Charlotte Keeffe

Charlotte Keeffe is a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player based in the United Kingdom, working in jazz, free improvisation and experimental music. She performs as a soloist and with a range of ensembles, and her own Quartet, often referred to as CKQ, features Ashley John Long on double bass, Ben Handysides on drums and Moss Freed on guitar, alongside Keeffe on trumpet, flugelhorn and composition.

Playing style and approach

Keeffe draws inspiration from live painters and the way they respond to colour and shape in the moment, and she describes her trumpet and flugelhorn as her “sound brushes”. Her own writing and improvising often combines composed material with free improvisation.

Ensembles and collaborations

She plays in the London Improvisers Orchestra, where she also leads conductions and helps as a board member with preparations for the orchestra’s monthly concerts. She performs with Moss Freed’s Union Division, Calum Gourlay’s Big Band, Andrew Woodhead’s Pendulums, Ben Higham’s The Brass Monkeys and Dan Samsa’s Contours. She also appears regularly with Alex Ward, Otto Willberg and Andrew Lisle, including Andrew Lisle’s trio and Alex Ward’s Item 4 and Item 10.

Other credits include Alya Al-Sultani’s opera Two Sisters, in which she performs alongside Alice Zawadzki, Robert Mitchell and Dave Kane, and Goblin Theatre’s children’s production The Legend of the Jazz Penguin, where she plays the role of Musician.

Broadcast, events and other work

Her music has featured on radio programmes including BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 6 and Jazz FM. She appears with Marin Alsop’s Taki Concordia Orchestra, including a performance at the World Economic Forum in front of world leaders and celebrities such as Sir David Attenborough. She has also accompanied Laura Mvula, Charlotte Church, Kate Nash and Liane Carroll as part of the Wilderness Festival Orchestra.

Keeffe is part of the Mopomoso team, programming the concert series at The Vortex in London and the online Mopomoso TV project, which launches in June 2020. She is also a trumpet professor in jazz and improvised music at the London Performing Academy of Music and works with the Parliamentary Award Winning Women in Jazz Media team on gender and diversity equality in the music and jazz industry. In 2019, she serves as Assistant Musical Director of the London Gay Big Band before concentrating more fully on her own music-making.