June ’08

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June kicks off with a break from the regular Rat Pack routine – Bryan will be playing Lead Trumpet with the Wigan Jazz Club Big Band at the Southport Jazz Festival on Sunday the 1st of June. It promises to be a fun concert; we’re backing Andy Greenwood who will be paying tribute to the late, great Maynard Ferguson in a programme entitled “Remembering Maynard”.

The rest of the month continues much as usual with Rat Pack dates in Bromley, Swansea, Reading, Nottingham and Southend-on-Sea.

Bryan had a fantastic trip to Austria at the end of May, playing with Thomas Gansch and his band; Gansch & Roses. We’ll add more news about it shortly. The first concert they played, at the Schagerl Brass Festival, was broadcast live online by TheMusicPage.com – highlights will be available soon on the site. We’ll link to them once they become available. 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.

May ’08

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Bryan is continuing the Rat Pack – Live from Las Vegas UK Tour throughout May. However, he will be taking some time off towards the end of the month to head back out to Austria with Thomas Gansch and his band; Gansch & Roses. They are playing 4 dates in various parts of Austria, including one at the magnificent Porgy and Bess Jazz Club in Vienna, and a performance at the Schagerl Brass Festival 2008. Please check the Schedule for more details.

Bryan will also have a free day in Vienna and is available for lessons/clinics, as he is during the continuing Rat Pack tour. If you are interested, please check the Schedule for the dates and contact him to set it up.

You may notice some strangeness with the website over the next few days as we tweak the new design which is now online. If you notice anything weird or broken (columns not lining up etc) please send an email via the Contact page with details of your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox etc) and operating system (Windows, Mac or Linux) so we can go on a bug hunt!!

March ’08

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Following some server problems the site had to be taken down and re-uploaded today. Therefore, there are still some things broken and/or weird. Since Bryan has to play the show in Houston tonight, it may be a short time before everything’s back to normal. Please be patient….

January ’08

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Happy New Year!!

The New Year festivities were somewhat rushed for Bryan as he had to travel directly from Toronto, where the last show was on NYE, to Graz in Austria to rejoin the Rat Pack European tour on January 2nd. He will be performing the show in Graz until Jan. 6th, followed by weeks in Hannover, Bremen and Essen, in Germany, before returning to Birmingham AL in the US, at the end of the month.

Bryan had a great time playing in Los Angeles and Toronto throughout December and thanks go to all the musicians who joined him on the show, most notably the trumpets; Rick Baptist, Dan Fornero and Willie Murillo (LA), and Shawn Moody and Jason Logue (Toronto). More will follow about Bryan’s time in LA in a News item shortly.

December 2007

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December began with the last few Rat Pack shows in Tucson, Arizona, from where the tour moved on to Los Angeles. At time of writing, Bryan is halfway through the first of 2 weeks in LA, and having a blast playing with the all-star local band! More about that in a News item shortly.

From Los Angeles the tour moves on to Toronto, Canada, where they will be performing the Christmas With The Rat Pack version of the show, in it’s North American premiere, at the Princess of Wales Theatre from December 20th-31st.

Bryan would like to wish one and all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!