A new feature for all your Facebook users out there – Bryan Davis now has his own Facebook fanpage. Please click the following link to ‘become a fan‘!
Bryan is also accessible through a number of other popular internet communities. You’ll find a list of links on the frontpage of this website, at the bottom of the sidebar. Update: These are now at the right hand side of the black bar at the bottom of each page.
Bryan is spending the festive season back in the UK, primarily fulfilling dates on the Christmas with the Rat Pack UK tour. He will be in Glasgow, Manchester, Gateshead, Birmingham, Sheffield, Harrogate, Dundee and Hull between the 1st and the 18th. The rest of the month will be spent playing the usual round of Christmassy gigs (functions and pantomime deps!) and celebrating with friends and family!
In addition to playing the shows, Bryan is available to teach private lessons, whether he’s on the road or at home! If this is of interest to you then please check the Calendar to find out when he’s visiting your city, then visit the Contact page and get in touch so we can set it up. Given his increasing involvement in education, there will be a Teaching page added to the site shortly, with further details about Private lessons as well as Clinics/Workshops.
Following the difficulties with the website at the end of October, we are pleased to say that it is more or less up and running again. The last thing to re-add is Bryan’s Discography – this will rematerialise before long and feature the addition of a DVD of NYJO that was recently released, recorded at the Proms back in around 2000. More details when the page returns!
Looking ahead to 2009, there are already some interesting gigs in Bryan’s diary, including an Austrian tour with LACJO, the continuation of the Rat Pack – Live At The Sands US Tour and a date with Ryan Quigley’s Big Band at the Glasgow Jazz Festival. 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!
Happy Holidays!
This month, Bryan is continuing The Rat Pack – Live At The Sands US National Tour. He will be visiting Omaha NE, Oklahoma City and Tulsa before returning to the UK to play many of the dates on the Christmas With The Rat Pack UK Tour in December and January.
During October, Bryan was in the USA also. Besides playing Rat Pack shows in Salt Lake City, UT and Tempe, AZ, he also spent a week or so in Los Angeles. Whilst the trip there was primarily for personal reasons(!) he also had the tremendous pleasure of appearing as Guest Artist with the Jazz Band at Fullerton College in Fullerton, CA. The concert was a lot of fun and seemed to be a tremendous success. Bryan wishes to thank Jazz Director Bruce Babad, as well as the fine players in the band, for inviting him out to play with them. We hope to have some audio/video clips up on the site before long.
Speaking of the website, we should point out that following some problems during a recent software update, much of it was accidentally deleted! The astute return visitor may notice the abscence of several features. We are working hard to replace them and hope to resume full service before long! In the meantime, the site is a little more streamlined but most of the important information is still available. Keep checking for regular updates over the next few weeks.
Bryan had a fantastic trip to Austria in September, to play the first concert with the newly formed Lower Austrian Concert Jazz Orchestra. It was a great concert and the band sounded fantastic! There is a tour planned for March ’09 – more details about that in due course. We should also have some audio and video footage from that concert soon.
In the meantime, please continue to enjoy this video from Bryan’s earlier Austria trip at the end of May, playing with Thomas Gansch and his band; Gansch & Roses. The band is playing Thomas’ Bill Chase tribute – “Der Rock Des Trompeters” – from the gig at Porgy & Bess in Vienna.
Now we’ve managed to get our work visas sorted, I guess it’s safe to announce that I’ll be out on the road with “The Rat Pack – Live At The Sands” US Tour from next week. We kick off in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 7th. The following week we visit Tempe, Arizona. Further dates follow in November with visits to Omaha NE, Oklahoma City and Tulsa (both in Oklahoma!).
Before that, I’ll be bidding a fond farewell to the Rat Pack European Tour on Saturday 4th October in Preston. Ahead of the US Tour and my subsequent emigration to the United States, I’ve handed my notice in. I’ll be back in the UK from late November, primarily to finalise my US Visa to move over. It’s possible that I’ll dep on a few Rat Pack dates on the Christmas Tour in December; we’ll have to wait and see. In any case, I hope to have left the UK by sometime in January 2009.
It’s odd to be leaving all my friends on the show after 4 and a half years. I’ll still get my Rat Pack fix, of course, with the US Tour with which I’ll continue for the time being. That’s a curious situation though, because I’m so used to playing with the same band in the UK whereas we meet new musicians in every venue in the States. I’ll really miss the guys and a huge vote of thanks goes out to all of them, particularly the Brass section: Kevin Ferris and Dave Ford (trumpets), and Keith Hutton, Andy Watson and Bruce Douglas (trombones). What else can I say? You guys are awesome to play and hang with and it’s been a huge honour to know you all! Thanks for putting up with me!
So where to next? The short answer is New York! My long suffering fiancee Cynthia and I are getting married (at last) and I’m joining her over there rather than vice versa. At least, that’s the plan – the Visa isn’t completely finalised yet, although it seems to be running smoothly at the moment. So, if you’re in the New York area, or indeed on tour anywhere in the US, and need a Trumpet player from mid-January on; please give me a call. I’d love to here from you.
More news about all of this will follow in due course….
This month sees Bryan returning to The Rat Pack – Live From Las Vegas, following the tour’s summer break. They kick off in Belfast, at the marvellous Grand Opera House, on Monday the 8th. The previous weekend Bryan will be performing with Mark Gillbanks and his fine orchestra for a couple of events. September also sees Rat Pack dates in Sunderland and Southport.
Perhaps more importantly, this month also marks the inaugural concert with the Lower Austria Concert Jazz Orchestra, to which Bryan was recently appointed as Lead Trumpet. Bryan will be visiting Austria twice in September, first to rehearse with the Orchestra and then to perform in the concert at the St. Pölten Jazz Festival on the 27th. The program is challenging but looks like a lot of fun; it’s entitled “Murdering The Classics” and features, amongst other works, the Stan Kenton version of Bernstein’s West Side Story.
Looking ahead to October, Bryan expects to be returning to the USA with the Rat Pack US National Tour. Visa permitting, he will be visiting Salt Lake City, Utah and Tempe, Arizona.
In any of the locales he visits, Bryan is always available to teach Trumpet Lessons; something he’s been doing a lot of lately! If you’re interested in organising a lesson, please check the Calendar to see when he’s nearby and get in touch to set it up.
Bryan had a fantastic trip to Austria at the end of May, playing with Thomas Gansch and his band; Gansch & Roses. The first concert they played, at the Schagerl Brass Festival, was broadcast live online by TheMusicPage.com. We’re promised that, at some stage, highlights from that concert will be made available on their site. In the meantime, please enjoy this video of the band playing Thomas’ Bill Chase tribute – “Der Rock Des Trompeters” – from the gig at Porgy & Bess in Vienna.