Last Minute Jazz!

Bryan Davis will now be playing tomorrow night (Wed. 22nd July) at The Swan in Liversedge, W. Yorkshire. He’ll be featured alongside the Rod Mason, and his collection of saxophones, with the Brian Jackson Trio. He’s filling in for trombonist Kevin Holbrough who’s had to withdraw due to ill health. Get well soon Kev!

The Swan is located at the junction between the A62 and A638 in Liversedge, West Yorkshire. Here is a Google Maps link.

Recording Plans.

On Wednesday this week, I spent a very pleasant evening at the Scarborough Jazz club night at the Cask Inn, Scarborough. I went along to watch my old friend Steve Parry, who was the guest artiste of the week. I took my horn along and sat in for much of the second set. We had such a good time playing together again that afterwards we agreed that we should get together and record a CD. This is something we hope to do in the next few weeks, before my emigration to the USA. Fortunately, Steve has recording equipment and a grand piano at his house so we have a place to do it!

There’ll be a news item added about this once we’ve ironed out the details and figured out who else will be playing with us. In the meantime, I’m busy writing some new tunes so we have something to play! Back with more soon….

Catching Up…

It’s been a busy few weeks, during which I’ve had little time to write or record anything for the site. This post may be some small consolation for you blog readers out there; a new podcast episode will be recorded next week, which I hope will appease my listeners who, judging by the amount of feedback I’ve received about episode 1, are a surprisingly large number!

Since last I blogged, I’ve completed the LACJO Spring Tour and also the last leg of the Rat Pack US National Tour. Both were tremendous experiences. I’ll give a more thorough account of the last 3 weeks of the Rat Pack tour in my next post.

The tour with the LACJO was great fun. It was slightly marred by some technical issues but ultimately the band really gelled and made a great job of some challenging music. My thanks go to all involved for their tremendous musicianship and their patience with my lousy German. I don’t know how many of you reading have ever been in a situation where you speak the minority language but it can be incredibly frustrating; particularly when you can see the clearest route to the resolution of a problem but can’t successfully articulate it. Unfortunately there were moments where this frustration led to anger – not something I’m proud of. I hope, as it seemed, that the rest of the band considered my playing to be of a sufficient standard that they could forgive my mood swings. I’ll be learning more German before my next visit!

Unfortunately, due to my impending immigration to the USA, I will probably be unable to join the band for the next tour(s) in the Autumn. Once in the USA, I have to wait until my residence is finally processed before I can leave again. Since this is likely to take up to a year, and I’m planning to move in July, that means that a September/October tour is sadly out of the question. I just hope that whoever takes my place doesn’t do too good a job – I’d very much like to rejoin in 2010!

Meantime, we should have news about the LACJO CD which was recorded at the ‘Premiere’ concert in St. Poelten in September 2008. Early mixes sound very promising and I’m looking forward to an album of which we can be really proud. We also filmed the last concert of the Spring Tour at Schloss Grafenegg for a potential DVD release. Hopefully that will also come to fruition.

Right now, I’m back in the UK following the end of the Rat Pack tour. I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of teaching and playing. I already have some of my previous students coming back for more punishment(!) and a few gigs in the book. We’ll get the details posted on the site as soon as they’re confirmed. One confirmed date that I’m very much looking forward to is at the Harrogate Jazz Club, this coming Tuesday, the 28th of April. I’ll be playing with my dear friend Jim Corry and his band “A Tribute To Atlantic Jazz“. It’s a great band, with whom I played a few hits last summer. Please come out and support if you’re local – details are in a news item we posted about it earlier. I shall be trying to record some of the gigs I play in the next few weeks, with a view to adding some live audio to the podcast. We’ll see how that pans out…

For now, have a great weekend and I’ll be back with more soon.

Harrogate Jazz – 28/4/09

This just in: Bryan Davis will be playing at the Harrogate Jazz Club this coming Tuesday (28th April ’09) with Jim Corry‘s “A Tribute To Atlantic Jazz“. This fine septet features tunes recorded on, and in the spirit of, the “Soul Jazz” recorded on Atlantic Records in the 1970s and ’80s. It promises to be a great night. Please come out and support live music – in these days of recession, it may disappear if you don’t!

The Details:
Harrogate Jazz Club
The West Park Hotel
19 West Park
Harrogate
HG1 1BJ

8.30pm start

Door charge: £3

LACJO 2009

Following the tremendous success of the inaugural concert in September ’08, Bryan will be returning to play with the Lower Austria Concert Jazz Orchestra for their 2009 Tours. Details are now confirmed for the first tour in March ’09. Venues are as follows:-

  • 16th March ’09 – Radiokulturhaus Wien (Vienna)
  • 17th March ’09 – Stadtsaal Mistelbach
  • 18th March ’09 – Stadtsaal Zwettl
  • 19th March ’09 – Stadtsaal Waidhofen/Ybbs
  • 21st March ’09 – Schloss Reichenau
  • 22nd March ’09 – Schloss Grafenegg

There is also a tour planned in the Autumn, again throughout Austria. The dates are likely to be from September 26th – October 3rd. Following that tour, there is a trip being planned to perform at the “11th China Shanghai International Arts Festival” in Shanghai, China (funnily enough). This trip is pencilled in from 22nd – 30th October ’08 and is likely to include two concerts in the Festival as well as some other events, and hopefully some sightseeing!
For all the concerts in 2009, the LACJO will be performing it’s “Murdering the Classics” programme, featuring Big Band arrangements of famous ‘Classical’ works. Included is the Stan Kenton version of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” amongst others. The first concert in September was recorded and will be released on CD in the Spring – hopefully to coincide with the March tour. More details on that as we have them….