Kelsey Althea

A debut offering, Althea & Oliver takes the coming of age theme and turns it on its ear. Moracho has penned a story with messy characters and a conclusion that feels somehow unsatisfying, but then you realize it couldn’t have ended any other way. Althea and Oliver have been friends for years, ten or more actually, and they are the epitome of opposites attract.

Born on December 25th in Detroit, Michigan Althea Rene began her musical journey at the tender age four-year-old. She studied classical music while attending Howard University. For more than 10 years she worked as a Wayne County Deputy Sheriff (in Detroit, Michigan) during the day and performed in jazz clubs at night. Today. she is a full-time performing/recording artist that gained musical inspiration from her father Dezie McCullers (one of Motown’s original Funk Brothers).

Kelsey fell in love with music when she was very young, and was improvising songs even before she learned to read. At age five, she began classical piano training, and learned to balance form and technicality while developing her own voice as an artist. Growing up, her family always had music playing in the house, and she spent a great deal of her childhood playing songs by ear. She also was captivated by the beautiful nostalgic melodies of jazz standards and the lush harmonies of classic musicals and old Disney movies, and enjoyed making her own arrangements.

Duets: NYC/Woodstock finds Minasi in the company of another singular saxophone artist—Chris Kelsey. This album, brewing for about a decade in the mind of each man, is the first duo date for Kelsey since he encountered trombonist Steve Swell on Observations (CIMP, 1996). And what a duo date this is. Kelsey manages to be both co-conspirator and foil to Minasi. He brings clarity and focus to the picture via melodic seeds, but none of his gestures are predictable; some of those seeds grow or mutate and others are blown away, never to be developed, seen, or heard from again.