Bruce

Bruce Alan Kelley grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts and began playing drums at the age of eight, at the height of the British music invasion. Some of his earliest influences were The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Herb Alpert, Spencer Davis; and later became Van Morrison, Blood, Sweat and Tears, David Sanborn, Steely Dan, The Brecker Brothers, Herbie Hancock, and Miles Davis – the latter which led him to study jazz.

After 2 years of music school, Bruce left school to study drumming privately with Sonny Igoe and at Drummer’s Collective in NYC. After that, he traveled and performed with a trio throughout the mid and southwest. He married and settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he taught music, performed with commercial rock, country and jazz groups, and worked for 3 years at Universal Music and Post on a variety of recording and film projects; and has performed at the legendary Cain’s Ballroom, and Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.

Bruce returned to New England in 2000, studied vibraphone with Berklee great, Ed Saindon, drums with Bob Galotti, and has been active playing R&B and jazz with the groups: Soul Sound Review of Hartford, Soul Folks and Rescue Lola of Northampton, and his own jazz group, Bok Choy Quartet. Bruce now resides in Easthampton, Massachusetts where he stays busy and happy with his wife, music, and his dog Ty.