Bryan Davis is a trumpet and flügelhorn player
and teacher, originally from the UK, now residing in New York City, USA. He has
gained an international reputation as a Lead Trumpeter, and is also highly
regarded as a Jazz soloist.
He received his formal musical training at
Leeds College of Music but considers “the road” as his true education. With
over 20 years of professional experience to his credit, Bryan continues to
learn from the thousands of musicians he has performed with around the world.
However, his trumpet teachers include J. Brian Brown, Richard Iles, Gerard
Presencer, Dick Hawdon, Brian Lynch and Roger Ingram.
In his early career, Bryan Davis had long
associations with a number of groups, ranging from the National Youth Jazz
Orchestra of Great Britain, to nightclub band Jazz Amiga and salsa group Casa
Latina All-Stars. The latter, in particular, afforded him a busy period in the
late ‘90s where he performed with most of the greatest ‘Latin’ bands in the UK,
as well as visiting groups from the USA and South America. These included Jesus
Alemany, Cubanismo, Sierra Maestra, Isaac Delgado, Roberto Pla, Robin Jones and
King Salsa, and Salsa Celtica. In addition, he played support gigs for Tito
Puente and Tania Maria.
Bryan performed with a number of Theatre
companies from 1999 onwards, including: 42nd Street (European Tour), Cabaret
(European Tour), The Official Tribute to… The Blues Brothers (Europe & UK),
The Rat Pack – Live from Las Vegas (West End, UK and Europe), The Rat Pack –
Live From The Sands (US National). He is, perhaps, best known for his
association with The Rat Pack, having toured regularly with them from mid 2004
to late 2009, and then occasionally up to early 2013. This was an important
developmental period for him as a Lead Trumpeter.
The numerous European tours were spent largely
in Germany and Austria. This led to his association with a number of groups
from these countries, most notably Thomas Gansch’s Gansch & Roses, the Lower
Austrian Concert Jazz Orchestra and Otto Sauter’s Ten of the Best. In addition,
he has performed with Jazz Big Band Graz, Horst-Michael Schaffer’s Flying Brass
Circus and others.
Other freelance work in the UK included: the
Glenn Miller Orchestra UK, the Syd Lawrence Orchestra, the BBC Big Band, Phil
Woods, Bill Watrous, Rob McConnell, Andy Prior Big Band, the Three Degrees, the
Supremes, the Brasshoppers and numerous other big bands, jazz groups and
production shows.
In late 2009, Bryan Davis emigrated to the USA.
Now a fixture on the scene in New York City, he has performed and recorded
with numerous groups in the US including Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin
Jazz Orchestra, Blood Sweat & Tears, Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band,
the Eyal Vilner Big Band, the Birdland Big Band, Charlie Rosen’s Broadway Big
Band, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Mike Longo’s NY State of the Art Jazz
Ensemble, Mr Ho’s Orchestrotica, Gary Morgan’s Panamericana, the Artie Shaw
Orchestra, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Danny Seraphine’s CTA, among many
others. US theatre credits include sub work on Broadway for On Your Feet, Book
of Mormon and After Midnight, and the National Tour of Legally Blonde. In 2012,
Bryan recorded as part of Brian Lynch’s “Madera Latino” project, a Latin-Jazz
Tribute to Woody Shaw, which was nominated for a Grammy® following it’s
eventual release in 2016.
Mr Davis has also become increasingly involved
with music education, not only teaching trumpet lessons, in person and online
via Skype, but also leading clinics and workshops, and appearing as a guest
artist, around the world; at institutions including the University of Maine,
NYU and Fullerton College in California, and at festivals including the 2014
Schagerl Brass Festival (Austria), the Wartburg Festival (Germany), the Encuentro
Nacional de Trompeta “Rafael Mendez” in Mexico City (2012) and Puebla, Mexico
(2013). Since late 2015 he has been an adjunct faculty member at The New School
for Jazz and Contemporary Music, in New York City. In 2017, 2 Volumes of
Bryan’s “Combination Drills: Developed Scales in Odd Meters” were published by Airflow
Music.
Bryan is a Schagerl Artist and is proud to play
Schagerl instruments exclusively.
