Jazz string bassist Paul Keller brings his popular quintet to Crooked Tree Art Center on Friday, November 5 for a spirited and entertaining evening of music that will feed your soul, lift your spirit and massage your ears! The PK5 features the high-powered talent of vocalist/clarinetist Sarah D’Angelo, vibraphonist extraordinaire Cary Kocher, the young genius of the piano Adam Mosley, and wizard of the guitar Ralph Tope. Keller and Co. will amaze and delight you with their virtuosity and their clever, swinging and jazzy musical arrangements of fun and familiar songs from the Great American Songbook. PK5 will give a tip of the hat to George Shearing, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra. Paul and his gang are eager to please you with their happy brand of singing and swinging.
Veteran jazz string bassist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator Paul Keller is well-known as “The House Bassist For The State of Michigan." He seems to be everywhere performing great jazz. Paul’s Detroit resume includes hundreds of performances with late, great Detroit jazz heroes Bess Bonnier, Tom Saunders, Jack Brokensha, Chuck Robinette, and Larry Nozero. Paul has toured the world with jazz super-stars Diana Krall, John Pizzarelli, Russell Malone, and Eddie Higgins. For 33 years, Paul has expertly led his 15-piece big band, The Paul Keller Orchestra, every Monday night at their home in Zal Gaz Grotto in Ann Arbor. They still perform at Zal Gaz Grotto every week - over 3,000 shows and counting! Keller and Co. perform every Wednesday night at Zal Gaz Grotto. Paul Keller, Sarah D’Angelo, Cary Kocher and Adam Mosley perform every Thursday night at downtown Detroit’s famous and historic London Chop House restaurant. For more information about Paul Keller and his music, check out www.PaulKellerJazz.com
Vibraphonist Cary Kocher is Paul’s life-long buddy. Cary and Paul played together in the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony in 1977-80. Cary recently retired as Forsythe Middle School band director after a distinguished 32-year career as a music educator for the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Cary also taught at the University of Michigan for 12 years. Over the years, Cary and Paul have played thousands of gigs together; Cary remarks that, “Crooked Tree Arts Center is a very special venue to us and this concert will be one of our musical highlights of 2021.”
Sarah D’Angelo hails from Jamestown, NY. She married her high-school sweetheart and they both graduated from West Virginia University. Sarah earned her Masters Degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Michigan. Sarah was on track for a promising career in a symphony orchestra until Paul Keller pulled her to “The Dark Side” where she has lived happily-ever-after and excelled as one of Michigan’s most skilled and adored jazz singers. Her extra Super Power is her amazing clarinet skills which she employs often to the delight of her band mates and her appreciative audiences. Sarah has recorded 5 CDs with Keller, and last year she released her first CD Medicine Man, available on her website: www.SarahDAngeloGroove.com. Sarah lives a charmed life with her husband, Wyandotte Roosevelt High School Band Director Mark D’Angelo on their beautiful centennial Chasing Fireflies Farm, located 7 miles south of Ypsilanti.
Adam Mosley possesses extraordinary pianist abilities, an extraordinary knowledge of the Great American Songbook, and loves to swing out exciting and meaningful jazz versions of songs from the first half of the 20th century. His piano influences include Errol Garner, Oscar Peterson, Nat King Cole and George Shearing. Adam has keen ears (and he knows how to use them), a photographic memory, a clever musical wit, and a sincere “Aw, shucks" kind of humility that belies his awesome talent. Adam is from Greenville, NC. He graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, TN where his jazz mentor Alex Graham hired him to play piano at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. There, Adam met Paul and Sarah, and the rest is history. Adam is a newlywed, married recently to Jessica!
Ralph Tope is admired and respected as one of Michigan’s most accomplished and thoughtful jazz guitarists. Ralph’s beautiful tone, lilting rhythm, dexterous single note lines, and his amazing chord solos will all be on display during the show. Ralph graduated from Michigan State University from their distinguished jazz studies department. Even with his incredible jazz improvisational skills, Ralph's highest ambition is to be a supportive ensemble "team player," a rare quality that endears him to his bandmates.
CROOKED TREE ARTS CENTER’S COVID POLICY
By purchasing a ticket for an event at Crooked Tree Arts Center, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present, and that you and those in your party voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Crooked Tree Arts Center or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.
By attending an event at the Crooked Tree Arts Center, all patrons are acknowledging their consent to, and agree to abide by, the safety precautions that have been adopted by CTAC.
We are updating COVID-19 safety measures regularly that everyone who enters the venue must follow, possibly including, but not limited to, wearing masks.
If your event is cancelled or if your tickets need to be cancelled to comply with updated government requirements, you will receive a notification of cancellation as soon as possible and be offered an exchange or a full refund for your purchase.
All ticket holders will need to comply with the above measures.
