August/September ’09

Bryan Davis is still UK-based during August and early September. He is available to teach lessons and workshops, as well as for gigs of any kind. If you are based elsewhere in the UK, or indeed the world, but are interested in taking a lesson with Bryan, please be aware that Online Lessons via Webcam are also available. It seems likely now that Bryan will, finally, be making his move to New York in mid-September. That will be confirmed soon.

Following a quiet beginning to August, Bryan is having a busy time at the end of the month. Along with the usual wedding gigs and other private events, he will also be performing with the Real Macaws on a few of their summer dates; they are playing at an event in Springfield Park, Darlington on the 23rd, and are in Whitby, N.Yorkshire and just outside of Manchester on the 30th and 31st respectively. Following the event in Darlington, Bryan will making a mad dash to Rhyl to play with the Nick Ross Orchestra that evening. Full details of his movements are in the Calendar.

Looking ahead to September, Bryan will be playing for the last time at The Swan, in Liversedge, at their regular Wednesday night Jazz gig. He will be joining the Brian Jackson Trio and other guests on 2nd of September. Bryan had a tremendous gig there this month, as mentioned in a recent news item, with Stuart McDonald (saxes) and special guest Russell Van den Burgh sitting in on Tenor sax. Lots of fun!

Bryan Davis will be visiting Austria to perform and record with his good friend Thomas Gansch. “Gansch & Roses” will be performing in Frankelfels, in Lower Austria, on September 11th. Following 3 days in the studio, they will be playing at the fabulous Porgy & Bess club in Vienna on the 15th. Some lesson times will be available while Bryan is in Austria; he will most likely come over a couple of days early to visit friends in Vienna so there will be more opportunities than usual! Please contact Bryan if you are interested in scheduling a lesson and we’ll set it up.

Later in September, and during October, the Lower Austria Concert Jazz Orchestra are touring again, in Austria and China! On this occasion, Bryan will be unable to perform with them due to his emigration. Instead, Roger Ingram will playing Lead Trumpet with the band. Apologies to the LACJO musicians and audience. Bryan intends to resume playing with the band in 2010 – the provisional tour dates for September 2010 are already in his diary!

The live LACJO recording from the first gig in St Polten in September ‘08 is apparently mixed, mastered and ready to go! We hope to add details of that CD to Bryan’s discography very soon!

Other recent highlights included Stephen Triffitt‘s Frank Sinatra Tribute in Amsterdam, the Wigan Jazz Club Big Band’s concert closing the Wigan Jazz Festival 2009 and Ryan Quigley‘s Maynard Ferguson Tribute in Glasgow.

The Store page is now up and running on the website. There are prepayment links for lessons and .pdf files of Trumpet exercises. There are also links to various external retailers (Amazon, iTunes etc) to purchase CDs and DVDs featuring Bryan Davis. If you have any requests for merchandise you’d like to see added to the Store, please contact Bryan and let him know!

Friends and Heroes.

I’ve been fortunate to play alongside some wonderful musicians on my travels over the past several years. I’ve also had the chance to meet some others who have long been my heroes. Here are some pictures with some of them – this album will keep growing as I have a chance to find some of my old photos!

July/August ’09

Bryan Davis is still UK-based during August. He is available to teach lessons and workshops, as well as for gigs of any kind. If you are based elsewhere in the UK, or indeed the world, but are interested in taking a lesson with Bryan, please be aware that Online Lessons via Webcam are also available.

Bryan will be taking a trip up to Glasgow on Friday, 31st July to perform with the Ryan Quigley Big Band at their Maynard Ferguson Tribute. The gig takes place at The (Renfrew) Ferry, 25 Anderston Quay, Glasgow from 8pm. There is a news item with more details.

During August, Bryan is mostly playing for private events; as is typical during the summer months in the UK. He will also be playing a couple of dates with The Real Macaws; wandering around in town centres as they tend to! His principal activity will be finalising the sale of his house and getting ready to move to New York in mid-September!

Looking forward to September, Bryan will be visiting Austria to perform and record with his good friend Thomas Gansch. “Gansch & Roses” will be performing in Frankelfels, in Lower Austria, on September 11th. Following 3 days in the studio, they will be playing at the fabulous Porgy & Bess club in Vienna on the 15th. Some lesson times will be available while Bryan is in Austria; he will most likely come over a couple of days early to visit friends in Vienna so there will be more opportunities than usual! Please contact Bryan if you are interested in scheduling a lesson and we’ll set it up.

Later in September, and during October, the Lower Austria Concert Jazz Orchestra are touring again, in Austria and China! On this occasion, Bryan will be unable to perform with them due to his emigration. Instead, Roger Ingram will playing Lead Trumpet with the band. Apologies to the LACJO musicians and audience. Bryan intends to resume playing with the band in 2010.

The live LACJO recording from the first gig in St Polten in September ’08 is apparently mixed, mastered and ready to go! We hope to add details of that CD to Bryan’s discography very soon!

During July, Bryan had a great trip to Amsterdam, playing Lead Trumpet for Stephen Triffitt in his “Tribute to Frank Sinatra”. The local musicians, who made up the bulk of the band, did a tremendous job and the concert was a great success. Another notable gig was the Wigan Jazz Club Big Band’s concert on the final night of the Wigan Jazz Festival. In a double bill with singer Carol Kidd, the band closed the festival with a great set of music from the Stan Kenton library. The concert was a sell-out and the large audience were treated to some fantastic playing from a great band!

Checking In and Catching Up.

It’s been some time since I’ve had an opportunity to sit down and write a blog post. Between preparations for my emigration and some gigs to play as well it’s been a busy few weeks! Some highlights have included:-

Ryan Quigley Big Band

I had a great visit up to Glasgow to play with Ryan Quigley‘s band at the end of June. It was tremendous to have an opportunity to play, and hang out, with Roger Ingram, who Ryan brought over from the US to play Lead Trumpet. The concert was a complete sell-out and the audience were, rightly, very enthusiastic about the band. Along with some great instrumental charts, we were also performing with Justin Currie; best known as lead singer with Del Amitri. I had a fantastic time in Glasgow and had the chance to enjoy some other concerts, as well as participating in the nightly festival Jam Sessions. Good times!

Stephen Triffit’s Frank Sinatra Tribute

We had an enjoyable, although tiring, visit to Amsterdam in early July with Stephen Triffitt. We performed his “Tribute to Frank Sinatra” at the beautiful Theater Carre. It was a long couple of days, between travelling and much rehearsing but it was great to see some friends from the Rat Pack crew and band, as well as meeting so many fantastic Dutch musicians. The local musicians, who made up the majority of the band, did a wonderful job. I hope we’ll have another opportunity to get back there and do it all again on some other occasion.

Wigan Jazz Club Big Band

Last night, we had a fantastic concert at the 24th Wigan International Jazz Festival. I was filling in on Lead Trumpet for my good friend Neil Morley; we played the second half of a concert shared with the wonderful Carol Kidd. The Wigan Jazz Club Big Band played about 70 mins of Stan Kenton charts and made a fabulous job of this difficult music. I was particularly pleased to see Terry Reaney among the Trumpet section. Terry was, in years gone by, a stalwart of the Syd Lawrence Orchestra and I always enjoyed his playing. It was great to share my section duties with him – it’s always an education to play alongside musicians of such experience! Many thanks to Neil for asking me to do the gig and to bandleader Ian Darrington for his kind words about my playing!

Coming Up….

I’m pleased to be heading back to Austria in September to play and record with Thomas Gansch and the “Roses”. There’s more information about that on the News page. Hopefully this will be my last gig in Europe before my emigration to New York; I’m certainly trying to organise my calendar that way. We’ll see….

July ’09

Bryan Davis will still be based in Leeds, UK during this month. He is available to teach lessons and workshops, as well as for gigs of any kind. If you are based elsewhere in the UK, or indeed the world, but are interested in taking a lesson with Bryan, please be aware that Online Lessons via Webcam are also available.

Bryan’s emigration to the USA has been temporarily delayed while he finishes tidying up the loose ends of his life in the UK. He hopes to be moving to New York before too much longer – hopefully sometime during August.

Included in this month’s activities are a trip to Amsterdam, Holland. Bryan will be travelling as Lead Trumpet with Stephen Triffitt, to play his “Tribute to Frank Sinatra” at the Theater Carre. Bryan will be arriving in Amsterdam on Tuesday the 7th, playing the show on Wednesday the 8th and returning home on the 9th. Lesson times should be available on Tuesday lunchtime and Wednesday morning. Please visit the Lessons page and contact Bryan to set it up if you are interested.

On Saturday, 18th July, Bryan will be playing Lead Trumpet with the Wigan Jazz Club Big Band at the final concert of the Wigan Jazz Festival 2009. This concert is a Double Bill with Carole Kidd and her band in the 1st half and the Wigan Jazz Club band playing a Stan Kenton programme in the 2nd half. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased by calling the Box Office on 01942 825677.

On June 27th, Bryan performed at the Glasgow Jazz Festival with the Ryan Quigley Big Band. He had the tremendous pleasure of sharing his section duties with Roger Ingram, Noel Langley and Ryan himself. The concert was recorded by BBC Scotland and highlights will be broadcast on the Jazz Line Up programme on BBC Radio 3 in a few weeks. We will post details of that broadcast when we have them. For much of the concert, the band were backing Justin Currie; lead singer and founder member of Del Amitri. A number of songs have appeared on YouTube. We hope you enjoy this version of “Nature Boy”: