This paper presents a combinatorial study of sums of integer powers of the cotangent which is a popular theme in classical calculus. Our main tool the realization of cotangent values as eigenvalues of a simple self-adjoint matrix with integer matrix. We use the trace method to draw conclusions about integer values of the sums and expand generating functions to obtain explicit evaluations. It is remarkable that throughout the calculations the combinatorics are governed by the higher tangent and arctangent numbers exclusively. Finally we indicate a new approximation of the values of the Riemann zeta function at even integer arguments.