Overdue Site Updates

The last couple of days have seen several pages of the site updated. Amongst these have been updates to the About page, Schedule, Current Activities and even some new Sound Clips! These updates, many of which are quite overdue, are the first in a series of changes which will be implemented before the end of the year, by which time we are hoping to have a new and improved site design ready.

Most importantly, we have finally been able to update all of the dates for the Rat Pack US Tour which continues into the early part of 2008. It promises to be a busy time for Bryan as he goes directly between the US Tour and European dates in Austria and Germany without a break! He will be visiting Graz, Hannover, Bremen and Essen in January. Please come and see the show and then come and say hello afterwards! Lessons are, as always, available so please contact Bryan if you are interested.

TFJO CD Available For Download.

The music from the new Tony Faulkner Jazz Orchestra CD; “Thad Jones and the Ellington Effect”, is now available to download from the iTunes Music Store.

The music can also be downloaded from other popular Music sites including Napster.

Site Fixes Occuring!

We’ve just updated to the newest version of WordPress, the management software on which this site is built, and it’s caused a couple of things to go wrong. So far, we’re aware that the Links page isn’t working and also that the Discography page seems to have fouled up. If you spot anything that’s wrong, please contact Bryan and let him know about it. We’ll be fixing all this stuff up over the next day or so. Full service will be resumed very soon!

Update: It’s now all fixed!! Enjoy…

TFJO CD Now Available

The CD we recorded last June with the Tony Faulkner Jazz Orchestra; “Thad Jones and the Ellington Effect”, is now out in the wild!! Tony explains:

“Thad Jones and the Ellington Effect” is a seven part suite of pieces based on the chapters of a Masters dissertation completed some years ago and in which I attempted to show how Thad Jones had been influenced by Duke Ellington both in his writing and arranging, and in the way in which he used the jazz Orchestra he co-led with drummer Mel Lewis from 1966 to 1979.

The CD is available from Amazon in the UK and CD Baby in the US. The music will also be available for Digital Download from iTunes, Napster and all the other usual suspects before long. More info as I have it.

Buy “Thad Jones and the Ellington Effect” from Amazon.co.uk
Buy “Thad Jones and the Ellington Effect” from CD Baby.

You can also keep up with the latest news about the TFJO on MySpace.

Sir Stan Tracey??

There’s a current petition doing the rounds to nominate Stan Tracey, the great British Jazz Pianist, for a Knighthood or similar honour, in recognition of his long and distinguished career.

If you’re interested you can sign up online, just visit the following link for more information.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/StanTracey/

I think it’s great to have an opportunity to not only honour a fine musician, but to have another means of bringing the existence of a Jazz audience to the attention of the powers that be.