jonny-bruce
BMJ. Hi Jonny great to chat with you.
JB. It's a pleasure. Great to see a new venue around here being promoted properly!

BMJ. Members know you from your appearance with the DSQ (Dave Stapleton Quartet), but tell us a little about your sextet.
JB. Well my sextet is made up of fellow musicians and friends, all either past or present students from the Royal Welsh College. After I graduated in July 2006 I thought it was about time I got my own group together to push for some gigs under my name for a change! A lot of the work I do is as a sideman with other artists, obviously DSQ being a big part of that freelance work. My sextet is going down the more jazz-rock/latin-funk route - catchy, fiery and very accessible numbers that should cater for all tastes!

richie-ashton
BMJ. sounds very exciting, are you playing any originals?
JB. The set consists of a variety of music, and is probably about half originals, half covers. Were doing a few tunes by Arturo Sandoval, a personal musical hero for me, and a few other charts with our own twist on them.

martha-skilton-4
BMJ. I see that you have local saxophonist Martha Skilton with you - tell us a little about each player.
JB. Ah yes, Martha! I met Martha when she arrived at the RWCMD, She's a great young player with a natural feel and spark for music and the saxophone, she should be playing regularly, so it's a nice feeling to be able to offer her some work.
iestyn-jones
Like I say, everyone in the band has a tie to the Royal Welsh College. Martha and Iestyn Jones are still at college. Iestyn is a phenomenal bassist and is rightly eating up a lot of work around South Wales. John Hyde, Steve Coombe and Rich Ashton are all graduates from the college and are working regularly on the scene. John Hyde is
john-hyde
something of a monster on the guitar, bringing the 'rock' to the band, along with Rich Ashton who is a wonderfully sensitive drummer who is also very technically accomplished. Steve Coombe has a great feel and always
steve-coombe
does what's 'just right' - he's also spent the last year getting all his latin stuff down on the keys, which makes him an indispensable member of the band. I'm lucky to be able to work with these guys, and it really reinstates my faith in the music scene in this part of the UK - every year a few more top-notch musicians come along and the scene is building and building.

BMJ. Have you any projects for the Summer - are you playing Pontypool or Brecon this year?
JB. There's a couple of things in the pipeline… keep an eye on the web sites www.jonnybruce.com and www.myspace.com/jonnybrucesextet for any developments…we would love your continued support!

Equipment
BMJ. No doubt we’ll have a few trumpet players in the crowd, can you tell us your equipment list?
JB. Sure thing. At the moment I'm on a custom Schilke S42 trumpet with which I had made for me to my spec in Chicago. Schilke make awesome instruments and they got this one just right. I play on a Schilke 15A4a tapered heavyweight mouthpiece on that horn, the two work together very well … I will say there is far too much emphasis on equipment, but it is great to have instruments that you know won't let you down! I have a custom Bb flugelhorn that's quarter this, quarter that! and a custom Bb/A piccolo trumpet made by the great Paul Jeninga (an 85 year old Dutch-American who makes trumpets from home in Chicago and all the bells for Schilke in his retirement!) He's done a great job on this trumpet.

BMJ. Thanks for taking part in this interview and I look forward to meeting you on Sunday 20 May.
JB. Look forward to it also, lets have a party on the 20th!

See you on the night

Pete