The Quartet
Formed in 1995, the Doug Talley Quartet has performed at numerous festivals, concerts, clubs and schools throughout the Midwest. There has been only one personnel change during that time, which is part of the quartet’s secret to success. All four members of the quartet compose and arrange music, and contribute to the group’s repertoire for recordings and live appearances.
Doug Talley – saxophones
“Talley has absorbed the post bop traditions of Coltrane and Rollins, added the warmth of Dexter Gordon and the flourishes of Stan Getz, and developed his own harmonic and wonderfully melodic approach.”
MARK E. GALLO, JAZZREVIEW.COM
Doug Talley has performed with such jazz luminaries as Jay McShann, Clark Terry, Bob Mintzer, Claude “Fiddler” Williams, Bobby Watson, Karrin Allyson, Byron Stripling, Ignacio Berroa, Randy Brecker, Scott Robinson and Gary Foster. He is a familiar face throughout the Midwest as a jazz performer and educator. Talley has also appeared at the 18th & Vine Festival, the Kansas Jazz and Blues Festival, the Kansas City Spirit Festival, the Coleman Hawkins Jazz Festival, Mayport Jazz Festival, and in Las Vegas with The Four Freshman, The Platters and The Diamonds.
Doug Talley is the recipient of the 2010 Kansas Governor’s Arts Award and the 2009 Johnson County Library Pinnacle Award for arts in education. Talley is a Selmer saxophone artist and clinician and has served as a clinician with numerous college and high school musicians, including the University of Minnesota, Coe College, Kalamazoo College, Kansas State University, University of Nebraska, University of South Dakota, Central Missouri State, Emporia State and Kansas University, among many others. Talley was a faculty member of the Great Plains Jazz Camp for twelve years, and was featured at the 1996 MENC convention in Kansas City directing the Shawnee Mission (Kansas) Honors Jazz Band. He was a clinician at the 1997 International Association of Jazz Educators conference and a faculty member of the 2003 IAJE Teacher Training Institute.
Honored by Kansas City magazine as one of the “40 Under 40 Who Move and Shake Kansas City in Business, Politics and the Arts,” Talley was also recognized in Downbeat magazine “Auditions” in 1986. His discography includes four recordings on the Sea Breeze label for the Trilogy and Boulevard Big Bands as well as the Doug Talley Quartet’s four CDs, Town Topic — “…reminiscent of the Modern Jazz Quartet.” (Jam magazine), Night and Day – which received national airplay, Kansas City Suite – a musical depiction of the quartet’s hometown, and By Request, an offering of the quartet’s most requested music.
Charles Williams – piano
Charles D. Williams, is a native of Kansas City, Kansas. Mr. Williams has played piano for over 40 years. As a trombonist, he studied under Mr. Leon Brady at Sumner High School and supplemented this training with musical studies under the tutelage of the late Mr. 7thReginald Buckner. Mr. Williams was a member of the award-winning Sumner Jazz Band that also attended the Paris International Jazz festival in Paris France in 1972, and was auspiciously judged to be “the best High School Band in the World. Mr. Williams also had the pleasure of participating in the Turner House Jazz series in the 70’s – having opportunity to play with such great jazz artist as: Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Roy Ayers, Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Frank Wess, Clark Terry, Ernie Wilkins, Rich Matteson, and many more.
Today, Mr. Williams performs as the pianist for The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra (Clint Ashlock, director). The orchestra performed in Hanover, Germany (May 2018) at the Hanover Jazz Festival, and also in Szczecin, Poland at several major jazz events. This orchestra has backed many artist such as, The New Your Voices, Wycliffe Gordon, Ernie Andrews, Houston Person, Harold Jones, The Four Freshmen, Randy Brecker, Bobby Watson, Deborah Brown, Benny Golson, and many more.
Tim Brewer – bass
A graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Tim is a gifted composer and performer. He has appeared with many artists, including Bobby Watson and Eddie Harris. Locally, he performs with the Doug Talley Quartet, Triology and Boulevard Big Bands, the New Kansas City Seven and Trinity Jazz Ensemble.
Tim is an accomplished composer and arranger, and his compositions, Carolyn and Transcending have been recorded by the Doug Talley Quartet.
Keith Kavanaugh – drums/cymbals
Keith is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston and has performed with Diane Schuur, Valery Ponomarev, Gary Versace, Phil Wilson, Joshua Breakstone, Scott Robinson, Ritchie Cole and many musicians on the Kansas City jazz scene. He is also a graduate of Park University where he studied Art and Graphic Design. He has paintings in many corporate and private collections, and has designed hundreds of CD packages for musicians from coast-to-coast. See his work at keithkavanaugh.com and bauwau.com.