Oingo Boingo Dance Party went into full on "beast mode" for May 2018. As you may or may not know, I've been a member of Johnny Vatos' Oingo Boingo Dance Party since he started it back up for Halloween in 2005. This band has become a real family and I'm proud to hold do...
In this edition of Trumpet & Travel, I had the pleasure of traveling from London, England to Dublin, Ireland to finally meet painter John Nolan in person.
Warning: This is a very charming story.
Years ago, I would say maybe around the turn of the 21st century, I had boug...
In this edition of Trumpet & Travel I'm going to cover John Beasley & the Monk'estra's trip from Rotterdam to London and their subsequent performances at the famous Ronnie Scott's jazz club in Soho.
Sunday, July 9, 2017 - The band had an 8am lobby call so that we co...
Welcome back to Brian Swartz's Trumpet & Travel Blog! For my 2nd installment, I'll be covering July 7th & 8th, 2017 and the performances by John Beasley's Monk'estra at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam.
I know it seems awfully "touristy" of me, but since I'm...
On July 5, 2017, I embarked on a short European tour with John Beasley's Monk'estra big band. Our journey started at in Los Angeles and took me to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, London and Dublin.
We arrived in Amsterdam on July 6 and took a couple of shuttles to Rott...
