TrumpetBoy
Trumpets, Music, Gadgets, Web Dev. and any other nonsense I feel like mentioning…
Posts tagged Rat Pack
Such A Worthwhile Day.
May 16th
I’m enjoying one of those all-to-rare days on tour where everything’s
been good. So far I’ve:
- Woken up without a hangover.
- Had an excellent lunch at an ancient country pub.
- Been to see ‘Iron Man’ at the cinema -a superbly played superhero romp.
Now it just remains for the gig to ruin it all!!
Edit: …and the gig wasn’t even too tortuous this evening. What a day!!
Fine Times In Atlanta
Oct 2nd
Haven’t got time to go into this right now, but suffice to say: great band, great hang, great times.
More shortly…
Mucho Airport Time!
Apr 24th
I’m writing this at 6.30am in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on the way back from my most recent excursion with “Rat Pack – Live At The Sands” US tour. Life has been really crazy lately with more travelling than I would have thought I’d ever do. Running backwards and forwards between UK and US Tour dates is certainly exhausting!
It’s been a good trip this time despite a couple of changes from the normal routine. Andy Rumble, our musical director, was away on another gig this time so we had the show’s Musical Supervisor; Matthew Freeman with us in his place. He likes to run things a little differently from Andy so it was trying at times but we were lucky to have some very fine musicians joining us in Grand Rapids, MI and Hershey, PA. A particular joy for me was the presence of two former Harry James bandsmen in Hershey. I was privileged to have trumpeters Skip Stine and Bill Hicks on the section with me. They both played Lead Trumpet on the Harry James band at various times during the 70s and were able to offer a little personal insight into one of the greatest trumpet players of all time! I should also give a shout to Mark Lusk, who played Bass Trombone in Hershey; a thoroughly nice guy and a wonderful player. He previously played on the Woody Herman Band in it’s last incarnation under Woody’s baton along with my most recent teacher; the formidable Roger Ingram.
We’re back to UK dates for the next week and a half although I’m taking a break from “The Pack” to go on a short tour in Austria with the wonderful trumpeter Thomas Gansch and his band. I’m sure much fun will be had, much beer consumed and many photos taken. The photos, at least, I’ll be able to share on here and I’ll try to keep up with that upon my return. It’ll be a busy few days which see me heading to Southampton on Wednesday for the show, on to Vienna on Friday (early) morning, back to Leeds on the following Wednesday and then up to Edinburgh in time for a Thursday matinee. I then finish out the week in Edinburgh before returning to Cleveland to play the last fortnight on the US Tour.
Life, as you can see, is crazy right now so apologies for the recent lack of posting and I’ll try to get back on top of it when I get back to just touring in one country for a while in the summer!
Good To Be Back In The UK!!
Oct 19th
I’m just back in from playing a Rat Pack show in Darlington this evening. It’s really been a pleasure to get back and play with one of the British bands. The last two weeks have been an eye-opener in terms of the cultural differences between UK and US musicians; it seems, in short, that as I suspected over here we’re very good at playing things straight off and making them convincing, while in the US they tend to warm up to the music over a longer period. Therefore, despite having some great guys around me, we never really got the show up to the musical level I’m accustomed to in either San Antonio or Des Moines, before we had to move on. Conversely I went back in with a band comprising many friends, but who don’t necessarily play the show that often, and we roared!! Many thanks to Andy Flaxman, Keith Hutton and Bruce Douglas (aka The Trombones) in particular, who have frankly restored my faith in that instrument. Unusually, I’ve found the Trombones to be the weaker of the sections over in The States thus far.
None of this should be taken as any kind of negative by anyone looking in. I’m intrigued to see how the musical experience rounds out across the country as we visit different cities in the coming months. I certainly hope that the musicians we’ve met so far prove to be indicative of the general standard nationwide. If so, the coming US tour dates will continue to go as well as it’s started!
Lurking in Des Moines
Oct 13th
We’ve been here in Des Moines, Iowa since earlier in the week. I’d like to report about all the fun and excitement that we’ve been having but, frankly, it’s duller than dish water here. Roll on the journey home….