Andrea Keller
Jazz pianist and composer
Three-time ARIA Award winning jazz pianist Andrea Keller is best known for her ensemble ‘The Andrea Keller Quartet’ and her recordings of the music of Bela Bartok and Wayne Shorter. The inaugural winner of the MCA/Freedman Foundation Jazz Fellowship (2001) has released many albums as leader and also includes two Bell Awards among her achievements (2003, 2008).
Keller has performed with jazz greats John Surman (UK), Bobby Shew (USA), Alan Browne, Barry Duggan, Sandy Evans, Bernie McGann, Dale Barlow and Brian Brown. She has made important contributions to such contemporary ensembles as ‘Keller/Murphy/Browne’, Jamie Oehler’s ‘Small World Ensemble’, the Geoff Hughes Collective, Tim Wilson/Andrea Keller duo, the Paul Williamson Quartet, Kynan Robinsons' 'EnRusk', Sam Anning Quartet, 'Porchlight', Gian Slater ensemble, the Black Arm Band, Geoff Hughes/Andrea Keller duo, and the Bennetts Lane Big Band.
Her performance experience encompasses all major Australian jazz festivals including the Melbourne International Jazz Festival (VIC), Wangaratta Festival of Jazz (VIC), the Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival (VIC), the Apollo Bay Music Festival (VIC), the Fremantle Jazz Festival (WA), the Perth International Arts Festival (WA), the Pinnacles Music Festival (QLD), the Devonport Jazz Festival (TAS) and the Jazz:Now Festival (NSW), to name a few.
Internationally Keller has performed throughout Prague and the Czech Republic, Scotland and Ireland (2002, 2003). In 2006 she performed with the Australian Art Orchestra in Japan, and in 2007 she performed with her quartet in Germany and Denmark.
Keller's main focus, 'The Andrea Keller Quartet’(AKQ), consists of long time collaborators Eugene Ball (trumpet), Ian Whitehurst (tenor saxophone), Joe Talia (drums) and Andrea Keller (piano). The quartet has been said to create music which is "a marker of just how good Australian jazz is” review of ‘Angels and Rascals’ by Bev Stapleton AllAboutJazz.com, 12th January 2006. Their bass-less line up of instruments has been a leading force in developing an intimate chamber music-like approach to Keller's compositions and the improvisations performed by the group.
2009 saw the AKQ embark on their first National Australian tour comprising fourteen concerts across five states and one territory. At each performance they featured a local special guest improviser. These included renowned musicians Bernie McGann, Phil Slater, Stephen Magnusson, Miroslav Bukovsky, John Rodgers and Jamie Oehlers. This experience is documented in their latest CD release ‘Galumphing ‘Round the Nation – Collaborations Project’.
Their debut album ‘Thirteen Sketches’ won the ARIA award for Best Jazz Album 2002. ‘Angels and Rascals’ received an ARIA nomination for Best Jazz Album 2005, as did ‘Little Claps’ (in 2007) which also won the Bell Award for Best Australian Contemporary Jazz Album 2008.
Recent projects by the AKQ include the commission of a 60 minute work ‘Place’ featuring the AKQ with String Quartet, which premiered at the 4 Winds Festival NSW (2010), and a commission from the ANU Canberra to create new works for an expanded version of the AKQ for their 2010 concert series.
As a composer Keller has received commissions from the Melbourne International Women's Jazz Festival, Mike Nock's BigSmallBand (2002), The Australian Art Orchestra (2003), the Royal Children’s Hospital (2008), Ten Part Invention and Seraphim Trio (2009), and percussionist Claire Edwardes, the ANU Canberra, and The Four Winds Festival (2010).
Currently living in Melbourne, Victoria, Andrea is undertaking a two year fellowship from the Australia Council to create a large body of work.
“Keller has one of Australia’s most consistently interesting musical minds.”
Review of ‘Little Claps’ by Doug Spencer, www.abc.net.au/rn/weekendplanet/, August, 2007.
"one of the most original thinkers on the Australian scene... she has the priceless ability to think outside the square."
Review of 'Angels and Rascals' by Adrian Jackson, Rhythms, August, 2005.
"One of this country's most daring and fascinating composers, she produces work that bristles with surprises, a powerful blend of European lyricism with space and improvisation."
review of 'Angels and Rascals' by Leon Gettler. The AGE, May 5, 2005.
“Their music is both friendly and deep. Their colours and textures are brilliantly
recorded on this disc, their best I think.”
Review of ‘Little Claps’ by John Clare, The Sydney Morning Herald, November, 2007.
“A beautifully conceived work with an awareness of both jazz tradition and aspects of modernist European art music…Keller and her players are consistently outstanding.”
Review of ‘Little Claps’ by Michael Webb, www.jazz.org.au, November, 2007.
