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Kelly Green Biography

BEGINNINGS

 Kelly Green is a critically acclaimed pianist vocalist who currently resides in Queens, New York City. Born and raised in Florida, she began singing as a toddler and started piano lessons at age seven. At age eleven she became interested in jazz and began attending the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Workshop every year with her father, who is a professional bass player. Her senior year of high school she recorded and produced her own album of twelve original songs called “Aspire”.

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She received her Bachelors in Jazz Studies- piano performance at the University of North Florida. She studied piano with accomplished jazz pianist, Lynne Arriale as well as voice with wonderful vocalist, Michelle Amato. She received the outstanding musician’s award placing her at the top of her class at UNF. While living in Jacksonville she began consistently performing and band leading. In May 2011, she competed in the Generation Next Youth Talent Competition at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival taking home first prize for playing and singing Herbie Hancock’s “Eye of the Hurricane”.

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FURTHER STUDIES

In September 2012 she began her studies at William Paterson University where she received her Masters in Jazz Piano Performance. She took private lessons with acclaimed pianists Harold Mabern and James Weidman. She also had the privilege of taking a semester of arranging lessons with master Cecil Bridgewater and three semesters of classical piano lessons with the amazing pianist and educator Gary Kirkpatrick. While studying at William Paterson she was also able to perform in ensembles directed by the late master of the piano, Mulgrew Miller, as well as Bill Mobley, Armen Donelian, Rich Perry, Dave Rogers, and Bill Goodwin among others. For her last two semesters she was the pianist in the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra led by head of the WP Jazz Department, Dr. David Demsey. In this band she had the opportunity to perform with NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath and legendary jazz vibraphonist Steve Nelson. Kelly also received the Outstanding Graduate Music Student Award for her class. In June 2014 Kelly was chosen to be the pianist in the William Paterson Colombia Band, which toured Colombia, South America. In Colombia, the band taught clinics and performed concerts.

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RECORDINGS AND CURRENT HAPPENINGS

She has been holding down a weekly performance with her trio at The Flatiron Room, every Friday from 9pm-12am for the past 5 years. 

 

In December 2016 she recorded her debut album "Life Rearranged"(2017) including wonderful musicians Christian McBride, Steve Nelson, Josh Evans, Kush Abadey, Jovan Alexandre, Matt Dwonszyk, Noam Israeli, Tamir Shmerling, and Mike Troy. It is completed and is available on all platforms and can be purchased here

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Summer of 2018 was busy with touring Colombia, South America and Florida with her trio and recording their debut album (released Dec 5th, 2018)!

"Volume One" by the Kelly Green Trio can be purchased directly on this site, links to streaming found here

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In 2019, she travelled with her trio to San Francisco to perform at the Black Cat, performed their album release celebration at Birdland Theater, as well as played a ten day tour down the east coast of the US. She also performed with her trio at the Kennedy Center in June and travelled with her newly formed duo, Green Soul, featuring bassist Luca Soul to perform in Greece, Barcelona, Copenhagen, and Paris.

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In February 2019, Kelly recorded two duo songs with alto player TK Blue on a tribute album to the great Randy Weston called "The Rhythms Continue", in released November 2019.

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in 2020 Kelly Green and Luca Soul created a performance, recording, and art space in Queens called Green Soul Studios where they have been producing their own concert series and recording throughout the past three years. 

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In 2021 she recorded with Luca Soul Rosenfeld and the legendary Daniel Carter at her home studio Green Soul Studios . She released self-engineered, mixed, and mastered album of 11 spontaneously composed pieces called "Endings That Are Beginnings" in September of 2022.

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In March 2023 she recorded at Bunker Studios with her long-standing trio and their newest quartet collaborator Elijah J. Thomas on flute, alto flute, and piccolo with Rich Perry (tenor saxophone) featured on two tracks. "Seems" was released on March 29th 2024 with Green Soul Studios and La Reserve Records. "Seems" has received rave reviews and is currently spinning on radio stations around the world. 

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Keep an eye out on her Bandsintown page  and calendar page for upcoming performances! 

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Kelly Green is proudly a Steinway Artist!

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WHERE WITH WHO

Kelly has performed at notable clubs and venues such as the Kennedy Center, Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Birdland Theater, Apollo Theater, just to name a few. She has also headlined and performed at many International Jazz Festivals around the world such as the DC Jazz Festival and the Bahrain International Jazz Festival.

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She has performed in bands alongside jazz luminaries such as George Coleman, Christian McBride, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Heath, Steve Nelson, Nat Reeves, Steve Williams, Bill Goodwin, Rich Perry, Winard Harper, Philip Harper, Steve Wilson, Stacy Dillard, Jonathan Barber, Josh Evans, Bruce Williams, Frank Lacy, T.K. Blue, James Zollar, Scott Robinson and Jovan Alexandre among others. ​

 

In addition to being an outstanding performer, Kelly is an exceptional educator. She has taught at the Jazz House Kids Summer Workshop, the William Paterson Jazz Workshop and took part in many other workshops and clinics. In Jacksonville, she taught at the University of North Florida Jazz Workshops for four years.

She is currently a Teaching Artist for Jazz House Kids

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