Brian Kellock Trio at Traverse Theatre

”Kellock has taken this life-affirming music in his experienced hands and made a modern statement with materials from a distant, but still relevant era.” – All About Jazz

Brian Kellock is one of the UK’s finest and most in-demand jazz pianists, acclaimed for a distinctive, swinging style of playing which has classic jazz piano influences at its heart but can never be second-guessed.

For three decades, Edinburgh-born Kellock – who has led his own, hugely popular, trio since the late 1980s – has been the first-call pianist for visiting American jazz musicians who appreciate his swinging style, his skills as a sensitive accompanist, his spontaneity and his sense of humour. Warren Vaché, Scott Hamilton, Joe Temperley, Ken Peplowski, Herb Geller and Red Rodney are some of the diverse musicians with whom he’s played....

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”Kellock has taken this life-affirming music in his experienced hands and made a modern statement with materials from a distant, but still relevant era.” – All About Jazz

Brian Kellock is one of the UK’s finest and most in-demand jazz pianists, acclaimed for a distinctive, swinging style of playing which has classic jazz piano influences at its heart but can never be second-guessed.

For three decades, Edinburgh-born Kellock – who has led his own, hugely popular, trio since the late 1980s – has been the first-call pianist for visiting American jazz musicians who appreciate his swinging style, his skills as a sensitive accompanist, his spontaneity and his sense of humour. Warren Vaché, Scott Hamilton, Joe Temperley, Ken Peplowski, Herb Geller and Red Rodney are some of the diverse musicians with whom he’s played.

In recent years, he has headlined numerous concerts, recordings and tours with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, cemented links in Australia with trumpeter James Morrison, and in Denmark has appeared annually at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.

His love of playing in a duo has resulted in regular tours with Tommy Smith, and celebrated recordings and concerts with Julian Arguelles, Liane Carroll, Carol Kidd and Sheila Jordan.

Kellock’s many accolades include Best CD 2002 and Best Instrumentalist 2003 at the BBC Jazz Awards; Creative Scotland Award 2003, Herald Angel Award 2003, Jazz Musician of the Year 2011 at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and Best Instrumentalist at the Scottish Jazz Awards 2019.

His 2019 album, Bidin’ My Time, was his first solo piano recording and his most recent release, Think About It (Thick Records), finds him reunited with Kenny Ellis (bass) and John Rae (drums) – the classic Brian Kellock Trio. Since John is now living in New Zealand, the great American drummer, Max Popp, is in the drum chair.

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