Bryan Davis

New Trumpet!

bryandavis — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:58:38 +0000

My new trumpet was delivered this morning. It is the new Jupiter XO 1600i – the Roger Ingram Signature model. Nobody’s more surprised than me that I’ve chosen a Jupiter horn but this model plays so much better than I imagined!

I had a chance to try one a couple of weeks ago when Roger, himself, passed through NYC on his summer teaching tour. He was kind enough to hang out for a little over an hour and play test the Lacquer and Silverplate Jupiters he had with him, along with my Yamaha 8335LA. We both agreed that the Jupiter sounded just as good overall, and better in the extreme upper register, while being easier to play. I feared it was going to be tough to track one down, but I got lucky last week and was able to order one for immediate shipping.

I’ll post more observations about it in the coming weeks. Meantime, I should go play it some more!

La Gran Descarga – “Mambo Bongo”

bryandavis — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:29:40 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

La Gran Descarga, featuring Andy Morel, Bryan Davis and Matt Owens, perform “Mambo Bongo” live at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. Part of the 2008 Manchester Jazz Festival.

Matt Owens – bass/arrangement
Percussion: Rick Weedon, Bryan Hargreaves, Hugh Lawrence, Rick Farrow,
Andrzej Baranek – keys
Trumpets: Bryan Davis, Russell Bennett, Paul Brickles, Neil Yates
Trombones: Richard Wigley, Kevin Holborough, Andy Hillier, Chris Hibbard
Saxes: Andy Schofield, Jo McCallum, Kenji Fenton, Howard Jacobs, Andy Morel

La Gran Descarga – Catch Me If You Can

bryandavis — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:53:05 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kirsty Almeida & La Gran Descarga perform “Catch Me If You Can” live at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. Part of the 2008 Manchester Jazz Festival.

Kirsty Almeida – lead vocals
Matt Owens – bass/arrangement
Percussion: Rick Weedon, Bryan Hargreaves, Hugh Lawrence, Rick Farrow,
Andrzej Baranek – keys
Backing Vocals: Tom Davies, Chan
Trumpets: Bryan Davis, Russell Bennett, Paul Brickles, Neil Yates
Trombones: Richard Wigley, Kevin Holborough, Andy Hillier, Chris Hibbard
Saxes: Andy Schofield, Jo McCallum, Kenji Fenton, Howard Jacobs, Andy Morel

Summer 2010

bryandavis — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:39:37 +0000

July commenced with Bryan Davis on the road, playing some dates in New England with Danny Seraphine (the original drummer from Chicago) and his new band; CTA – California Transit Authority. They played shows at the Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury, MA; Twin Rivers Casino in Lincoln, RI; and the 4th of July celebrations in Clifton Park, NY. A great time was had by all – CTA are a tremendous band and Bryan is looking forward to playing with them again in the future.

Bryan is back home in New York City for the rest of July, unless the phone rings! Unfortunately the same is now true of August as well. His previously planned trip to play with the LACJO in Austria has been cancelled – following his recent move to the USA, Bryan is temporarily unable to leave the country without authorization papers, which haven’t arrived in time to book flights. Apologies to the band, and to the students who had requested lessons. The good news is that Bryan will definitely be making the trip to play with Thomas Gansch in late October – lessons will be reorganised for during that tour.

The Gansch & Roses CD Launch Tour is set for October 29th – November 3rd, 2010; further information is on the Schedule page. The current plan is for Adam Rapa to be back with Thomas and Bryan in the Trumpet section once again. The early mixes of ‘Resal’ – the new CD – sound terrific. Included is Thomas’ tribute to Bill Chase – “Der Rock des Trompeters”. Here is the performance of this piece from last Autumn’s concert at Porgy & Bess in Vienna:

We look forward to sharing more information about the CD, as it becomes available. Bryan will be in Austria from October 27th to November 7th, so there will be plenty of opportunities to organise lessons/masterclasses.

Please check out the information in the Teaching section of the site if you wish to avail yourself of Bryan’s services as a Trumpet teacher for Private Lessons or Clinics, or as a guest artist with your School/College band. Don’t forget that Online Lessons via Webcam are available if you are elsewhere in the US, or indeed the world!

You can find all Bryan Davis’ contact information on the Contact page of this website. He looks forward to hearing from you soon!

We are pleased to announce that Bryan Davis has now joined the Artist Roster on JazzCorner.com – the premier portal for Jazz sites. Big thanks to Lois Gilbert, JazzCorner supremo, for welcoming Bryan to the family. In celebration of that, we will be upgrading and redesigning the site before long. Watch this space…

Have a great summer!

New England, here I come…

bryandavis — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:32:58 +0000

Following a call yesterday, I’ll be heading out on the road again this week! I’ll be playing with California Transit Authority on their dates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and upstate New York. You can find the dates on my Schedule.

This should be a fun week! The band is built around Danny Seraphine – the original drummer from Chicago – and also features Marc Bonilla; guitarist with Emerson, Lake and Palmer! Always fun to play with the guys from the records!

I’ll try and remember to blog from the road. I’m certainly interested to see how New England compares to the original!

Summer 2010

bryandavis — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 04:06:24 +0000

Bryan Davis is currently back in New York, following a most pleasant week down in Louisville, KY; playing 1st Trumpet for the National Tour of ‘Legally Blonde’. He will be in ‘the city that never sleeps’ until early August, when he heads back over to Austria to play with the LACJO once again, at Schloss Haindorf on August 5th. Bryan will be in Austria for a few days either side of this concert, teaching Trumpet lessons and visiting with friends. There are still a few lesson spots available.

You can find all Bryan Davis’ contact information on the Contact page of this website. He looks forward to hearing from you soon!

Looking ahead to the Autumn, Bryan will be returning to Austria again, this time to play with Gansch & Roses on their CD launch tour. The dates are between October 29th and November 3rd – further details on the Schedule page. The early mixes of “Resal”, the new CD, sound terrific – we look forward to sharing further details about it as we have them. Once again, as on the last tour, Bryan and Thomas Gansch will be joined in the trumpet section by Adam Rapa. The gigs will be a lot of fun – if last year is anything to go by. Decide for yourself – here’s a video of Thomas’ Bill Chase Tribute “Der Rock des Trompeters”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Have a great summer!

A Spot of Spring-Cleaning

bryandavis — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:23:29 +0000

Just a little forewarning that I’ll be doing a little reorganising of the site over the next couple of weeks. There’s a full-blown redesign in the works but first I need to straighten out how some of the site content is put together – partly to simply tidy up but also to take advantage of some of the new features of WordPress which are now available.

The first tweak has already been made; you’ll notice that the “Upcoming Shows” have been added back into the sidebar on the homepage, after a long absence.

Anyway, if anything is weird with the site when you look in, in the next little while, please just check back later. I’ll be tweaking as fast as I can to minimise disruption.

Hitting The Road Again!

bryandavis — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:39:09 +0000

I’m pleased to say I’ll be heading out on the road again in a couple of weeks. I received a call from my good friend Greg Wing yesterday and, as a result, I’m heading down to Louisville, Kentucky; to play “Legally Blonde” at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts from June 8-13.

Should be fun to get back to a week’s theatre work again, after so long. I haven’t played this particular show before but I hear good things about it. It’ll be fun finding out!

Joining JazzCorner!

bryandavis — Fri, 21 May 2010 01:11:53 +0000

Exciting news! This weekend I’m joining the Artist roster at JazzCorner.com! In the first instance, I’ll be switching this site over to their webhosting; my apologies if you experience some problems visiting it over the next couple of days. Later on, once I have my information together, I’ll be added to the roster listing on their site. Very cool!

I’m also going to take this opportunity to have a bit of spruce up around here. More about that soon…

Big thanks to JazzCorner supremo Lois Gilbert for accepting me to her Jazz family!

Breaking Radio Silence

bryandavis — Wed, 12 May 2010 04:09:26 +0000

Just a quick post – as usual, it’s been far too long since the last. Life here in NYC has been continuing apace as ever. I’ve been keeping busy in the past few weeks helping out over at JazzCorner.com, updating sites and working on some other projects. It’s a fun gig which allows me to exercise the technical side of my brain while also still affording me practice time; I work mostly from home – it is online work, after all.

I’m pleased to say that I’ve also been teaching, both online and off-. In addition, I’ve actually been playing occasionally as well! I’ve been rehearsing with Bill Lee and his Natural Spirit Orchestra for an upcoming concert, and I even got a call for a salsa gig a couple of weeks ago. Much fun was had!!

Things are, as I expected, still a good deal quieter than they might have been, had I stayed in England but, given the recent political machinations there, I think I’m better off out of harms way. The phone is starting to ring so it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be playing more regularly again.

I’m still planning to be back in Austria with the LACJO in August, and I’ve just heard from Thomas Gansch to confirm some dates with him in late October/early November! Adam Rapa is planning to be back with us too, so that’ll be an extra fun trip!

Meantime it’s back to practicing and coding! Among my projects is a planned redesign of this site – more about that, and everything else, soon….