Kelly
Kelly grew up in a musical family in which his father was a nationally recognized composer and noted high school choral director. Although he was trained primarily as an instrumentalist, Kelly developed a passion for singing early in life. He realized in elementary school that he enjoyed singing with other people and creating harmony parts.
Kelly has B.A. of Music and an M.M. in Music Education, both from Central Washington University. He has been a director and educator for many years. Kelly currently runs the choral music program at Pierce College in Lakewood, Washington and also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Pacific Lutheran University. He has a reputation as one of the top vocal jazz directors and clinicians in the country.
Kelly has always been interested in multi track vocal recording. When he and his brother Kevin were kids, they would record their vocals into a cassette deck and then play those tracks over the stereo speakers while singing along onto a 2nd tape deck. By doing this over and over they would add stacks of vocal tracks using just their two voices. The overall sound of the recordings was terrible, but the experience was a lot of fun. Kelly owns a small "project studio" and has worked steadily as a studio singer and arranger for many years.
Kelly has always been willing to go out on a limb to explore the boundaries of vocal jazz writing and singing. Many of his influences (instrumental jazz, pop, rock, gospel, and R & B) surface regularly in the arrangements he writes for GFT. Over the years, Kelly has shared the stage with many jazz greats, such as Joe Williams, Mark Murphy and Bobby McFerrin.
Kelly resides in Renton, Washington with his wife Kelly (yes, that’s right), and three children, Jory, Amanda and Christian.
Contact Kelly: Kelly@grooveforthought.com
