The Michigan Jazz Suite
by Paul Keller

They say, “Write about what you know.” So that’s what I did with the Michigan Jazz Suite. The idea of composing a jazz suite dedicated to my home state of Michigan came to me, ironically, as I was sitting on a plane heading to California where I was about to play at a jazz festival. As the son of a United Methodist minister, our family lived in six Michigan cities while I was growing up: Union City, Battle Creek, Rockford, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Muskegon. As a professional musician, I’ve traveled to play gigs all over the state and discovered unexpected treasures from Algonac to Allegan, the Irish Hills to Idlewild , Marquette to Morenci, Saginaw to Saline, Torch Lake to Taquamanon Falls, Paradise to Hell, Northville to South Haven to East Jordan to West Bloomfield. I definitely know Michigan. I decided as I sat there buckled into my airplane seat, “I will honor my home state by composing a series of jazz tunes dedicated to specific people, places and icons of Michigan. And why not start right now?” So I did. By the time we landed in San Francisco four hours later, I had written down 15 possible titles and sketched out musical ideas for several new tunes! It had begun.

Over the next few weeks, the fully realized Michigan Jazz Suite began to take shape as the ideas for songs and arrangements flowed out of me like water from a faucet. It was an incredible feeling to be connected to such potent inspiration and then rejoicing in the completion of each new original piece that held so much meaning for me. It also became clear that there would be no way to fully represent all of the deserving towns, people, and items of historical interest that one could choose to include in a musical opus honoring such an important, diverse and culturally rich state as Michigan. The Michigan Jazz Suite recognizes and explores the greatness of the entire state of Michigan through the prism of these 15 songs inspired by people from Michigan I’ve met, Michigan events I’ve enjoyed, and places I’ve visited with my family throughout Michigan.