Doug Burnley - Cornet

   Doug took up the cornet at the age of 12, despite the school band director's admonition that he wouldn't be able to play it, due to the large space between his front teeth.

    Since forming his own jazz band when he was 16, he has led & played with bands in both the USA and Canada, including the "Jazz Rascals" from London, "Excelsior Jazz Band" and "Hot Peppers" from Toronto, the "Capital City Jazz Band" in Ottawa, the "Riverside Jazz Band" in Florida, and the "Back Bay Stompers" in Biloxi Mississippi.

    After playing dixieland and traditional jazz in larger groups, he is enjoying the artistic freedom of branching out into a more mainstream form of smooth jazz with the trio. Incorporating the all time favorites from "The Great American Songbook" (Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael etc.), as well as a smattering of pop, folk. and Tijuana Brass favorites from the 60's and 70's.

     Doug has also enjoyed a variety of careers, including the Canadian Army, Manager of Data Centres, Business Owner, Custom Furniture Builder and is currently designing websites for bands, artists and small business. (This website was created by Doug).

 Visit Doug's personal site  or his web design sites  at Performers-R-Us &                                                                           Dynamic Web Design.

 

 

Peter Emmans - Piano

    Peter started piano lessons @ age of 10 yrs & studied Royal Conservatory Music up to grade 3 when he finally exasperated his music teacher, because he would not play exactly what was written. He always wanted to put his own interpretation on things. Although he continued to take lessons for another 2 yrs, he was now playing a lot of popular music of the day (late 40,s & early 50,s).

 

In early 1951 he started to play in Pubs along the seaside at Brighton on the south coast of England & although he was only 16 yrs old (18 yrs was the proper age for pubs) he looked older than his age and got away with it.

That is where he learned the Music business & how to entertain.

 

When his family emigrated to Canada in 1954 he kept up his playing  but in a less frequent way than in Britain. In his early 20,s he played in his father's dance band for several years meanwhile getting married & raising a family.

 

Owning a manufacturing business for 30 yrs caused him to quit playing for 25 yrs but now in retirement he has started playing again & is thrilled to be part of this exciting new band "Brass-N-Ivory".

 

 

David Neale - Sousaphone / Bass

 

     David started his professional jazz career in 1988. His career continued through the mid 90’s when he focused his efforts on wind bass in the jazz vein. He was greatly influenced by two late Southwestern Ontario jazz players – Eddy White (cornet and other brass), and Blaine Phillips (drums, banjo) The influence of these two great jazz players drives his enthusiasm and stylings today.

He has played since the mid 90’s with several jazz groups. He has also played a little country music, he recorded tracks on two different projects with country artist Terry Sumsion. This diversion was however a brief one.

David's first love is jazz. The latest and very promising effort, "Brass N’ Ivory" has focused David in a new direction. In this group he has been able to draw on his traditional jazz roots and his brief country experience to focus on a new project.

That project is “Brass N’ Ivory”, a jazz group performing a broader spectrum of material, focusing on the great standards with a little folk and Tijuana Brass thrown in. This fresh new approach is just what David has been waiting for, the music this trio performs allows David the freedom to make the sousaphone a lead instrument along with being the bottom end of the group.

David plays the sousaphone more like a lead instrument than most other wind bass players. He is capable of making the wind bass instrument a “cool” horn!

 You can visit David's personal website here: