Early in their relationship, jazz musicians Kelly Green (piano, vocals) and Luca Soul Rosenfeld (upright bass) went on a five and a half week tour of Europe, playing gigs separately and together. It could have been a recipe for disaster, but upon returning, they moved in together and they’ve been collaborating musically and romantically ever since. Their music isn’t just what they do, it’s who they are, and it’s gotten them through some rough patches (more about that later).
Green, whose dad was a pro bassist, has been singing along to “Wee Sing” tapes with her mom since she started talking. She had her first paying gig at age seven and “never saw any other way” but music as a career. The gig, if you’re wondering, was a $30 payday as a member of a choir in her native Orlando. “I spent it on Beanie Babies!” she recalls.
Rosenfeld remembers hand drumming with his dad and being exposed to the music of the streets as a kid in Queens. His father was a self-taught musician who also studied opera, and his mother is an accomplished painter. He started playing guitar, being influenced by the classic rock of the past ( such as The Doors) and the then-current hitmakers (Green Day, Nirvana), but something clicked when he turned fourteen and his listening habits changed, as did his choice of instrument. “My dad was very into Miles Davis – especially the “Bitches Brew” era – but Thelonious Monk was the reason I got into jazz.”
Both have formal musical training, but they have done what every jazz musician dreams of and does not always accomplish. The pair have been writing, recording, and playing their own music for audiences in New York, California, Europe, and elsewhere, which adds up to hundreds of shows a year. Some of them are pretty close to home as they frequently play in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, and sometimes actually right at home, where they perform several concerts a year in their living room, which they’ve dubbed Green Soul Studios, in Forest Hills.
“I love the intimacy and informality of playing there,” Rosenfeld says. “It’s mostly neighbors and everyone is there to listen – it’s very focused. It’s not the usual niche audience, there’s a nice naivete about it.” Also, he notes, “It’s our inner sanctum, with my mother’s painting hanging next to us as we play.” A detail of that painting by Hilary Mance can be seen on the cover of their LP “Endings That Are Beginnings”.
“What’s nice is that we get to feature different artists,” Green adds. “It’s a lot more relaxed than playing in a club and we get to talk to people. The piano is the one that I write and rehearse on and I thought, why not give performances on it as well?”
After six years of playing together and five years of marriage, they’ve got their working arrangement pretty well sorted out. “We both play very much like we are in our personal lives,” Rosenfeld explains. “Kelly is a multitasker and I am absolutely not. She’s bandleading, she’s playing piano, she’s singing, she’s curating, she’s got her feet on the pedals, her hands on the keys, her mouth on the microphone and me, I’m over here with everything just going into one note at a time. She’s go-go-go, Miss Enthusiasm and zest and I am some kind of supportive force that beckons her to focus.”
A quartet set is likely to include originals by both Green and Rosenfeld as well as by the other members, Evan Hyde (drums) and Elijah J. Thomas (flutes). Standards from Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington make their way in as well as more obscure numbers like “Little Things”, a tune that Tony Bennett sang on Sesame Street in 1974. “This is the real thing,” Rosenfeld remarks. “This is real people playing – a very human thing that is irreplaceable.”
“The most rewarding part of this is the feeling of community and support,” Green adds. “For a long time I felt like an island….this makes me feel like what I’m doing matters.”
The music has recently served another purpose, as Green recently lost her mother, about whom she says, “my mother and I were best friends, we spoke on the phone every day,” but “she had a complicated life, having fought several battles with mental illness which led her to end her own life in November of 2021.” The about-to-be-released album, “Corner of My Dreams”, is part of the “process of healing. It was all very cathartic – a lot of mixed feelings.” The emotion-filled arrangements utilize strings and additional vocalists to pay tribute to her mother’s spirit. “The bigger story of how we stayed together and supported each other through profound loss and grief is more pertinent to the process that ultimately led to the release of this album,” Rosenfeld muses.
The duo, Green says, plans to write and record music that “continues to grow and become more expansive” while looking for a wider audience, hopefully at festivals and more prestigious venues. “The Village Vanguard and Carnegie Hall – those would be the pinnacle,” Rosenfeld states. “The heights that we can take this music just by staying together and developing this music is something that is really, really special. Sometimes there are moments onstage that are like, oh my God, this is it, this is why we do this! We strive to push through and improve collectively and individually and discover new things.”
Kellygreenpiano.com is the website to keep track of all the group’s shows, news and records. The trio plays somewhat regularly on Friday nights at the Flatiron Room NoMad (check the calendar – theflatironroom.com/nomad-
