Felix and the Cats

Al Bryant, Trumpet.

Al Bryant at the Washington Square Park Music Festival

Bryant was born in Springfield, MA, and unfortunately deceased in New York, in 2000. After two years with the U.S. Navy, he attended Hart College of Music in Hartford, CT and the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He lived for five years in Montreal, playing jazz. He moved to Boston and then to New York where he played with many of the great swing and blues musicians such as Buddy Johnson's Big Band, Ray Charles' Big Band, and Duke Ellington's Big Band. Bryant has also worked in Broadway pit bands (The WIZ) and toured Japan and with Sam "The Man" Taylor, Lionel Hampton's Big Band, and George Gee's Orchestra. In Europe, he played in the Black Gershwin Show. Back in New York, he played in Sy Oliver's Orchestra for four years, in Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, and with Felix Swing Band