Musician Profile

Band Info

Leo Davis – Trumpet. I grew up in the East End of London and caught the jazz bug during my final years at school in the late 1950s during what became known as the Trad Boom. I began to go to performances by these bands and as money allowed to buy records. Things changed for me when I heard the Ken Colyer band in 1960 and that took me down the path of listening to the real thing in the shape of the veteran New Orleans musicians, many of whom were still around and playing. I got the itch to play an instrument myself and bought my first horn in 1960 when I was 17 years old. I was largely self-taught and learnt what I could by sitting in and playing to records. By about 1969, being dissatisfied with my playing, I took lessons from a trumpet player called Bob Bell who ran a big band and had studios in Ilford near to where I lived at the time. I studied with him regularly for about 2 years and he helped me tremendously. In 1977, by which time I was living in Havering, I answered an advert in the Melody Maker for a trumpet player to join a New Orleans band which subsequently became the Liberty Hall Stompers. We remained in operation with a steady-personnel for about 20 year playing mainly in Essex and London. In 1978 I started the Superior Brass band and still play the occasional parade with the band. In 1998 I moved permanently down to Kent and for a brief period lead a N.O style band called the Rose Leaf Ramblers. I now play in a couple of bands down here and make the occasional foray back into Essex to play with Red Beans n Rice.