Byres Road Big Band May 2026

In May 2026 I’m going to be 65 years old :) and I’m planning a couple of events around that time to celebrate and enjoy some of the music I’ve written over the decades.

One of the most important events I’m looking forward to is a concert with the Byres Road Big Band (date tbc). I’ve been lead trombone with them for two and a bit years now, greatly enjoying playing my second instrument just for fun.

I’ve written several original charts for them, sometimes (but not always) rearrangements of older compositions of mine. The major ambition for the concert in May is to perform ‘Between Two Oceans’, a suite of three jazz pieces originally written in in 1998.

I tried out some of this material last year with the Mackintosh Jazz Composers Ensemble, and am now in the process of rescoring it for the BRBB. I’ve decided to make the whole thing a guitar feature for our excellent young guitarist Matthew, who has recently started studying at the RCS.

Here’s the probably-nearly-finished BRBB version of the third movement of the suite ‘Ninety Mile Beach’:

https://musescore.com/user/12368/scores/30475634