Band Members
Brian Keeler, guitar
Brian has been playing guitar for many years, but in the last decade or so he has focused on swing music, especially on Django Reinhardt’s “manouche” style of guitar playing. He is the founder of Zingology and has seen it through several iterations while performing, recording and growing into its current incarnation. Brian has been inspired by participating in the annual Django in June music camp in Northampton, MA for several years. He plays regularly at some of the jazz jams around Ithaca and occasionally plays for art openings with friends in Scranton, PA and other locales. Brian has been a swing dancer for decades along with being involved in several dance troupes. He sometimes teaches a class in Lindy, Balboa, Salsa, Fox trot or West Coast Swing before a gig with Zingology. He is also an accomplished painter. His work can be seen keelernorthstarstudio.com.
Marcie Beaton – As an artist, I care about passion over perfection. I enjoy playing with like-minded musicians. Playing with the various members of Zingology Makes me smile, brings me joy – Because while every one of them is skilled and very accomplished, they all play from the heart. You can’t help but snap your fingers and tap your toes when you hear their unique style!
I was born and raised here in Tompkins County and have been singing my heart out as far back as I can remember. I come from a very musical family. With some training at Ithaca College as well as private instruction, I joined my first band in 1985. “uptown Revue” was a top 40 band and we played the Sheraton’s, Holiday Inn’s, Cornell and Ithaca College campuses, etc. We were focused on weddings, private parties, w/Club dates in between. I was simultaneously in a band called “Barbie and the rockers” (lawsuit waiting to happen, I know…) 😉 This was our “fun band”, blues/rock focused. We played every venue known in the area at one point or another! Our family moved out of the area for many years. I lost my husband in 2023, tragically. I moved back to the area at that time. Music has been the salve, the glue, the mast. I have slowly been exploring the current musical scene here in Ithaca and am working with several bands, covering various genres. I’m loving every minute of it! I plan to go out this way and hopefully that won’t be anytime soon! Let the music play on…
Ted Caldwell, upright bass
Ted Caldwell fell in love with jazz and the acoustic bass while growing up in Western Canada. The instrument accompanied him on moves to Montreal and then to Ithaca, New York – where it unfortunately sat in the basement for a while. In recent years the romance was rekindled, and Ted has enjoyed playing with a growing list of jazz and swing combos in and around Ithaca, including Zingology, The Canaan Jazz Trio, Doc’sology, De Wayne Perry & Friends, and in the “Sandwich Sessions” with Jesse Collins and others at Brookton’s Market. He is an avid bicyclist and hiker.
Greg Ezra, percussion
A drum set player since his teens, Greg also plays doumbek (darbuka), frame drum, kudum and poyk. He performs in a variety of genres: jazz, blues, rock, “Gypsy swing”, Middle Eastern, Klezmer, Celtic and Mevlevi (Sufi) music. Greg has performed with numerous local bands and ensembles, and currently plays with Green Street, Zingology, 79 West, Taksim, the Ithaca Klezmer Quartet, and the Michele Gordon Jazz combo.
Brian Earle-has been a professional musician since 1967. One of the leading clarinet/sax players in CNY, Brian is in constant demand for performances and recording sessions with many different bands. He has performed on many albums and has done studio work for “Sesame Street”, has appeared with Steve Allen, Billy Butterfield and Doc Cheetham, and once loaned a clarinet to Benny Goodman!..In April, 2003 he performed at Carnegie Hall with Johnny Russo‘s East Hill Classic Jazz Group. As a member of the popular swing dance band, the Hot Foot Club, he performed throughout New York State at swing dances and workshops. With his earlier band, Peggy Haine’s Low Down Alligator Jass Band, he appeared four times at the Sacramento Dixieland Jubilee, twice at the Ottawa Jazz Festival, and at numerous venues throughout the Northeast.
Brian has been with Zingology since the early days and has played on both of the combo’s CD’s.
Tyler McCalip, Guitarist
Tyler is the newest member of Zingology- an incredible guitarist who embodies the essence of Django in the feel and groove in his solos and his solid rhythm. He is featured on our upcoming live CD, recorded at the Old Carter Barn- near Tunkhannock, PA. (BK)
Tyler McCalip, born and raised in Southern Mississippi near New Orleans, Inspired by his brother and father, he picked up the guitar at age 11 and would spend his early 20s traveling all over the country as a full-time Renaissance Festival musician, wintering each year in the Big Easy.
That was until just before the Covid 19 when renfairs shut down and he decided to stay in the French Quarter and get serious about jazz, having become deeply inspired earlier, at the age of 20, by Django Reinhardt, whose music and image were popular among the itinerant renfair community.
He remained in NOLA for 5 years and played with many of the who’s who of the local trad and gypsy swing scene on Frenchmen St. This would serve as his equivalent to going to school for music…
Once the world had fully opened back up, he once again began traveling to Sterling Renaissance Festival in Upstate New York every summer to escape the heat. A yearly paid vacation of sorts…
Until eventually, in 2024, he fell in love with an Ithacan and decided to move once again and live on a gorge in Six Mile Creek. He still spends part of his winter in New Orleans/Mississippi with family and performing in town and at the local RenFair on the north side of Lake Ponchartrain.
Since settling in New York, Tyler has played with most of the local scene’s
jazz artists. Most notably Zingology, but also having found himself working as an emerging as a budding bebop guitarist as well with Jesse Collins Quartet.