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About Rob Keiter
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Rob not only loves booking other artists for entertainment, but first and foremost
his passion is in making beautiful music. Rob grew up in a strong musical family
and environment and got his start in singing at the age of seven in church choirs
and soon added trombone and keyboard to his vocals. Rob grew up in South Florida
and in addition to his music career starting there as a teenager, he was exposed
to a lot of great music and musicians working in that area. One of Rob’s friends
during his teenage years was Rob Whitlock. Rob and Rob played together in the same
band, listened and jammed to music and went to hear some great jazz concerts. They
both shared the same passion for jazz besides being friends.
Some of Rob´s early influences include Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Al Green,
Marvin Gaye, James Taylor, and bands like Blood Sweat and Tears, Chicago, and the
Tower of Power. Once Rob got a taste of jazz as a teenager, he was hooked, listening
to the likes of Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams with Count Basie´s
orchestra, Nancy Wilson, Barbara Streisand, Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66, Weather Report,
Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Jefferson, Manhattan Transfer and too many more
artists to mention. Some of his later influences include Al Jaraeu, Sting, Kevin Mahogany,
Kurt Elling, Karin Allison, Diana Krall, and John Pizzarelli.
Rob went to college to study music, earning a Bachelor of Music Performance degree from
the University of Texas in Arlington, Texas. Rob loved performing and wanted to get
involved in the studio scene. He was just starting to get connected in the jingle
recording market in Dallas when he took a right turn and went to seminary to enter
the ministry. Rob has been involved in ministry in several different states and serving
as music director for several large churches. Throughout this time Rob continued never
stopped singing and working on his music.
In 1997 Rob moved to Charleston, SC to be the music director at a large contemporary
church. It was at this time the Rob reentered the jazz world officially and started
singing in different venues and with different local bands on a regular basis. He sang
in a number of party bands but continued to focus on jazz vocals including developing his
love for scat singing (improvising solos with vocals like another instrument would do).
He also started playing trombone again on gigs.
After almost twenty years of being disconnected from his friend Rob Whitlock, the two
were reconnected in 2005 while attending the funeral service of their mutual friend Richie
Carsello who was the drummer in the band both Robs had played in during the mid seventies.
It was at that time that Rob discovered what Rob Whitlock had been doing over the years
through his music career. And he´s done a lot! Rob always knew that his friend Rob
Whitlock had a very special musical gift and passion for music and that he was definitely
going places with his music. He didn´t know that Rob would marry a beautiful,
creative and wonderfully gifted vocalist and artist named Amber and that the two of them
would pursue their music careers together for years. Through later conversations Rob
Whitlock had a chance to hear a rough recording that Rob had done a year earlier of several
Christmas songs done in a jazz setting. Rob and Amber both felt that Rob had something
special to offer with his voice and needed to work on a serious jazz vocal project.
That´s how things began for Rob´s upcoming vocal jazz project.
"The Glory of Love" is Rob´s first serious vocal jazz project and is a
dream come true. With Rob Whitlock directing the overall music production and his wife,
Amber as a vocal coach, artistic director, and singing on two duets, Rob couldn´t
possibly have a better team to be working with! In fact, without Rob and Amber believing
in Rob there would be no project! Also, the musicians that were brought together to play
on this project are incredible players and people who created such a wonderful ambiance
that any jazz vocalist would die to sing in. Rob is surrounded on this project by some of
the top jazz musicians from both the East and West coasts. And he is delighted to feature
Randy Brecker (2007 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Instrumental Solo" and
"Best Large Jazz Ensemble") playing trumpet and flugelhorn on four of the twelve
songs.
Making great music with great musicians has been a life-long dream and passion for Rob and
this dream has been fulfilled in this project. Everyone involved in the project from its
very inception to its completion contributed greatly to the final product.
Rob chose to do a project of love songs even though he was going through the devastation of
divorce following a twenty three year marriage he was committed to for life. He wanted to do
these songs because he still believes in love and actually worked through a lot of his grief
in singing these songs. The project contains songs that describe the full circle of love
including: longing for love, the first inklings of love, loves delight and devotion, loves
failure, and the hopeful search for new love. The songs include familiar jazz standards as
well as contemporary songs written by artists like Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Burt
Bacharach, and Paul McCartney all performed with gorgeous arrangements in a mainstream
jazz setting. Rob feels all these songs have a truth about them that will touch people´s
hearts and help make their lives better. Not only is the project a new beginning for Rob but
he hopes it will be an inspiration and encouragement to both those in love and out of love.
As a hopeless romantic, he hopes to do another follow up project of love songs soon.
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