February ’10

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We are pleased to announced that, following a few weeks in limbo, Bryan Davis has now received his Work Authorization. He is now available for any and all performance and teaching opportunities! He is based in New York City but is available to travel anywhere within the US mainland. With some notice, he should be able to get the necessary paperwork to allow overseas travel also.

Please check out the information in the Teaching section of the site if you wish to avail yourself of Bryan’s services as a Trumpet teacher for Private Lessons or Clinics, or as a guest artist with your School/College band. Don’t forget that Online Lessons via Webcam are available if you are elsewhere in the US, or indeed the world!

You can find all Bryan Davis’ contact information on the Contact page of this website. He looks forward to hearing from you soon!

In December 2009, Bryan was on the road with the ‘Christmas with The Rat Pack – Live At The Sands’ holiday show. They spent a very pleasant, although colder than expected, 2 weeks in Dallas, TX, followed by a week in Hartford, CT. While in Dallas, Bryan had the opportunity to visit the University of North Texas and not only attend a rehearsal of the famed One O’Clock Lab Band, but also visit the Maynard Ferguson music collection at the UNT library. They have the entire surviving library from Maynard’s estate, some 400+ charts, and have archived and preserved it – a task that took a little over a year! A fascinating look into Jazz history!

During September and October 2009, Bryan Davis paid a couple of visits to Austria. During the first, he played a couple of concerts, and spent 3 days in the studio with Thomas Gansch and his band. For the studio sessions and the concert at Porgy & Bess in Vienna, the trumpet section was augmented by Adam Rapa – a wonderful trumpet player and great guy. Thomas wrote a few new tunes for this 3 trumpet line-up. These included his tribute to Bill Chase – ‘Der Rock des Trompeters’. Fans of high note trumpet are not going to disappointed when they hear the resulting CD. We are informed that the resulting CD, entitled ‘Resal’, will be released by the Schagerl Company; makers of fine brass instruments in Austria, including Thomas’ ‘Gansch-horn’. We hope to have news of a release date before long. In the meantime, you can enjoy a couple of videos from the Porgy & Bess concert including this one:-

Bryan returned to Austria at the end of September for the Autumn Tour with the LACJO – reprising their ‘Murdering The Classics’ programme. We are pleased to announce that the CD of this programme is now available. You can currently only order it directly from the LACJO website, although we understand that it should soon be available from the ORF Shop in Vienna (and online). We are inquiring as to whether there is any plan for international distribution – ultimately, it is likely that Bryan Davis will procure a few copies to sell through this site. More news about that as we have it.

January ’10

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January is a quiet month for Bryan Davis. Having moved to New York from the UK back in October 2009, he was granted temporary work authorization. That has now expired and the permanent card has yet to come make it’s way through the system. Therefore we have no news about concert dates for Bryan because, at the moment, he’s not allowed to play any! We hope to report that this situation has been rectified before long.

In December 2009, Bryan was on the road with the ‘Christmas with The Rat Pack – Live At The Sands’ holiday show. They spent a very pleasant, although colder than expected, 2 weeks in Dallas, TX, followed by a week in Hartford, CT. While in Dallas, Bryan had the opportunity to visit the University of North Texas and not only attend a rehearsal of the famed One O’Clock Lab Band, but also visit the Maynard Ferguson music collection at the UNT library. They have the entire surviving library from Maynard’s estate, some 400+ charts, and have archived and preserved it – a task that took a little over a year! A fascinating look into Jazz history!

During September and October 2009, Bryan Davis paid a couple of visits to Austria. During the first, he played a couple of concerts, and spent 3 days in the studio with Thomas Gansch and his band. For the studio sessions and the concert at Porgy & Bess in Vienna, the trumpet section was augmented by Adam Rapa – a wonderful trumpet player and great guy. Thomas wrote a few new tunes for this 3 trumpet line-up. These included his tribute to Bill Chase – ‘Der Rock des Trompeters’. Fans of high note trumpet are not going to disappointed when they hear the resulting CD. We are informed that the resulting CD, entitled ‘Resal’, will be released by the Schagerl Company; makers of fine brass instruments in Austria, including Thomas’ ‘Gansch-horn’. We hope to have news of a release date before long. In the meantime, you can enjoy a couple of videos from the Porgy & Bess concert including this one:-

Bryan returned to Austria at the end of September for the Autumn Tour with the LACJO – reprising their ‘Murdering The Classics’ programme. We are pleased to announce that the CD of this programme is now available. You can currently only order it directly from the LACJO website, although we understand that it should soon be available from the ORF Shop in Vienna (and online). We are inquiring as to whether there is any plan for international distribution – ultimately, it is likely that Bryan Davis will procure a few copies to sell through this site. More news about that as we have it.

November/December ’09

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Bryan Davis has now, finally, moved to New York City! He finally made the move during October 2009. During November, he will be in New York, seeing gigs, meeting musicians and making connections. He was granted work permission upon entry to the USA so, if you need a trumpet player, he is available! Hopefully we will have more news about his upcoming performances in the New York area before too long.

In December, Bryan will be hitting the road once more for a brief excursion with the “Christmas with The Rat Pack – Live At The Sands” holiday show. He will be in Dallas, TX from December 1st – 12th and then in Hartford, CT from December 15th – 20th.

In addition to live performances, Bryan Davis is always available to teach trumpet lessons and clinics, whether at home or elsewhere. For prospective students outside of the USA, online lessons via webcam are also available. The online lessons, in particular, are proving quite popular. All you need is a computer, webcam setup and the free Skype software. Bryan was, himself, sceptical about the usefulness of this system in teaching but, we are pleased to report, that he’s very pleased with how it works out! In celebration of his recent emigration, Bryan is currently offering a discount price on lessons in both formats. See the Teaching pages for details.

During September and October, Bryan Davis paid a couple of visits to Austria. First, he played a couple of concerts, and spent 3 days in the studio with Thomas Gansch and his band. For the studio sessions and the concert at Porgy & Bess in Vienna, the trumpet section was augmented by Adam Rapa – a wonderful trumpet player and great guy. Thomas wrote a few tunes for this 3 trumpet line-up; dubbed the ‘Trumpet Porn Suite’. These included his tribute to Bill Chase – ‘Der Rock des Trompeters’. Fans of high note ‘big’ trumpet are not going to disappointed when they hear the resulting CD. We hope to have details of a release in Spring 2010 before long. In the meantime, you can enjoy a couple of videos from the Porgy & Bess concert including this one:-

Bryan returned to Austria at the end of September for the Autumn Tour with the LACJO – reprising their ‘Murdering The Classics’ programme. They played 6 concerts. Unfortunately the first couple were rather poorly attended but the band is really hitting it’s stride! The final concert at Porgy & Bess in Vienna was particularly special! There is a provisional plan for European Tour in September 2010 – more details as they become available. We also imminently expect details of an release for the live LACJO CD they recorded at the inaugural concert in 2008. It should be initially available from the ORF broadcast network in Austria – details of worldwide distribution will follow shortly after. We will make the requisite announcements as soon as the details are confirmed.

Christmas with the Rat Pack – US Dates (2009)

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Bryan has just had the US tour dates for this year’s “Christmas With The Rat Pack” confirmed. He will be playing the show at The Majestic Theater in Dallas, TX from December 1-12. From there, the show travels to Hartford, CT to play at The Bushnell Theater from December 15-20.

There will be a limited number of lesson times available in both these cities and Bryan is also available for Clinics and workshops. Please check the Teaching page of this site for details and Contact Bryan to set something up, or if you have any further questions.

Rat Pack Round-up 2009 – 2nd Installment!

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It’s been a few weeks since I got back to the UK, following the end of “The Rat Pack – Live At The Sands” US National Tour. I thought it about time to sit down and write the customary blog post about it! The tour has been tremendous fun this year and we’ve been fortunate to have some great local musicians in the cities we’ve visited. I’ve already blogged about our visits to Louisville, Kentucky and Dallas, Texas. The tour actually continued for a week in Schenectady, NY where I was unable to attend, due to my LACJO Tour commitments. When I got back from Austria, the next stop was Tampa, FL.

Tampa, FL

This was the perfect place to return to following the wintry weather I ‘enjoyed’ in Austria. We had a week of the best kind of summer weather, the kind you rarely get here in the UK. It was so good for the whole company to get some sun in the midst of all our recent travelling. Moods were lifted and the show really lifted as a result!

The Rat Pack Trumpets in Tampa, FL. March 2009. L-R: Brad Turner, BD, Aric Brian

L-R: Brad Turner, BD, Aric Brian

We were staying in downtown Tampa, just along the river from the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. We were performing in the magnificent Carol Morsani Hall at the TBPAC – a really great room! The Broadway Season at the TBPAC has some of the highest subscriptions in the whole of the USA so we were treated to (almost) full houses for all of our shows. The large audiences were treated to a great show, if I do say so myself, as the local musicians did a great job. Given the proximity to DisneyWorld in Orlando, I’d expected some good players and we weren’t disappointed. Joining me on Trumpets were Brad Turner and Aric (pronounced ‘Eric’) Brian. Brad is a veteran of the Disney music scene in Florida. Aric moved to the area more recently but seems to be keeping busy! Among the rest of the band, a special mention must go to Trombonist Herb Bruce, who played Lead ‘bone for the week and sounded absolutely extraordinary! If you’re not familiar with him, I implore you to check him out.

Portland, OR

The week in Tampa was followed by a week off during which some went home to the UK, some stayed in Tampa to enjoy the sunshine and I went ‘home’ to New York. Following that, we reconvened in Portland, Oregon.

Portland is, without a doubt, one of the nicest cities I’ve visited in the USA. I think this is partly due to it being more similar to many places in England than elsewhere in the country, but it also has an energy that you don’t find everywhere. The population seem to be comparatively young and it was refreshing to find a town in the US which is so well set up for pedestrians and cyclists. We had a fair walk from the Marina area where we were staying to get to the Keller Auditorium downtown but, happily, it was one that could be conducted in reasonable safety and without the locals thinking you crazy for even contemplating it!

Portland, OR. April 2009

L-R: Matt Carr, BD, Dick Titterington

On the recurring theme of the cities we’ve visited this year, the local musicians did a great job and I was joined on Trumpet by Matt Carr and Dick Titterington. Both great players, Matt had spent many years working in Las Vegas and Dick had done his time on the road as ‘travelling guy’ with a number of shows. We had a great time together, not only playing the show but also hanging out afterwards on a couple of nights. I heartily recommend a visit to Higgins Restaurant and Bar if you’re visiting Portland – good food and a great beer list!!

From Portland, we moved on to our final week of the tour, in Costa Mesa, California.

Costa Mesa, CA

This was a great town in which to finish the tour. Apart from a couple of windy days, we had fantastic weather and were staying right across the street from the venue – the magnificent Orange County Performing Arts Center.

In terms of the musicians, we had a slightly different situation to normal. For the first time since starting the US Tour in 2006, we had 3 local musicians who’d actually played the show with us before. Jay Mason, on Lead Alto, had played Baritone Sax when we visited San Diego in November ’07 and we had two guys from the band in Los Angeles in December ’07; Jeff Driskill on Tenor Sax and Michael Higgins on Guitar. Not only does it make a tremendous difference to the rehearsal process when you have a few more guys who are familiar with the book but also the local musicians had already heard good things about the show, and the travelling musicians, so were excited to play it for themselves. Of course, being close to Los Angeles, all the guys were absolutely terrific players anyway!

Costa Mesa, CA. April 2009

L-R: Brad Steinwehe, BD, Don Clarke

Joining me on Trumpets in Costa Mesa were Brad Steinwehe and Don Clarke – both great players and great guys. Given their great playing, and enthusiasm for the show, it would be churlish of me not to mention as many of the rest of the band as I can remember as well so here goes:

Trombones: Charlie Morillas, Dave Ryan, Craig Ware
Saxes: Jay Mason, Glen Berger, Jeff Driskill, Bob Carr
Guitar: Michael Higgins
Keyboards: John Sawoski

and, of course, our travelling team – Craig Schneider (Piano/MD), Ben Groenevelt (Bass) and Dave Bryant (Drums).

It was a tremendous pleasure for me to have 4 members of one of my favourite Big Bands with us on the show. Saxophonists Jay Mason and Jeff Driskill, and Trombonists Charlie Morillas and Craig Ware are all members of Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. If you’re used to having Wayne Bergeron and Dan Fornero pounding in the back of your head, it has to be disappointing when they’re not there! My thanks go to all the guys for their kindness and patience!!

Talking of Messrs Bergeron and Fornero, Dan was kind enough to invite me to visit a studio session they were doing at Dan Savant’s studio for a Disney show. The charts were written by Gordon Goodwin and the horn section was Wayne Bergeron and Dan Fornero (tpts), Andy Martin (tbn) and Sal Lozano and Gordon Goodwin (saxes). Not only did I get to see these masters at work, but only had the chance to go to lunch with them afterwards! Such a good time!

Finally, to wrap up this roundup, I mentioned the enthusiasm for the show from the local musicians in Costa Mesa. They actually requested to get a band photograph with Frank, Dean and Sammy as a momento of the run. Here it is:

Frank, Dean and Sammy with the Rat Pack Orchestra in Costa Mesa, CA. April 2009.

Frank, Dean and Sammy with the Rat Pack Orchestra in Costa Mesa, CA. April 2009.