With performances ranging from “melancholy and contemplative to swinging and bluesy to exuberant and burning" (Jazz Times), ArtistShare recording artist Keith Javors is widely-respected as both a courageous and skilled producer and pianist as well as a gifted music educator.  A former pianist with alto saxophonist Bunky Green who describes him as a “creative force with an urgent message that cannot be denied”, Keith has numerous years of professional experience in performing and directing ensembles consistently recognized for their musicality. Released to critical and artistic acclaim, Keith's 2007 group/solo release, “The Free Project” (ArtistShare 0011), features the American Music Project (Detroit's A.M.P.), one of several forward-looking groups he produces.  Unique in its combination of acoustic jazz sources with spoken word and R & B., the record presents Keith's original compositions within a new urban framework. JazzReview says. “It takes a musician's true artistic love and commitment to the art to really peer through his or her music to find this type of end…A brilliant album.”  In 2004, Keith released the very contrasting straight ahead "Mo' City Jungle" (Zoho 200403) to National radio charting. AllAboutJazz.com: “Not since Kenny Garrett's Standard of Language and Terence Blanchard's Bounce has there been a post bop album this exciting. Mo' City Jungle is not for the faint-at-heart; this is vital, energized music that is captivating from start to finish.”

Keith is a distinguished graduate of the University of North Texas (B.M., M.M. Jazz Studies), where he was a member of the One O'Clock Lab Band and named Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year, and the first graduate of the University of Illinois Jazz Pedagogy program (Ed.D. Music Education). Having been cited in DownBeat as “one of the best teachers in the country”, Dr. Javors is highly sought after as an educator and consultant, giving clinics and masterclasses at schools and colleges around the world. Keith has held successful prior positions at the University of North Texas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Eastern Illinois University, the University of Northern Florida, and the Southern New Jersey Academy for the Performing Arts. He was named to the highest percentile of instructors already included on the “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students” five times in a row.  His dissertation, “An Appraisal of Collegiate Jazz Studies Programs in the Teaching of Jazz Music” is a pervasive examination of the schools creating performers. Student bands that Keith has directed have won numerous and multi-consecutive national DownBeat Student Music and Blue Chip CD awards, including the sole winner of Best College Big Band. Jazz Times says, "The degree of hard work, patience, study, blood, sweat and tears necessary to produce a band of this quality is phenomenal."

Keith's performance credits include concerts at many of the major festivals, performance halls, and clubs around the world, including the Rockefeller Center, Great Plains Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Wichita Jazz Festival, Vienne Jazz Festival, several International Association for Jazz Education Conferences, the Savannah Jazz Festival, the Midwest Clinic, the Wichita Jazz Festival, Notre Dame Jazz Festival, The Jazz Showcase, Blues Alley, Smoke, the Caravan of Dreams, Churchhill Grounds, Chris' Jazz Café' and many more. He has recorded or performed with a veritable who's who of jazz, including George Coleman, Bunky Green, Eddie Henderson, Conrad Herwig, Gerry Mulligan, Chris Potter, Terell Stafford, Brad Turner, and Bill Watrous and produced concert collaborations that features Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Terence Blanchard, Dave Brubeck, Kenny Garrett, Slide Hampton, the Heath Brothers, Dave Holland, Pat Martino, Eddie Palmieri, Sam Rivers, Maria Schneider, and Clark Terry.

Keith was born in Carbondale, Illinois on October 15, 1971 and developed an quick affinity for music.  In what he describes as a “childhood need”, he began picking out television theme songs by ear on his family's defunct player piano at three and started taking lessons at eight.  Keith's interest in jazz was peaked in junior high school after hearing John Coltrane's “My Favorite Things” and Dave Brubeck's “Plays Cole Porter”.  A standout high school student, at 17 he received a scholarship to attend the prestigious University of North Texas Jazz Studies Program. Keith quickly started first call commercial work, freelancing in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex and playing many venues functions, even managing musician departments for Walt Disney World and Norwegian Cruise Lines while only a student.  His early interest in the credence of “real world” playing settings when navigating more formal educational paths is a theme that has consistently underpinned his own successes and the inspiration he is able to bring to his teaching.

With new several projects due out in 2009, Keith continues to push the artistic envelope with surprising and refreshing results.   NYC Jazz Journalist Russ Musto: “Keith is one who certainly can and does, traveling a high road that steers clear of the Ivory Towers and chooses instead more interesting places.” Keith continues to maintain a busy performing and teaching schedule.
 

For more information on Dr. Keith Javors, visit www.keithjavorsmusic.com