Album Notes

“The Instigator” CD

“I first met Rick Keller in Munich, Germany where he was in concert with Al Porcino’s big band. Rick was one of the most prominent soloists throughout the night being featured several times on each set.
I was very impressed by his tremendous improvising skills especially his extended harmonic knowledge. He later moved back to the USA , settling in Los Angeles and we re-connected and were able to play several gigs together. He is a pleasure to be on the bandstand with. I always learn so much from standing next to him and listening closely to his artistic “ventures”.

This new CD highlights not only his playing but his compositional skills as well. Each tune is extremely unique in harmonic and rhythmic structure as well as lyricism. These tunes are all very challenging but the guys in the band really nail everything beautifully. Australian Andrew McNaughton has become over the years. one of my favorite of the young trumpet players on the scene. I wish he lived in the USA so we could hear him more often. I have known of drummer Guido May for quite a number of years thru my musician friends in Germany. He is a treasure to the European jazz scene. Guitarist Steve McKenna and bassist Marc Abrams are new names to me but they are now imbedded in my memory banks from hearing them here. Steve’s brilliant guitar playing really creates a major part of the overall sound and personality of the quintet.

This is a “PLAY MANY TIMES” CD. Kudos to Rick for this excellent recording and thanks for asking me to be a part of it.”

Bobby Shew