Andrea Keller brings a healthy dose of improvisation and collaboration to MPAC this September.
Andrea Keller has 25 albums under her belt.
That is certainly a huge number, and it doesn’t even include her guest recordings with the Black Arm Band Company, the Australian Art Orchestra, Eddie Perfect, and more.
She has three ARIA awards among her many other accolades, and is well-known and loved in the Melbourne jazz scene, most notably for her curation of Monday nights at the Jazzlab, and her position as Head of Jazz & Improvisation at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
Her improvisation skills will be extremely important as she heads to The Count’s for a performance in a new trio configuration flanked by bassist Sam Anning (Barney McAll, Paul Grabowsky, Jamie Oehlers) and drummer Dave Beck (Tina Arena, Marcia Hines, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra).
That’s three exceptional musicians hitting the stage with only a semblance of a plan, so we spoke with Keller to try to understand what this may, or may not, entail.
Andrea Keller
- Wednesday 17 September 2025, 7:30pm
- The Count’s, Monash University Performing Arts Centres
- Tickets on sale now
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“I first started working with Dave in my first band over 25 years ago,” explains Keller. “He features a bit on a few tracks on my very first album. He’s just such a beautiful drummer. As a piano player, he’s the perfect piano player’s drummer.”
“I seem to have this musical synergy with Sam that is kind of unparalleled for me. It’s really unique, and I just really treasure it. He’s such a sensitive musician. His personality and his approach to playing music are so much about community and about being supportive.
“So I just love playing with both of them, and the trio grew out of this longer project I’ve been running called Transience, which is a series of different trios with changing lineups. Different collaborators, different age groups, the merging of new artists with established ones.”
Keller began the Transience trios after the loss of her mentor, Alan Brown. She featured in one of his trios for around 15 years and decided to create the project as a homage to a figure who was such a significant influence on the Melbourne jazz scene.
“The people that come into your music community end up growing into some of the most important people in your life, they really feel like family.”
“I look to work with the sort of people that make you feel like you’re having fun both on stage and in the band room. I want people who are supportive and with whom I can take risks.”
Improvisation is inherent in jazz, but by definition is not meant to be planned, yet Keller and her trio have planned to have it as part of their upcoming performance. There is some loose irony at play there, which Keller explains.
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“We will be playing songs, but built into the songs are opportunities for improvisation. So we do know to some degree what we’re going to play, but the improvisation element means that we’re inviting each other to not have to play them the same each time. Collectively, we’ll be feeling things out as we go and really listening and attuned to any moments of difference that are exciting or appealing, that we can all grab onto and just run with. That’s part of the fun of it. That’s the risk and spontaneity of jazz. Even if it does crash and burn, it’s part of it.
“Many years ago, I read a quote from Paul Grabowsky that explained how jazz, for him, was a way of doing things rather than a genre. I love that because it truly is a way of doing things, and that breeds diversity and the idea that jazz is just an umbrella term for a lot of very broad activity.”
She is also working on a project with Australian saxophonist Sandy Evans called Resonance and will be heading to Sweden in December to record with Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksson.
The Andrea Keller Trio: Live at The Count’s takes place on Wednesday, September 17. Tickets available now.
This article was made in partnership with The Count’s.
