or stompers. Pete started gigging in Paris, backing singers and generally working as a freelancer or on his own musical projects. The New Noakes Quartet, his touring group, recorded two CDs (Through Green And Pleasant Lands u0026 Up To Here), and toured extensively throughout Europe and the UK during this time. To much critical acclaim, he also released the CD East Coast Joys together with his trio. After a ten-year stay in Paris, Pete moved to the UK in 1997 and formed the New Noakes Internationals touring band. Blue In Black And White was recorded in 2001. The album was widely hailed by the group as their best work. John Etheridge summarized it as follows: “All-in-all, this album is as strong a record of contemporary compositions and soloing that you’ll find anywhere.” Pete founded Oxford’s modern jazz club, ‘The Spin’ in 1999 with Raph Mizraki and drummer Mark Doffman. They formed the house-band with which scores of UK’s jazz stars have performed, including Gilad Atzmon and Tim Whitehead. Please visit http://www.spinjazz.com for more information. Pete recorded The Play Of Light in 2002 with Argentinean guitarist Luis D’Agostino. JAZZWISE called it a “delightful, sweetly executed and relaxed, but intricate …””. In 2003, Pete formed his current band CURIOUS PARADE, which has toured extensively and produced three CDs and one DVD. You can see Pete still wears trousers. From www.peteoxley.com
