Clint Ashlock "En Masse" featuring Kelley Gant

Now based in Kansas City, jazz vocalist Kelley Gant has been performing professionally for more than ten years.  Beginning with an education in choral performance, she is currently performing as a lead vocalist and in small ensembles.  Mentored by guitarist Wayne Goins (director, KSU jazz studies), she later launched herself as a band-leader, performing jazz regularly in Chicago and Kansas City, and touring through Mexico and the United States. She currently leads a large event band, working regularly in the Midwest.

Trumpeter/composer/bandleader/educator Clint Ashlock grew up in the Kansas City area. An in-demand musician across various genres, Clint is a dedicated and tireless contributor to the scene. Alongside of his position as the Artistic Director and conductor of the esteemed Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, he has performed with such luminaries as Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Nicholas Payton, and Natalie Cole, as well as being a mainstay on the local Kansas City performing circuit, most notably with his own groups (the quintet Foward, his “other” big band, New Jazz Order, and the singer/songwriter/bandleader Jessica Paige.

En Masse is a very unique large ensemble featuring strings, keyboards, vocal soloists, and progressive writing inspired both from the jazz idiom as well as bands such as Bon Iver and James Blake.