Keith is an award-winning producer, writer, and multifaceted artist with a career spanning music, theater, and entrepreneurship. He has worn many hats—musician, recording engineer, songwriter, playwright, author, record producer, photographer, sound designer, and magazine founder. Known for his ability to blend musical genres, he created the Juno-nominated group Kaleefah, which fused African, South American, and Western influences. He also had the honor of backing Celine Dion on a Juno performance and co-founded the Gospel Project, an eighteen-voice choir that performed on CBC radio and with Billy Preston.
A drummer since the age of 7, Keith played his first paid gig at 12. By 15, he had joined Rare Amber, touring England and Germany before recording the band’s critically acclaimed self-titled album. Keith then shifted into engineering, working at Phillips Studio in London with iconic artists like The Move, ELO, Dusty Springfield, Cleo Laine, Ben Webster, and Rod McKuen. He later honed his production skills at Decca Records and spent two months in Nigeria producing the groundbreaking Afro-Funk album “Blo Step 3,” hailed as “The Holy Grail” of the genre.
After relocating to Canada, Keith’s production career flourished, with his work on FM’s Black Noise earning recognition from Rolling Stone as one of the top 50 progressive rock albums of all time. His diverse production credits include artists like Marc Jordan, Ken Tobias, Dianne Heatherington, Danny Weis, jazz legends such as Oscar Peterson, Professor Longhair and Pat LaBarbera, and classical artists including, Andrew Davis, Julius Baker, Jeanne Baxtresser, The Canadian Brass, The Bowkun Trio, and Valerie Tryon.
As a senior music producer for CBC Radio, he worked with an impressive roster of international artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Sarah Vaughan, Jaco Pastorius, Roberta Flack, and The Temptations.
Keith is also the founder of imaJJine, a contemporary jazz collective that features top Canadian musicians. The album Love Songs & Lullabies, which Keith wrote or co-wrote all the songs for, has garnered over 2.5 million streams on Spotify and ranked in the top 2% of all artists on the platform.
Alongside Khadija Kausar and Walter Borden, Keith co-created and wrote the live theatrical spectacular I Will Rise In Love.
He is the author of 10 books and 4 plays, including the musical Stride, for which the soundtrack was recognized as “Classic Jazz Album of the Year.” Keith is also a three-time runner-up in the prestigious “Song of the Year” competition.
Outside of his artistic endeavors, Keith is an avid adventurer, having competed in the Toronto Marathon, earned a second-degree black belt in karate, crewed on a racing yacht, and played tennis. He is an avid horse rider and currently learning to scuba dive and teaching himself to play the bagpipes.