Autumn 2012

Travelling season is upon me again! I’ve just returned from a brief trip to Mexico City, where we were having some meetings ahead of a planned visit with a group for early next year. I’d never been “South of the Border” before and had a great time. Fortunately, I’ll be back there soon as I’m about to be hitting the road (i.e. airport) in a big way! More about that later…

My trip to Austria in November is coming up in just a couple of weeks, at time of writing. It’ll be great to get back over there and see some old friends, as well as making a lot of new ones! Here’s the itinerary:

Gansch & Roses

It’s always a joy to play music with (or simply be in the company of) Thomas Gansch. I’ve been fortunate to enjoy both on a number of occasions the past few years. This time around, we are presenting the music from the CD Resal which we recorded in 2009. Joining Thomas and I in the trumpet section, as on the record, is the incredible Adam Rapa. We are playing 2 concerts:

  • November 2nd – JAZZliebe/ljubezen, Mureck
  • November 3rd – Jazz & Wine Festival, Aschbach

We don’t get to play Gansch & Roses concerts very often, but they are always a wonderful time! You should definitely try and get to one if you’re nearby. More details for these and all the following concerts are on my Schedule.

Jazz BigBand Graz

Following the Gansch & Roses dates, I’ll be performing 3 concerts with Jazz BigBand Graz; the first a CD presentation concert of their recent “Urban Folktales” record and then 2 concerts entitled “Dangerous Liaison” – a joint programme with the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester and special guest Wolfgang Puschnig (saxes/flute). The JBBG are a new group to me, but are co-lead by my friend & fellow trumpeter Horst Michael Schaffer. They sound fantastic on their records and I’m thoroughly looking forward to tackling their Lead Trumpet book. The details:

  • November 4th: “Urban Folktales” at the Orpheum, in Graz
  • November 5th: “Dangerous Liaison” at the Festspielhaus, in St. Pölten
  • November 6th: “Dangerous Liaison” at the Musikverein (Goldener Saal), in Vienna

Wonderbrass

Another new group to me, but again led by HMS, we will be paying tribute to the late, great Lester Bowie and his Brass Fantasy. This should be a lot of fun!

  • November 9th: Porgy & Bess, in Vienna
  • November 10th: Greithhaus, in St. Ulrich

It’s always a thrill to play at Porgy & Bess – one of my favourite venues in the whole world! I hope to see a lot of my Viennese friends there!!

Ten of the Best

Following these dates in Austria, I’ll be flying directly back to Mexico City to join Otto Sauter and his remarkable group Ten of the Best where we’ll be playing at the 5th Encuentro Internacional de Trompeta “Rafael Méndez”. This takes place from November 12th-19th. I don’t have the final schedule yet, but I understand that we’ll be playing 3 concerts with Ten of the the Best and there will be a number of feature concerts and masterclasses by members of the group, myself included. Further details of those as I have them. Rest assured, there will be a lot of serious trumpet playing happening here – I’m honoured to have the chance to play with such an amazing group of trumpeters!

After Mexico, we have 4 more dates with Ten of the Best. On November 29th we will be performing for a TV broadcast in Weimar, Germany and then from 11/30 to 12/2 we will be playing in Wartburg Eisenach in Germany.

Christmas with The Rat Pack

I’ll be ‘back with the Pack’ for the festive season once again this year. This time, we’ll be performing from December 21-31 at the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria. Then we’ll spend the 1st week of 2013 performing in Trieste, Italy. It’s always fun to be back with my friends on the Rat Pack touring band. It’ll be a great end to a great year!!

That’s enough for now – as you can see, it’s pretty busy coming up! Before all of that starts, I do have a fun gig next week, here in NYC. We’ll be performing the annual Dizzy Gillespie Tribute at the Baha’i Center NYC on Tuesday, 23rd October with Mike Longo’s NY State of the Art Jazz Ensemble. We will play one set of Dizzy’s big band music, with special guest vocalists Annie Ross and Ira Hawkins. Then, there will be a showing of a Dizzy Gillespie concert movie. Hope to see you there, or elsewhere on my travels!