Rat Pack Round-up 2009 – 1st Installment!

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Welcome to the newly re-organised blog section of the site. You’ll notice that some of the previous ‘News’ posts are here as well – I wanted to bring them over to this page since they were really blog-posts already. I hope you like the new version of the site – we’ve all been working pretty hard to bring it to you – and my busy schedule has gotten firmly in the way, as usual!

I’m taking a couple of days break at home in New York before hitting the road again on Friday with the LACJO Spring tour throughout Lower Austria. Following the tremendous fun we had at the first gig in September ’08, I’m really looking forward to getting together with the band and seeing what we can make happen with the music. I’m excited – it’s not often I get to work with such a talented AND motivated group. They have released one video clip of the September concert on to YouTube – you can see it on the new Video page on this site.

The main reason I’ve been so busy is, as usual, the Rat Pack – Live At The Sands US Tour. We’ve just played two great weeks in Louisville, Kentucky and Dallas, Texas. The show is actually carrying on without me in Schenectady, NY this week – a curious feeling to say the least. My dear friend Augie Haas is doing a magnificent job of covering for me, by all accounts!

Louisville, KY

This was such a great city to start off the tour this year. We played in the Whitney Hall at the Kentucky Center – an enormous arts complex right in the heart of downtown Louisville. With a great hotel right around the corner we were well set for a good run. The local musicians in Louisville did a great job and were a lot of fun to hang out with as well. They displayed tremendous enthusiasm about the show as well – which is always nice. Joining me in the Trumpet section were Greg Wing and David Welch, and a big vote of thanks goes out to them for their playing and friendship. We had a ball!

L-R: Greg Wing, BD, David Welch

L-R: Greg Wing, BD, David Welch

Dallas, TX

This was the third time we’ve been to Texas since we started touring the Rat Pack in the USA – actually we opened in San Antonio in October ’06. We have always received a warm welcome in that area and Dallas was no exception!

The band in Dallas was one of the best we’ve had on the tour so far, which is no more than you’d expect since most were graduates from, and many still teachers at, the famous University of North Texas jazz program, just up the road in Denton. On trumpets, alongside me, were Jay Saunders and Keith Jourdan. Jay’s name will be familiar to many following his tenure as Lead trumpet with Stan Kenton in the 1970s. While Keith may not be so well known (at least he wasn’t to me) he has enjoyed a busy playing career which involved a long stint on Tom Jones’ band – now that must have been fun!

L-R: Jay Saunders, BD, Keith Jourdan

L-R: Jay Saunders, BD, Keith Jourdan

It was particularly interesting to meet Jay Saunders as he played Lead on the recordings of some of the Kenton music we’re playing on the LACJO – funny how those things come around!

While we were in Dallas, I also had the chance to go and watch, and sit in with, the Dallas Original Jazz Orchestra, led by Galen Jeter. Galen is a fine trumpet player who also had, among his trumpet section, Maynard Ferguson alum. Ken Edwards. Ken was the featured trumpet soloist on the MF band, alongside Maynard himself, and also recorded on Maynard’s last studio CD – “The One And Only”. He sounded absolutely incredible in the DOJO – definitely a player to keep an eye out for!

Still (vaguely) with the Dallas connection, I had the great pleasure of visiting Birdland in New York last night to watch the famed UNT One O’Clock Lab Band perform. I’m still reeling from the experience! I find it incomprehensible that a college band can sound that good! The musicians, along with their director Steve Wiest, are to be heartily congratulated – if they’re touring anywhere else, or if you’re local enough in Texas, I implore you to go and see them play. You won’t regret it!

I’ll be back with more from my travels soon, as well as news about the podcast and other bits and pieces. Bye for now…

Site Redesign/Updates etc

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We’ve finally finished the new redesign of BryanDavis.info – now it’s 8th incarnation! There were several problems with the previous design; mostly due to the fact that it was only supposed to be temporary following the accidental erasing of v6 during a WordPress upgrade. There are several new features we’ve been waiting to add for some time and they will be unveiled during the next few days. There has also been some rearranging of content – e.g. Photos, Videos and the Discography can now be found in the Media section, and the Guestbook is now a subpage of the Contact page. We hope you can still find everything you are looking for. If there are any major problems with the rendering of the design/layout please help us to fix them by letting us know! You can email us at webmaster at bryandavis.info (of course putting the @ sign in the appropriate spot!) – it is most helpful if you can let us know whether you are using a Mac or PC and which web browser you are using (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc), as well as the nature of the problem.

Among the new features we are adding is the new Teaching section of the site. There will be details on the services Bryan Davis offers; private lessons, clinics/workshops etc, as well as the new Online Lessons service. Bryan is available to teach one-on-one lessons via webcam – saving the need for you to wait for him to visit your city!! There will also be a Resources section featuring extensive links to Musicians, Manufacturers etc, articles and online communities where you can keep up with the latest in the Brass world. All the details will be available very soon.

In addition, Bryan will also be adding a Podcast – the first episode is just about to be recorded. This will feature his thoughts on a number of subjects related to music and trumpet playing, as well as audio and video clips. If there are any subjects you’d like Bryan to talk about, then please contact him and let him know. He will blog more about this in a forthcoming post – another new section we’ve added! He’s promised to stop by with a new post before he heads out to Austria on the LACJO tour at the end of the week – look out for that.

We hope you like the new site. Once again, any feedback will be welcomed at webmaster at bryandavis.info.

February/March ’09

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February sees the recommencement of The Rat Pack – Live At The Sands US National Tour. Bryan will be flying out to Louisville, Kentucky at the end of the month to get started again. The tour is visiting 6 cities between February 26th and April 19th. The dates are as follows:-

  • 26th February – March 1st :- The Kentucky Center, Louisville, KY
  • 3rd – 8th March :- Majestic Theatre, Dallas, TX
  • 10th – 15th March :- Proctors Theater, Schenectady, NY
  • 24th – 29th March :- Carol Morsani Hall, Tampa, FL
  • 7th – 12th April :- Keller Auditorium, Portland, OR
  • 14th – 19th April :- OJPAC, Costa Mesa, CA

Bryan will be performing at all these venues with the exception of Schenectady – this clashes with the Spring tour with the Lower Austria Concert Jazz Orchestra. While Bryan is away in Austria, he will be ably replaced by Augie Haas – a wonderful Miami-based trumpeter who played the show a couple of years ago when the tour travelled to West Palm Beach, FL. Many thanks to Augie for taking the gig on.

The LACJO tour dates can be checked on Bryan’s calendar or on the news item you’ll see listed in the sidebar. We’re visiting 6 towns/cities over 7 days. Bryan will also have the chance to enjoy a day off in Vienna – one of his favourite cities in the world. He’s very much looking forward to catching up with so many dear friends who live there.

Before all of that, Bryan is spending the early part of February catching up with life at home. He’s now getting set for his emigration to New York. The good news is that his Visa is approved. The bad news is that it’s not available straight away if he’s to fulfil his touring commitments. He should get it soon after the end of Rat Pack US dates in April and hopes to make the move shortly after that. In the meantime, he will find time to visit his friends at the Gordon Tetley Big Band in Bradford each Monday in February. In addition to this, he will also be performing as part of the Leeds Schools Big Band concerts – a week of concerts in schools. The band mostly comprises Music teachers from the Leeds area under the direction of Dale Gibson – a wonderful trumpet player best known as Lead Trumpet with the Glenn Miller Orchestra UK. It promises to be a lot of fun, as well as a great opportunity to introduce live music to local children – something they may not otherwise be exposed to in this day and age!

During January, Bryan was delighted to have the chance to coach the GCDYO Swing Band at two of their weekly rehearsals. This was a special event for him as it was the first Big Band he ever played with, when he was a teenager. Many thanks to Leo Solomon, their Musical Director, for the invitation.

Bryan is available for teaching opportunities of all kinds, whether at home or on tour. Please contact him for further details about one-to-one lessons, clinics and ‘Guest Artist’ performances. He is also in the process of ironing out the logisitics of offering Online Lessons via webcam. There will more information added to the site about all of this before long.

Finally, if you’re looking for any of the video clips that have been lurking at the bottom of this page for the past few months, they can now be found on the new Media page. Happy viewing!

January ’09

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Happy New Year!!

This month sees Bryan Davis performing the last few dates of the Christmas With The Rat Pack UK tour. This will definitely be the last UK/European stint with the Rat Pack for a while. The show is on hiatus, except in the USA, until sometime later in the year, by which time Bryan should have finally made the move to New York. You can catch Bryan playing Lead Trumpet with the Rat Pack Big Band at the St Georges Hall in Bradford on the 2nd, the Grimsby Auditorium on the 3rd and the Liverpool Philharmonic on the 5th. Please stop by the Stage Door and say hello if you make it to any of these shows.

The rest of January will be spent subbing a few shows on Cinderella; the pantomime at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford. Bryan will also be playing with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra at their concert in Leeds on the 18th. Other than that, Bryan will be catching up on real life at home! Following 38 weeks away on the road in 2008, as well as numerous other gigs, that should make for a welcome change! However, don’t be afraid to get in touch if you need a Trumpet player for your band!

Bryan is available, as ever, to teach Trumpet lessons whether at home or on the road. He is also available as Clinician and/or Guest Artist to come and work with School/Youth/College Bands. He was pleased to perform with the Jazz Band I at Fullerton College in Fullerton, California back in October 2008. He is pencilled in to coach the GCDYO Swing Band in Grimsby, UK in January this year. There will be a ‘Teaching’ page added to the site shortly with details about Bryan’s Educational activities. For more information in the meantime, please use the Contact page to get in touch.

Looking ahead, there are already some interesting gigs in Bryan’s diary for 2009. The Rat Pack – Live at the Sands US Tour starts again in late February. The show will be visiting Louisville KY, Dallas TX, Schenectady NY, Tampa Bay FL, Portland OR and Costa Mesa CA before the end of April. There are also 3 tours planned with the LACJO during 2009. There are Spring and Autumn tours in Austria and then, in late October, the band should be travelling to China to perform at the 11th China Shanghai International Arts Festival. There is a News item with more details about all of that. There is also a date with Ryan Quigley’s Big Band at the Glasgow Jazz Festival in June. Ryan is a fine Trumpet player who is well known in the Scottish Jazz scene. His band is likely to include such luminaries as Nigel Hitchcock (alto), Mark Nightingale (tbn) and possibly even Wayne Bergeron and Roger Ingram (tpts). Should be a lot of fun! Between those confirmed dates and Bryan’s emigration to the USA, it promises to be a busy year for him, so please check back here often for more news!

A highlight of 2008 was Bryan’s trip to Austria in May with Thomas Gansch and his band. The first concert was at the Schagerl Brass Festival and part of that concert is featured on the Schagerl Brass Festival 2008 DVD. One of the tracks has found it’s way on to YouTube and we present it here for your enjoyment.