|
PKO
is
leader, string bass:
Paul Keller
vocalist:
Sarah D'Angelo
piano:
Duncan McMillan
drums:
Pete Siers
saxophones:
Andrew Bishop
Ben Jansson
Keith Kaminski
Paul Klinger
Brian Romeo
Bobby Streng
trumpets:
Brandon Cooper
Paul Finkbeiner
Jeff Gedz
Patrick Hession
trombones:
Brooks Barnes
Gene Bartley
Terry Kimura
The Keller/Kocher Quartet
Paul
Keller Trio @ Cliff Bell's
|
 The Paul Keller Orchestra turns 22 years old!
The Paul Keller Orchestra
is one of Michigan's finest, oldest, most-respected and well-traveled
jazz big bands. The PKO has held forth every Monday night, for over
twenty two years, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, first at the Bird of Paradise
Jazz Club (13 years), then at the Firefly Club on Ashley Street
(6 years), then at the New Firefly Club on Main Street (2 years),
then at The Keystone Martini Bar (1 year) in Ypsilanti AND NOW at
their NEW MONDAY NIGHT HOME: Zal Gaz Grotto located at 2070 W. Stadium
Boulevard on the west side of Ann Arbor. Since its inception in
1989 by string bassist, composer and arranger Paul Keller, the PKO
has maintained the highest standards of musical excellence and has
enjoyed providing top-quality jazz and entertainment to their loyal
fan base. The PKO's voluminous library of over 1,000 arrangements
includes classic, obscure and original big band material from the
entire history of jazz.
The Paul Keller Orchestra's
website is www.pkorecords.com.
Join
the PKO's Jazz Friends email list and receive periodic updates on
Paul Keller's and the PKO's upcoming jazz events. Just email Paul
at kellermusic@comcast.net
and let him know that you'd like to be added to his Jazz friends
email list.
|
|
The PKO has garnered great popular and critical acclaim accepting
the 1998 and 2000 Washtenaw Council For The Arts Awards for Musical
Excellence and the 2003 and 2007 Detroit Music Awards for Best Big
Band. The Paul Keller Orchestra has recorded seven CDs, enjoyed
two European tours, and performed at nearly every Michigan music
festival, including the Montreux/Detroit Jazz Festival, the Michigan
Jazz Festival, the Pine Mountain Music Festival, the
|
|
Petoskey Jazz Festival, the Warren Jazz Festival, the Flint Jazz Festival,
the City of Saginaw's Big Band night, the Detroit Festival of Arts,
the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, the Marshall Swing, Jazz and Other
Stuff Festival and the Michigan Festival.The The PKO has also thrilled
audiences at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
at Orchestra Hall, Petoskey's Perry Hotel, the Grosse Pointe Summer
Music Series, Bay City's State Theatre, Windsor's State Theatre, the
Windsor/Detroit Jazz Club, the Plymouth First United Methodist Church
Music Series, the Birmingham First United Methodist Church Music Series
and the West Michigan Jazz Society. The PKO has played for wildly
successful events including the Michigan Ballroom Dance Competition
and the American Music Research Foundation's Big Band Boogie Woogie
Bash at the Royal Oak Music Theatre (a popular TV show that has been
re-broadcast many times on PBS). |
|
In
concert, the PKO has accompanied many great jazz artists including
saxophonists Red Holloway, Larry Nozero (Henry Mancini) and Arno
Marsh (Woody Herman, Buddy Rich), clarinetists Henry Questa (Lawrence
Welk), Jim Wyse (PKO CD: A Tribute To Benny Goodman) and Dave Bennett
(Tribute To Benny Goodman), drummer Jeff Hamilton (Oscar Peterson),
trumpeters Fred Radke (Tribute To Harry James) and Walter White,
vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater, The Four Freshmen, Sunny Wilkinson,
Mark Randissi (Sounds of Sinatra) and Ryan DeHues, and pianists
James Dapogny, Ellen Rowe, Charles Boles, Mr. B, Bob Seeley, Axel
Zwingenberg, and Eddie Russ.
One
of the PKO's proudest on-going achievements has been the creation
and maintenance of the PKO Jazz Student Outreach Program in which
Keller invites Michigan middle school, high school and college jazz
big bands to share the spotlight with the PKO. Each band plays a
set of its own prepared material and then the PKO invites the students
to join the pros on stage for sight reading, improvisation and on-the-spot
musical training. For many of the participants, this is their very
first interaction with professional musicians performing in front
of a LIVE audience. The encouragement and support they receive from
the PKO members is an inspirational and life-changing learning experience
that is immediately reflected in the joyful, smiling faces of these
talented young people. Over the years, the PKO Jazz Student Outreach
Program has made a positive impact in the lives of over 5,000 student
musicians!
The
PKO is leader/bassist Paul Keller; pianist Duncan McMillan; drummer
Pete Siers; saxophonists Keith Kaminski, Ben Jansson, Bobby Streng,
and Paul Klinger; trumpeters Patrick Hession, Brandon Cooper, Paul
Finkbeiner and Jimmy Smith; trombonists Tony Buccilli, Terry Kimura
and Brooks Barnes. Singer Sarah D'Angelo is an important part of
every PKO performance, supplying grace, wit and delightful vocals
from the Great American Songbook.
|