Biography
Born on 10 September 1939 in Derby, Derbyshire, England, Burnap first encountered New Orleans jazz while still at school, where he performed on washboard alongside a circle of equally enthusiastic classmates. He took up the trombone only after moving to New Zealand in the late 1950s; there he became a member of the Omega Jazz Band in 1958 and cut his first recordings with the group in 1961. After several years of performing and recording in Australia he came back to England in 1965 and worked steadily with Terry Lightfoot. Four years later, following further visits to Australia and New Orleans, he joined Ian Armit. From that point onward his travels diminished; his freelance work centred on extended tenures with Alan Elsdon from 1970 to 1975 and with Acker Bilk from 1980 to 1987. In addition to appearing alongside virtually every prominent New Orleans and mainstream ensemble in England, he shared stages with visiting Americans Billy Butterfield, Bud Freeman, Bob Haggart and Kenny Davern. Burnap also served as a regular jazz presenter for London’s JFM and BBC Radio 2, on which he further appeared as a panellist on the quiz programme Jazz Score. His writing on jazz includes the short story “A Bit Of A Scrape,” published in the 1986 Quartet Books anthology B-Flat, Bebop, Scat. His playing and singing, deeply shaped by the example of Jack Teagarden, combine notable warmth with a distinctive personal stamp, securing his standing as one of Britain’s most stylish trombonists.