Keller Coker
Native Oregonian, Keller Coker is an accomplished performer, producer and musical scholar. He began playing trombone at the age of fourteen, and immediately took to performing as a jazz and classical trombone player. His focus turned to jazz in the 1980s and he performed with such notable musicians and ensembles as The Temptations, Bobby Bradford, The Clayton/Hamilton Big Band, The Jack Sheldon Big Band, The Fabulous Dorsey Orchestra, Freddie Hubbard, Milcho Leviev, Vince Mendoza, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, The Coasters, The Four Tops, America, Glenn Moore, Bill Watrous, Mel Brown, Big Tiny Little, The Boxtops, and Snooky Young.
In 1990, while teaching and performing jazz at the University of Southern California, Coker became associated with legendary lutenist James Tyler, and became enamored with early music. His collaborations with Tyler coupled with his improvisational approach to the repertories of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music has garnered him a reputation as an important performer of music from these periods. In 1994 he founded the Ensemble del Medici whose recordings of renaissance and early baroque music continue to make an impact on the early music scene. Since 1990, Coker has produced several recordings on various labels, including Sony Classical, RCM, and Sierra.
As a producer he has worked with many talented artists including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, The Debussy Trio, Los Angeles Musica Viva, Gilles Apap and the Transylvanian Mountain Boys, and his own Ensemble del Medici. In 1994 he co-founded the RCM recording label. Coker is currently an Assistant Professor at Western Oregon University where he teaches music history and directs the WOU Jazz Orchestra and the WOU Early Music Ensemble.
He continues to regularly perform and record on trombone, sackbut, cittern, and viola da gamba. He is the founder and musical director of the American Metropole Orchestra and is active in Whirled News, Cathexis Orchestra, and Western Rebellion. Reviewing the Whirled News recording, Mukilteo, for AllAboutJazz.com, Mark Corroto wrote in 2001: "Coker produces some hat-over-the-bell effects that speak of Ellington's bands in a Weather Report context."
Coker is also a commissioned composer for stage, television, and film, and a publisher of Renaissance and Baroque music editions. His commissions and grants include projects funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Council for the Arts, and Western Oregon University. He received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Jazz Studies, and a Doctor of Musical Arts (Early Music Performance) degree from the University of Southern California.
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