Doors open at 5pm, show at 7:30pm. Full bar and dinner menu available (not included in ticket price)
Swinging string bassist Paul Keller and vibraphone wizard Cary Kocher co-lead their well oiled-quintet jazz featuring the massive talents and skills of vocalist clarinetist Sarah D’Angelo, pianist Adam Mosley and guitarist Ralph Tope. Keller/Kocher and Company enjoy entertaining their appreciate audiences with fun and familiar songs from the Great American Songbook, all jazzed up and Keller-ized for maximum pleasure and delight.
Paul Keller is a veteran bassist, composer, arranger and leader known locally as Michigan’s “House Bassist” while also playing nationally and beyond. Detroit jazz heroes Bess Bonnier, Tom Saunders, Larry Nozero and more relied on him in his earlier years. Diana Krall, John Pizzarelli, Russell Malone and Eddie Higgins have taken him around the world. He leads the Paul Keller Orchestra, now 35 years old, performing every Monday at the Zal Gaz Grotto in Ann Arbor, which gives the world a weekly opportunity to hear Keller’s amazing big band compositions. He also commands the stage of the famous London Chop House (Detroit) every Thursday. More at www.paulkellerjazz.com.
Vibraphonist Cary Kocher has been collaborating with Keller for decades. Cary taught music in the Ann Arbor Schools and at the U of M before his recent retirement. Outside the jazz world he plays with the Ann Arbor Symphony and the Detroit Opera, and has recently taken up the steel drum, rhythm bones, and autoharp.
Sarah D’Angelo hails from Jamestown, NY. She earned a Master’s degree in clarinet performance at the University of Michigan. Until meeting Keller–and being pulled to “The Dark Side”–she was pursuing a symphonic career, and instead has excelled as one of Michigan’s most skilled and adored jazz singers. Her clarinet skills are her secret “super power." She has recorded five CDs with Keller - and three more are “in the can” ready to be released soon!
Adam Mosley studied piano in North Carolina and Tennessee, where his mentor Alex Graham lured him to Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel for several seasons of post-graduate work. Adam is a clever musical wit, with remarkable ears and photographic memory, tremendous gifts belied by an aw-shucks humility on- and offstage. You’re sure to notice the influence of Errol Garner, Oscar Peterson, Nat “King” Cole and George Shearing in his virtuosic playing. Adam is recently married; he and Jessica have a new home in Ypsilanti.
Guitarist Ralph Tope adds a delicious extra flavor to the quintet sound. His light, swinging touch propel the rhythm and provide a happy bounce to the festivities. Ralph has perform extensively with his heroes pianist/organist Bill Heid and guitar master Perry Hughes.
Tickets $15 General Admission, $75 Dinner and a Show
https://urbanbeat.ticketspice.com/kellerkocher-co