Breaking Radio Silence

Just a quick post – as usual, it’s been far too long since the last. Life here in NYC has been continuing apace as ever. I’ve been keeping busy in the past few weeks helping out over at JazzCorner.com, updating sites and working on some other projects. It’s a fun gig which allows me to exercise the technical side of my brain while also still affording me practice time; I work mostly from home – it is online work, after all.

I’m pleased to say that I’ve also been teaching, both online and off-. In addition, I’ve actually been playing occasionally as well! I’ve been rehearsing with Bill Lee and his Natural Spirit Orchestra for an upcoming concert, and I even got a call for a salsa gig a couple of weeks ago. Much fun was had!!

Things are, as I expected, still a good deal quieter than they might have been, had I stayed in England but, given the recent political machinations there, I think I’m better off out of harms way. The phone is starting to ring so it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be playing more regularly again.

I’m still planning to be back in Austria with the LACJO in August, and I’ve just heard from Thomas Gansch to confirm some dates with him in late October/early November! Adam Rapa is planning to be back with us too, so that’ll be an extra fun trip!

Meantime it’s back to practicing and coding! Among my projects is a planned redesign of this site – more about that, and everything else, soon….

BD

In Praise of BL

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been busy working on a couple of websites for my good friend Brian Lynch. In addition to that, I’ve also been spending a fair amount of time at NYU (New York University), subbing for Brian as lead trumpet in, and director of, their Bebop Big Band. It’s been a great experience, as well as a lot of fun, working with these talented young musicians. This afternoon I had the great pleasure of hearing the band play at the Bowery Poetry Club here in New York. They’ve come a long way this semester – the book is quite challenging. They did a great job and I was also proud to be invited to play a couple of tunes with them, while Brian Lynch conducted and soloed with the band from the front.

I’ve admired Brian’s playing for many years; he was actually the first American Jazz trumpet player I ever saw live, back in the early 1990s, at home in Cleethorpes, with the Phil Woods Quintet. He is an inspiration to me, not only as a trumpet player, but in the tremendous attitude he has towards the world around him. Yet again, this afternoon, he completely blew me (and I suspect the assembled few watching the gig) away. The depth of his understanding of the music, along with his seemingly unlimited Jazz vocabulary is simply astonishing. If you haven’t checked out his playing, I heartily recommend that you do. If you haven’t heard him lately, you should really check out some of his recent work, either live or on record. The continued growth in his musical concept is alarming!

The new BrianLynchJazz.com

A quick break of radio silence to let you know what I’ve been up to lately. I’ve been quite busy, although not with the usual trumpetry! I’ve been working with my good friend, and one of the great trumpet players today, Brian Lynch on bringing his websites up to date. What started out as an innocent offer to help out with a new WordPress-based site he’d started turned into a full-on project. It’s been a steep learning curve for me; some of his feature requests lay outside of existing plugins – but I’m pleased to say that it’s coming together nicely. So nicely, in fact, that even though we’re not quite finished, it went live today!

Check it out for yourself at BrianLynchJazz.com!

I intend to write more about I wrangled some of the features over on my other site – rather than boring those of you who come to read about my musical endeavours. Meantime, I’ll be posting more here shortly about some other things I have going on. I’m pleased to say that I finally have some gigs coming up! More soon….

BD

Welcoming 2010!

Happy New Year to you, the faithful few who look in here from time to time. I wish you health and happiness for 2010.

2009 has been a momentous year for me – not least because I finally made the big move to New York from the UK. During 2010 I will face the challenge of breaking into the music scene over here. Wish me luck! I suspect I may need some – not least to have my next Work Authorisation arrive before the last one expires!

I have a few projects in mind for the early part of the year – not least a slight revamp of this website. Any requests for features? Please send me an email or post in the Guestbook. Also, I will finally be getting some more exercises into .pdf form and into the store. There are a few other irons in the fire. News items will follow about them in due course.

In the meantime, back to celebrating the turning of the year!

Cheers!
Bryan

New Gansch & Roses videos

I was surfing the internet this afternoon and came across some new videos of a concert we played with Gansch & Roses in Frankenfels, Austria, this past September (2009). I’ve put together a playlist on YouTube – you can view them by following this link: Gansch & Roses – Live in Frankenfels.

I’ll figure out if I can embed a playlist player on the Videos page here on the site. Will update about that when/if it proves possible!
Update: The Playlist player has been added to the Video page. Enjoy!