Brand has a flowing winsome style as a pianist and an even more impressive harmonic sense as a composer.
The composer and pianist Kelly Brand writes songs which carry the listener to places simultaneously evident and quite unfamiliar. She effectively taps into essential elements of living and being human. Brand's way of playing embraces a simple and selfless honesty. She doesn't throw her music at you, but rather extends it as an invitation.
Brand is an active performer on the Chicago jazz scene. In addition to club and lounge gigs she has played three times at the Chicago Jazz Festival. In 1995 she performed at the Ravinia summer jazz series with her Sextet and in 2000 at the Elkhart Jazz Festival with her Nextet.
In 1999 Kelly joined Marion McPartland on stage at Ravinia for some impromptu double piano jazz playing. Ms. McPartland earlier wrote for Brand's first CD liner notes that Kelly writes as she plays, with elegance and sensitivity. The Chicago Reader 1996 stated that everything Brand writes has a noteworthy craftsmanship and flowing serene energy.
In 2001 and 2003 Kelly was chosen to receive residencies at Ragdale, an internationally acclaimed artists' retreat. Kelly was among ten top Chicago jazz pianists who performed at Symphony Center for Marshall Field's Great Day of Music in 2003. She also performed on Joe Segal's Caribbean Jazz Cruise that same year. In 2005 Kelly played at the Chicago Jazz Festival and The Cabin Fever Jazz Series with Bobbi Wilsyn's all women jazz ensemble, SHE.
Brand's playing and writing is also represented on three popular jazz compilation CDs. Ladies in Jazzland an internationally released compilation which includes Abbey Lincoln and Maria Schneider. The other two are Women Who Swing Chicago and Mile by Jazz Mile, both featuring prominent Chicago jazz artists.
Kelly Brand is an experienced teacher and clinician. She has taught for the Merit School of Music and in the Ravinia Music Illumination Program. Currently she is performing with Ari Brown and Kelly Sill in Chicago schools with the Pangaea Trio, sponsored by the International Music Foundation, an umbrella group of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
For more information about Kelly Brand, please visit: http://www.kellybrand.com.
Clay Giberson
Marius Nordal
Marc Seales
Pax Wallace
Randy Halberstadt
Ryan Burns
Bill Anschell
Jessica Williams
Glenn Zaleski
Geoffrey Keezer
Toby Koenigsberg
Laurence Hobgood
Geoff Stradling
Hal Galper
Darrell Grant
Jim McNeely
Ron Di Salvio
Dawn Clement
Steve Million
John Hansen
Jon Alberts
Bram Weijters
Paul Hofmann
Richard Sussman
Michal Vanoucek
Matija Dedic
Alex Chadsey
Stu Katz
Brittany Anjou
Ryan Cohan
Ron Perrillo
Gary Versace
Darin Clendenin
Dan Cray
Dick Reynolds
Ted Brancato
George Colligan
Dominic J. Marshall
Jerry Heldman
Gene Argel
Josh Nelson
Michael Orenstein
Richie Beirach
Jack Perla
Florian Hoefner
Oscar Hernandez
Bongwool Lee
Orrin Evans
Alain Mallet
Joachim Mencel
Sean Michael Giddings
Phillip Strange
Jim Ridl
Dylan Hayes
Bruce Barth
Rick Roe
Adam Benjamin
Keigo Hirakawa
Pamela York
Gabriel Guerrero
Chuck Owen
Fabian Almazan