Chillorado is John ‘Kit’ Cotter, born in Yorshire, England, in an Airforce family.

At age one, the family moved to Germany, then before age two, they moved again to New Zealand, where he was raised in a strong Maori area known as the King Country.

Drawing on the wonderful early influences of his mother’s extensive (Phillips Record Club ) collection he heard lots of show tunes, with some big-band jazz & orchestral to boot.

His elder brother, Rick, gave him his first gig at age 16, as his functions-band bassist, & from there, he was, as they say, AWAY!

Many Maori musicians were influential after the move north to Auckland, up until departing Aotearoa for the Sydney Conservatorium in 1980, where he studied under Judy Bailey & the late, great Roger Frampton.

Following this, there was a string of covers & club-bands in Brisbane, leading to the move to Los Angeles in 1991, where he enjoyed a hotel residency just down the road from the Hollywood Bowl. During this time, he had the good fortune to meet Dizzy Gillespie, & witness what turned out to be the last ever performance of Miles Davis, both major influences. Subsequent ventures included a TV appearance on NHK Japan, a stint in Beijing w/ L.A. band ‘Encore’, and various other projects involving famous ‘sidemen’ like Miguel Fuentes (Grover Washington), Jeremy Allsop (Men At Work), & even Oz pop icon Brian Cadd.

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, producer.

Performing over the past 30 years in India, USA, China, UK, and S.E. Asia, Kit percolates his unique blend of jazz, latin and soul via the many instruments he wields and via cumulative production skills.

Listen:

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