Born in 1972 on the Isle of Skye, I started playing cornet at the age of 13 at the local Grammar School, where I quickly progressed onto trumpet under the tutelage of Derek Brackpool.

By 15 I was playing for 1st section Brass Band Newmains (Hutchison Coaches), Coalburn Brass Band as well as 1st trumpet with the multi award winning Motherwell Concert band. (great concerts – my first experience of touring!)

After leaving school at 18, I gained an unconditional acceptance for a place on the  ’jazz’ course at City of Leeds College of Music, where I studied for three years under Bob Taylor (Sid Lawrence) and the legendary Dick Hawdon.

During my time at Leeds, I played in just about every band within the college, most notably Lead Trumpet of the C.L.C.M. big band under Ronnie Bottomly & Bill Charleson, Principal Tumpet with the C.L.C.M. symphony Orchestra and New Music Ensemble under Joseph Stones and Graham Hearn respectively as well as Lead Trumpet in the college’s stonking Ellington Repertory Orchestra under Tony Faulkner.

It was with this band that I had his first taste of ‘proper’ touring as the band headlined at Cork Jazz Festival as well as undertaking a small tour through southern England, directly supporting American clarinettists and student of Sidney Bechet Bob Wilbur.

I have worked with a variety of artists including George Melly, Ken MacIntosh, Chaka Khan, George Hamilton IV, Eddie Severn, Bruce Adams Justin Currie & Bill Evans.

More recently I’ve been playing with a lot of the bigbands in and around Glasgow – George McGowan, Tim Barella, Harry Margolis, Frank Holden, DB quintet .I recently did a couple of jobs with Ryan Quigley bigband with Justin Currie from Del Amitri. I’ve played lead trumpet with the fantastic Brass Impact.  for a number of years(see the link section).

Most recently, I’m now a member of the amazing SNJO (Scottish National Jazz Orchestra), and have recently finished some concerts with the SNJO and Bill Evans (one of Miles Davis’s main sax sidemen). Up and coming there is a week tour with Weather Report Drummer Peter Erskine featuring the music of weather report.

I’m looking forward to carring on getting better as a player & musician as well as composing and arranging original material. Working on a couple of special projects just now which I’ll keep updated here on the site.