Things I'm listening To Right Now by Keith Kelly

I like a lot of different music. Though I play mostly jazz and avant-garde music, I grew up very much as part of the alternative scene of the 90s: Nirvana came of age when I was in middle-school, Live 105 was the modern rock station in the SF Bay Area that played everything from R.E.M. to Tori Amos to NIN to The Cure to Violet Femmes - it was awesome!!!  So, I like to think my musical taste is pretty diverse, and pretty good. But maybe not! HA! Anyway, here are 5 albums that I am into right now.

Sharon Van Etten

Album: Are We There? (2014)

Song:"Every Time the Sun Comes Up"

Singer-Songwriter, Americana, great harmony voices, thoughtful and punchy

S.Carey

Album: Range of Light (2014)

Song: "Crown The Pines"

Part of the band/creative team for band Bon Iver, saw him play live at the Crescent Ballroom last year (great show!), moody, brooding, lots of overlapping instrumentals

The Unfortunates

Album: (The Music That Inspired) The Unfortunates (2013)

Song: "Down and Out"

Played a great show at PVCC in November 2014, great blues-influenced music, wonderful voices, catchy melodies, makes you want to sing-a-long

Bruce Brubaker

Album: Time Curve (2009)

Song: "Etude No. 5"

Solo piano, haunting, playing the music of Phillip Glass, sparse 

Paul Desmond

Album: Easy Living (1965)

Song: "That Old Feeling"

Swinging, happening, one of the most luscious sounds on the alto saxophone, put it on and make a drink

A San Francisco Bay Area native, Keith currently resides in Phoenix, AZ - where he is Coordinator of Music Humanities and Performance at Paradise Valley Community College. Prior to this appointment, he was Assistant Professor/Coordinator of Jazz Studies at California State University - Stanislaus. Additionally, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Arizona State University, University of the Pacific, and Boston University (Online). Keith holds a DMA in Music Education (Jazz Studies) from Arizona State University. An in-demand woodwind doubler and improviser, he performs regularly with Running From Bears, Static Announcements and The Scorpion Decides.

What I Did Last Summer - A Play by AR Gurney

In What I Did Last Summer fifteen year old Charlie is “captured” by an artsy woman who gives him a summer job in 1945, when World War II is still raging and there are fewer men around to work on her land. The boy’s employer is part bohemian and part Native American, and her values open him up to a world of natural simplicity and freedom very different from the contained and respectable world he is used to.

February 20th, 21st, 27th, 28th @ 7:30pm.

February 22nd & March 1st @ 2:00pm.

$4-$10 Admission.


Click HERE to purchase tickets *$4 additional ticket fee at the door 1‐hour prior to performance.

Musicians Wanted: The PVCC Community Band | MUP161 #36984

This course is a modern American approach to the American Wind Band tradition.

Our mantra is: Living Music by Living Composers.

This ensemble, while rooted in the past traditions of the Great American Band, is a look forward to its place in the 21st century. The band is going to perform music by living composers sometimes before the ink is even dry! There will also be a mixed media component, ranging from student-driven video content to live dance and visual art being performed with the ensemble.

Our faculty has a wide open approach to guiding our students in whatever direction their imaginations come up with.

PVCC Community Band performances will be an event, an experience. Selections for MUP161 come from some of the most famous living composers of Movie and Wind Band music, such as Michael Giacchino (Lost, Star Trek, Up), Rossano Galante (3:10 to Yuma, Live Free or Die Hard), Robert W. Smith, Eric Whitacre, John Mackey and Dan Bukvich.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR MUP161: COMMUNITY BAND

Student Spotlight: Sonja Torres

Introduction to Art (ARH 100) teaches the student the understanding and enjoyment of art through the study of painting, sculpture, architectural design, photography, and the decorative arts. There is an emphasis on contemporary topics and cultural diversity in the arts. Visual artist Sonja Torres turned her ARH 100 class into an Honors Project. This large scale painting was the visual component of her final presentation. 

"Sonja's inspiration for the piece was the idea of harmony through diversity, nourished by the natural environment. She wanted to show a green utopia where humankind lives in harmony with both nature and each other." - Tomi Johnston, Fine Arts Faculty