Autumn 2012

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Travelling season is upon me again! I’ve just returned from a brief trip to Mexico City, where we were having some meetings ahead of a planned visit with a group for early next year. I’d never been “South of the Border” before and had a great time. Fortunately, I’ll be back there soon as I’m about to be hitting the road (i.e. airport) in a big way! More about that later…

My trip to Austria in November is coming up in just a couple of weeks, at time of writing. It’ll be great to get back over there and see some old friends, as well as making a lot of new ones! Here’s the itinerary:

Gansch & Roses

It’s always a joy to play music with (or simply be in the company of) Thomas Gansch. I’ve been fortunate to enjoy both on a number of occasions the past few years. This time around, we are presenting the music from the CD Resal which we recorded in 2009. Joining Thomas and I in the trumpet section, as on the record, is the incredible Adam Rapa. We are playing 2 concerts:

  • November 2nd – JAZZliebe/ljubezen, Mureck
  • November 3rd – Jazz & Wine Festival, Aschbach

We don’t get to play Gansch & Roses concerts very often, but they are always a wonderful time! You should definitely try and get to one if you’re nearby. More details for these and all the following concerts are on my Schedule.

Jazz BigBand Graz

Following the Gansch & Roses dates, I’ll be performing 3 concerts with Jazz BigBand Graz; the first a CD presentation concert of their recent “Urban Folktales” record and then 2 concerts entitled “Dangerous Liaison” – a joint programme with the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester and special guest Wolfgang Puschnig (saxes/flute). The JBBG are a new group to me, but are co-lead by my friend & fellow trumpeter Horst Michael Schaffer. They sound fantastic on their records and I’m thoroughly looking forward to tackling their Lead Trumpet book. The details:

  • November 4th: “Urban Folktales” at the Orpheum, in Graz
  • November 5th: “Dangerous Liaison” at the Festspielhaus, in St. Pölten
  • November 6th: “Dangerous Liaison” at the Musikverein (Goldener Saal), in Vienna

Wonderbrass

Another new group to me, but again led by HMS, we will be paying tribute to the late, great Lester Bowie and his Brass Fantasy. This should be a lot of fun!

  • November 9th: Porgy & Bess, in Vienna
  • November 10th: Greithhaus, in St. Ulrich

It’s always a thrill to play at Porgy & Bess – one of my favourite venues in the whole world! I hope to see a lot of my Viennese friends there!!

Ten of the Best

Following these dates in Austria, I’ll be flying directly back to Mexico City to join Otto Sauter and his remarkable group Ten of the Best where we’ll be playing at the 5th Encuentro Internacional de Trompeta “Rafael Méndez”. This takes place from November 12th-19th. I don’t have the final schedule yet, but I understand that we’ll be playing 3 concerts with Ten of the the Best and there will be a number of feature concerts and masterclasses by members of the group, myself included. Further details of those as I have them. Rest assured, there will be a lot of serious trumpet playing happening here – I’m honoured to have the chance to play with such an amazing group of trumpeters!

After Mexico, we have 4 more dates with Ten of the Best. On November 29th we will be performing for a TV broadcast in Weimar, Germany and then from 11/30 to 12/2 we will be playing in Wartburg Eisenach in Germany.

Christmas with The Rat Pack

I’ll be ‘back with the Pack’ for the festive season once again this year. This time, we’ll be performing from December 21-31 at the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria. Then we’ll spend the 1st week of 2013 performing in Trieste, Italy. It’s always fun to be back with my friends on the Rat Pack touring band. It’ll be a great end to a great year!!

That’s enough for now – as you can see, it’s pretty busy coming up! Before all of that starts, I do have a fun gig next week, here in NYC. We’ll be performing the annual Dizzy Gillespie Tribute at the Baha’i Center NYC on Tuesday, 23rd October with Mike Longo’s NY State of the Art Jazz Ensemble. We will play one set of Dizzy’s big band music, with special guest vocalists Annie Ross and Ira Hawkins. Then, there will be a showing of a Dizzy Gillespie concert movie. Hope to see you there, or elsewhere on my travels!

Austria Tour Update – November 2012

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Further to the previous post about my trip to Austria, I’m pleased to be able to add a number of other gigs! The schedule is now as follows:

  • November 1: Rehearsal!
  • November 2: Gansch & Roses, somewhere in Styria
  • November 3: Gansch & Roses, somewhere in Niederösterreich
  • November 4: Jazz BigBand Graz @ GMD (GeneralMusikDirektion) in Graz — “Urban Folktales”
  • November 5: Jazz BigBand Graz + NÖ Tonkunstler Orchester @ Festspielhaus,  St Pölten — “Dangerous Liaison”
  • November 6: Jazz BigBand Graz + NÖ Tonkunstler Orchester @ Musikverein,  Wien — “Dangerous Liaison”
  • November 7&8: Rehearsals!
  • November 9: Wonderbrass @ Porgy & Bess, Wien
  • November 10: Wonderbrass in St Ulrich

More details are on the Schedule page.

There are also a couple of other possibilities I’m still working on but it seems most likely I’ll be arriving in Austria on October 30th and heading home on November 12th. Why is this important? If you are interested in booking a trumpet lesson or clinic/masterclass while I’m over in Austria, now is the time to let me know so I have a chance to schedule with everybody who is asking. Please send me an email if you are interested. I will be back in contact with everybody who has asked so far, as soon as I have my final rehearsal schedule from the various groups I’ll be performing with.

I hope to see many of my friends in Austria at one or other of these shows! Bis bald…

Summer 2012

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I hope you’re managing to stay cool, wherever you happen to be. Here in New York, it’s been HOT! I never thought I’d learn to love air conditioning quite so much!

It’s been a busy few weeks, since last I wrote on here. The trip out to Bethlehem, PA with Mr Ho’s Orchestrotica, at the end of May, was great. That band is so much fun to play in, despite the impossibly high 1st Trumpet book, and I’ve really gotten into the music of Juan Garcia Esquivel. By now, the previously ‘secret’ gig we had on June 29th has happened — we had a blast playing on the TD Stage at the Montreal Jazz Festival! We played two shows to estimated crowds of 100,000+ people. What an experience!! It’s hard to describe what it was like so, instead, I recommend you check out a little taste from YouTube. Here’s our performance of ‘Harlem Nocturne’:

There are a couple more selections from the gig on my Videos page. Enjoy…

There are a couple of interesting gigs coming up in the next week, for those of you close to NYC. On Tuesday, July 24th, I’ll be with Mike Longo‘s NY State of the Art Jazz Ensemble at the Baha’i Center (53 E 11th St, a couple blocks south of Union Square) once again. The show begins at 8pm and the cover is $15. Mike has a great book, including a lot of charts from the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, and the band is storming. It’s always a fun thing to hear (and play)!

The following evening, I’ll be leading the Trumpet section of the Blue Nitrous Big Band at the Bitter End, in NYC. This is a rare opportunity to hear what has become a great band! Our regular rehearsals are now one of my favourite evenings of the week. We’re playing 1 set only at 7pm and the cover charge is $10. The Bitter End is located at 147 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and LaGuardia) in Greenwich Village. I hope to see you there!!

Looking forward to November, I’ll be making a welcome return to Austria for a short tour with Gansch & Roses. I wrote about that the other day. Venues have yet to be confirmed, but this band is always remarkable! We don’t get together often, so see it while you can!!

I know that there are things I’m forgetting to mention but that’ll do it for right now. Stay cool and enjoy your summer!